Mario Kart 8 Deluxe only needed a few days to prove that good Wii U games play better—and sell better—on the Nintendo Switch. Coincidentally, the next major game for Switch seems poised to capitalize on the same idea: Minecraft, which officially goes on sale this Thursday, May 11, for $30.
How big of a whoop can the zillionth port of Minecraft really be? Consider this rough VGChartz estimate for Wii U game sales worldwide. Minecraft is the only true third-party game to crack Nintendo’s ironclad grip on the console’s top 20 games (yes, Nintendo produced the other 19), and it did so despite being available for less than two years.
Add in the sales proposition of splitting your Minecraft time of creating and adventuring between home and portable use, and you’ve got a potential super-hit. Unless Mojang or Microsoft screwed this up.
I have very good news: our cursory look at the game’s launch version revealed nothing in the way of red flags or giant alarms. Consider this a confirmation that your $30 will not be wasted if you or yours hunger for a Switch-specific Minecraft, along with an elaboration of what differences and quirks you can expect.
The biggest thing to confirm is performance, which hums at a 60-frames-per-second refresh in both portable and docked TV modes. I don’t have pixel-counting gear handy, but I am confident that Minecraft on Nintendo Switch renders in native resolution however you play it—meaning, 1080p resolution when docked and 720p resolution on the go.
In addition, you’re getting a lot more Minecraft to play than on the Wii U version. Each generated Switch world can be as big as 3072 x 3072 blocks, which is roughly 13 times larger than the Wii U’s pokey 864 x 864 world limit. That’s a bit more than a third the size of the PS4 and Xbox One versions’ 5120 x 5120 limits—which, honestly, seems about right when comparing those systems’ specs.
The Switch’s clock speed dips so much in portable mode that Minecraft also has to sacrifice portable draw distance. The above gallery shows the game’s maximum rendering in the Super Mario universe while looking at the same chunk of terrain. You can see which distant details get reduced or outright removed in portable mode (the first image). It looks a little tacky when flying around in the game’s easier “creative” modes, but it certainly doesn’t break the game—and is barely noticeable when you’re running around on the ground or in caves.
Even when pushing the system in local three- or four-player split-screen modes, frame rates and resolutions remain locked. However, I have one big warning to offer families who want to jump into a group session on the couch: you may need more controllers. Minecraft for Nintendo Switch does not support playing with a single Joy-Con. All players must have at least two joysticks. So, for now, everyone either needs their own pair of Joy-Cons or a single Switch Pro Controller. I wish that the port’s developers, 4J Studios, offered a “tourist” mode for a single Joy-Con, which would have let kids and novice players fly around with only one joystick. Alas.
Additionally, Ars’ Kyle Orland and I tested the Switch version’s online modes, and they worked fine. You cannot issue an invite to a friend to join your own Minecraft session; instead, anyone on your friends list will automatically see your instance is live if you’re both connected to the Internet, and they can jump in via the default “join” menu. It’s actually much easier than having to rely on an invite system. However, 4J didn’t step up with any sort of emote or chat system for this launch version, and the Nintendo Switch does not yet support voice chat in online modes, so it’s a little solitary to play this way. Better than nothing… but barely.
This is apparently derived from other console versions’ late-January build, and the series’ producers at Microsoft have pledged to get the game version up to the current April build post-haste (which Wii U players are currently enjoying). 4J and Microsoft have also pledged to patch in the ability to port your existing Wii U worlds and saves to the Switch version, but that functionality is not yet live. Perhaps all of those updates will be timed for Minecraft on Nintendo Switch’s boxed launch, which is still “TBA.” Right now, you can only buy this via the Switch’s eShop. (The Wii U’s disc version was staggered in similar fashion.)
Minecraft is making its way to the Nintendo Switch. Today Nintendo revealed that the best-selling crafting game will launch on its new console on May 11th. The Switch edition looks to be much the same as the Wii U version, complete with Super Mario Bros.-themed content exclusive to Nintendo platforms. And while Minecraft is already available on a huge range of devices, the portable / console nature of Switch could potentially make this an ideal version.
FOXBOROUGH — On April 29, local gamers were given the unique opportunity to play on the big screen at Showcase Cinema de Lux at Patriot Place as part of Super League Gaming’s Boston Revolt City Champs: Minecraft tournament.
Instead of playing the popular 3-D online game at home, participants were able to go to the theater and compete.
“The idea is to take Minecraft and make it a more communal environment where kids can play together,” said Showcase Vice President Mark Malinowski.
Players brought their personal laptops to use during the event and then played against each other on the giant screen for 90 minutes.
Most associate movie theaters with watching movies, but Malinowski said the environment is ideal to get gamers out to socialize and play together.
“It’s really fun to play at home, but in the theater, on the screen with the sounds, those are things you can’t get at home,” Malinowski said. “The goal is to get (kids) out having fun, and competing together in a social environment. More and more these days creating a communal and social experience is important.”
The three-day event will continue on Saturday, May 6 and again on Saturday, May 13. The grand final is scheduled for Saturday, May 20.
