Minecraft is the biggest (paid) gaming sensation of the last decade, racking up more than 100 million downloads across platforms and still growing in popularity after several years. It’s hugely popular with young kids, has a vibrant fan community, and even is used in classrooms for educational purposes. And now you can play it on the Apple TV.
Released right before Christmas, Minecraft: Apple TV Edition is essentially a big-screen conversion of the Minecraft: Pocket Edition you might know well from iPhone and iPad. It’s not only the biggest game to hit the Apple TV to date, but also simultaneously the highest-profile game on the device to require a gamepad—you won’t be able to play with the Siri Remote. And that’s for the best, because it means that Minecraft isn’t diminished in this new incarnation.
Block by block
Minecraft on Apple TV offers essentially the same experience as Pocket Edition, which itself follows the same core tenets as the original Minecraft on Mac and PC: it’s all about little blocks. Like a modern-day digital take on LEGO, you’ll wield pixelated blocks of all sorts—dirt, sand, iron ore, and much more—in your charmingly jagged world. You can use them to build a house, a city, a detailed re-creation of the Millennium Falcon… or anything else, really.
You’ll also bash them to bits as you dig into the ground and mountains, exploring beneath the surface to mine all sorts of minerals. And then you’ll craft, of course, using the myriad blocks you’ve accumulated to build swords, shovels, pickaxes, fishing rods, and other tools to help you in the lo-fi wilds. As ever, Minecraft is about as loosely structured as a game can be. You’re dropped into a world with no tutorial, a minimal on-screen interface, and no objectives or storyline. It’s up to you to find meaning and fun in each randomly generated world you enter.
IDGBe friendly with the blocky wildlife… or punch them until they turn into beef and leather.
Luckily, that’s not difficult: the allure of freeform, trial-and-error exploration reveals surprises and secrets along the way, especially as you learn the ropes in the Survival mode, and there’s real joy in forging your own adventure in the face of unexpected challenge. With vicious block monsters appearing every night, you’ll need to utilize the resources around you to build shelter, craft better tools, and ultimately find your way to the final realm, called The End.
Meanwhile, in Creative Mode, you have all of the tools, blocks, and resources ready in your arsenal, and you can even soar through the air—all of which allows you to build massive structures and create your own experiences along the way. And you can also connect to online servers for multiplayer in either mode, and play with fellow fan-made maps and makeshift minigames.
IDGThe Apple TV Edition comes with a pretty cool bonus bundle of Christmas content right now, even if its immediate relevance has passed.
Playing Minecraft with a proper gamepad is so much better than using virtual buttons on your iPhone or iPad. While that’s adequate enough, there’s nothing quite like the steady, tactile sensation of feeling an analog stick and buttons under your thumbs, not to mention having an unencumbered view of the game on your TV. I’m using the SteelSeries Nimbus ($50), which is still the best of the bunch with Apple TV and iOS MFi gamepads, and Minecraft plays as well here as it does on other consoles and computers. While it’ll take a fairly sizable investment to start playing, it’s the only option that makes sense on the Apple TV: trying to comfortably squeeze all of the controls onto the limited Siri Remote seems an impossible task.
Double up?
Minecraft: Apple TV Edition is almost identical to Pocket Edition in nearly every respect. It has the same content as the recent 1.0 release of Pocket Edition, which also supports gamepads. However, the Apple TV Edition lacks a couple of features right now: support for Realms, the official service for setting up and running private Minecraft servers, as well the ability to sign into Xbox Live and add friends via the service. Both of those features are in development, which is great, but it’s no surprise that the Apple TV Edition’s $20 price tag is throwing some Pocket Edition owners for a loop.
IDGDig into the earth to find rare minerals. Ooh, redstone (and lava, too)!
While many purchased iOS games are then free to download on Apple TV, Minecraft: Apple TV Edition has its own $20 price tag that is separate from Pocket Edition’s paltry $7 charge. Seven bucks for Minecraft on your iPhone is a steal, while $20 for a home console version feels spot-on. However, given that you’re essentially getting a blown-up version of Pocket Edition, it seems strange that you’re asked to pay again, not to mention at a much higher price.
It’s a matter of Mojang and Microsoft following their usual playbook here, in which console versions of Minecraft cost $20, while Apple’s shared platform could allow for one purchase to cover iOS and Apple TV versions alike. But that’s their choice to make, and now it’s yours too. At least early buyers get a free add-on pack bundle that brings in a Christmas-themed environment, costumes, and other small digital goodies.
IDGConnect to online servers to play with friends or other random fans.
The Mac version is a bit more feature rich than this one (and is $27 by comparison), but playing on a TV with a gamepad is definitely preferable to using an iOS device. If you or your kids are still over the moon about Minecraft—or haven’t played and think it could be up your alley—then this may be $20 very well spent. Minecraft is infinitely replayable and Mojang keeps expanding its feature set, while online servers offer further modes and experiences. On the other hand, if you have Pocket Edition and are either perfectly content with it or don’t play much anymore, then there’s little point in buying the same game again at three times the cost.
Bottom line
Minecraft shines on the Apple TV, as playing on a big screen with a comfortable controller is even more alluring than playing on your iPhone or iPad—and it’s about on par with the Mac version in terms of overall experience. However, the price discrepancy with the Pocket Edition and need to buy this version separately may throw some fans for a loop.
The Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle includes the Xbox One S 500GB console, an Xbox Wireless Controller, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack, Minecraft Builder’s Pack, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, and a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial.
Microsoft is now launching this Minecraft bundle in Japan. Minecraft is a popular game in Japan and in fact it is the highest selling game of all time in Japan for Microsoft. Microsoft is now taking advantage of Minecraft’s popularity in Japan to sell Xbox One S console. Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle costs 29,980 Japanese Yen(approx $260).
Following the releases of 1.38 and 1.39 late last month, Minecraft update 1.40 is now available to download on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 in North America and Europe, developer 4J Studios announced today.
As the patch notes show, this is just a small bug fix update:
Fix for Mob Spawners not spawning anymore, and showing a Pig inside them.
Fix for previously created signs being censored for players with restrictive Privacy settings.
Fix for being able to escape the boundaries of the world by exiting a Boat at the edge.
The update is also available on Xbox One and Xbox 360.
4J Studios adds, “We are continuing to work on bug fixes for all Minecraft console editions. Please report any bugs you’ve found here.”
During the Nintendo event last night, Minecraft was announced for Nintendo Switch.
In 2016, Minecraft was the #3 best-selling PS4 game in North America through the PlayStation Store. It also took home #1 on PS3 and #2 on PS Vita in North America.
Minecraft just hit the Wii U fairly recently (in the grand scheme of Minecraft‘s lengthy lifespan, that is), but like most things that went to die on the Wii U, it’s also coming to the Switch so you can buy it again like it didn’t just happen.
Buried within the announcement for the Switch lineup was a pretty uneventful confirmation that one of the most popular games of all time is heading to their new console. All of the features are basic stuff and nothing extra is known so far in regards to how Switchy this port might be, but it exists if you want it.
My guess is all of the Wii U DLC, including the Mario Mash-Up pack, is fair game.
SKANEATELES — Nova Smith, 9 punched a zombie in the face.
Smith and the other young members of the “Minecraft” Club in the Skaneateles Library were adventuring as their own custom-made characters in the wildly popular video game on Jan. 4.
The weekly club, which has been going on since November, lets children play the game together on their respective handheld devices, as the game has a function that allows them to play in each other’s digitized worlds of their own creation.
“You can play on your own and that’s fun, but they can play together,” said Nickie Marquis, the library’s director.
“Minecraft” gives players an open, cubic environment they can modify and build upon with a set of tools that allows them to realize almost whatever they want. The creative mode involves players designing their own environments, including meticulously made structures if the player decides to put time into them, while the adventure mode involves fighting and exploration.
The Microsoft-owned game has amassed a devoted following and carved out a large portion of the cultural landscape since it debuted in 2011. Fans often interact on social media, and there are numerous channels on YouTube and other websites dedicated to the game. Spin-offs, adaptations, merchandise and more have spawned from it as well. A feature film is currently set for 2019.
At Skaneateles Library, the children talk to each other while simultaneously dealing with whatever they are doing in the game. The player’s digital avatar can be mining for iron and stone one moment, then storming a dungeon-type area with friends the next.
Nova Smith, wearing a Captain America shirt in the real world while exploring his virtual surroundings as a character he created that bears an uncanny resemblance to Spongebob Squarepants, said he enjoys the freedom the game gives, from finding different items to exploring numerous areas to the aforementioned zombie-punching.
“Right now I’m trying to get out of the water,” Nova explained as he attempted to get his character out of a large body of water.
Nova’s mother, Melissa Smith, who created the club, was watching her son play in the library. She said she likes the social and educational aspect of “Minecraft,” since major portions of the game involve building things with various resources and figuring out problems.
Tom Franks, who was there with his son Alex Franks, 8, also appreciates the design-based elements.
“Typical game, you’re tearing stuff, shooting people,” he said. “In ‘Minecraft’ you’re making things, making buildings.”
“Minecraft,” the iconic sandbox game by Mojang, is one of the most popular games in the world and is most distinguishable by the boxy texture of its in-game world. With Microsoft’s acquisition of the developer back in 2014, the game has since become a phenomenon worldwide and is now available to most gaming platforms.
With its popularity, it is no surprise that the game is bestseller. In fact, “Minecraft” has already reached another milestone recently, with Mojang having already sold over 25 million copies of the title.
The latest figure came from the Minecraft sales statistics page, MS Power User reported. The PC and Mac versions of the game combined have now sold 25,079,997 at the time this article is written. In fact, the title is selling like hotcakes, having sold 8,418 copies within the last 24 hours alone.
The sales figure is still incomplete though. The figure only comprises the sales for its PC and Mac version which are considered to be the original and main version of the game contributing to a huge chunk of its revenues.
But the figure is bound to get bigger if sales from other platforms are taken into account. Sales for the “Minecraft” Windows 10 and Pocket Editions are expected to pick up with the recently introduced version 1.0 to the Windows 10 and Pocket Editions versions of the game.
Mojang is slowly bridging the gap between the mobile, console and the PC / Mac versions of the game. Previously, each platform plays a different version of the game resulting in a drastically different gaming experience one may get depending on which platform one plays the game.
On the console side, Mojang is likewise upgrading “Minecraft” for the platform. The developer introduced last December 2016 the version 1.10 for consoles, adding a host of improvements like mods, blocks, and even wings, Game Spot reported.
The most exciting addition introduced by the version 1.10 for consoles is the Elytra described to be a chestplate-slot item allowing players