Tickets cost $60 per player. Parents get in free.
Showcase Cinema de Lux is located at 24 Patriot Place, Foxborough.
One of the best things about Minecraft: Pocket Edition [$6.99] is how it can become a canvas for your stories, like how you went about building your “masterpiece,” or how you and your friends have created this very cool Realms server. If you have a cool Minecraft-related story to tell, Mojang wants to hear it and, if it’s cool enough, post it on the Minecraft webpage. If you haven’t been checking this webpage, Mojang has been posting some pretty cool stories that talk about various community builds, mini-games, and all kinds of other things. Now, the developers have put out a request for things like cool building projects, accounts from people who play Minecraft differently than most others, and so on.
If you do have a story to tell, you can go here and email Mojang (Microsoft), and who knows, your story might end up on the front page of Minecraft.net, which wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. Any stories you want to share?
Microsoft is planning to launch a new Minecraft online store for third-party generated adventure maps, skins and texture packs.
Minecraft Marketplace, due to arrive this spring, will also host the company’s own goods. It’s planned as a curated store that offers the best Minecraft-related worlds and assets. Mods, which have traditionally been free, will not be included.
In the past, the company only sold its own first-party goods via an online store. Third-parties sold goods via their own online sites, but were restricted to only a few platforms.
Purchases will be made using a virtual currency called Minecraft Coins that can be bought with real money. The Marketplace will be attached to the user’s Xbox Live account. The currency cannot be earned through in-game activities. Third-party content creators will take at least a 50 percent share of income, according to a spokesperson for Microsoft, after retail fees have been extracted.
Minecraft MarketplaceMicrosoft
The Minecraft Marketplace will be available for all PC, tablet and mobile platforms, though not games consoles. These may be added at a later date.
At a press event last week, representatives from Microsoft’s Minecraft team demonstrated some of the packs that will be available for purchase. Nine creators have been chosen to launch the service including Sphax, Blockworks, Imagiverse and Noxcrew. New packs include:
Skyfair: A set of floating islands featuring funfair-style mini-games.
Pastel Skin Pack: Play in a pretty pastel art style.
Pirate Map: Sunken galleons and swashbuckling combat map.
Fairy-tale Adventure Map: Explore a world inspired by well-loved tales.
Stone Age Texture Map: Dinosaurs and cave-dwellers.
Scorching Sands: A post-apocalyptic role-playing map.
Automaton Dreams: Cyberpunk adventure map.
A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company has been working on the store almost since it bought Mojang, back in 2014. The team decided on a curated offering in order to avoid IP issues and large numbers of poor user-generated offerings. Map-making is extremely popular in the Minecraft community
The company hopes the new store will inspire quality additional content, such as adventure maps and stories that use Minecraft almost like a game engine. Would-be creators can find out more at a website that launches today. Microsoft is only accepting applications from registered businesses.
Minecraft Marketplace will launch alongside the 1.1 Discovery Update, which includes concrete and glazed terracotta blocks, llamas, ability to effect behavioral changes to mobs (such as allowing zombies to fly), new evil villagers and an option to export in-game creations for 3D printing and editing in Microsoft Paint.
As part of a campaign to expand its share of the educational marketplace, Microsoft has created a new Code Builder tool that works in conjunction with Minecraft Education Edition and also integrates with Tynker, MIT’s ScratchX and the Microsoft MakeCode open source platform.
CodeBuilder was unveiled at a MicrosoftEDU event that took place in New York on May 2nd as one of several initiatives to spread Microsoft learning tools across K-12 classrooms – including Windows 10 S which we have already reported on.
At the event Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said:
“Democratizing education opportunity must be inclusive of everyone, not just a select few. To me this is extremely personal. This includes students with disability and different learning styles.”
Microsoft’s Minecraft Education Edition, an educational version of Minecraft specifically designed for classroom use, was announced in January 2016 and released in November after a beta test that opened in June. It costs $5 per year per user but is only available for purchase by schools, libraries, museums, and “participants in nationally recognized home-school organizations”.
The Code Builder add-on allows users to drag and drop commands to a virtual assistant, in the guise of a robot, who will perform tasks in the Minecraft world. It also supports switching into Javascript.
The beta of Code Builder for Minecraft is now available for schools to try with both the Windows 10 and macOS versions of Minecraft Education Edition. New users can get a free one-year trial from the Microsoft Store for Education and both Minecraft Education Edition and the Code Builder add-on.
Another new facility for Minecraft Education Edition is to use it with Microsoft MakeCode, which is described as:
an open source is a platform that combines the magic of Making with the power of Coding as a more inclusive approach to computer science education.
This video from the team shows the new MakeCode for Minecraft in action:
The restriction with taking advantage of this is that you’ll need an Office 365 for Education account, and so have to be an educator, administrator, or student at an eligible institution, something that has attracted adverse comments from people who don’t have this access. However, at the Windows 10 S launch it was stated that:
All new machines that ship with Windows 10 S will also come with a free Minecraft Education Edition subscription.
which might provide a new way in for those willing to buy new hardware.
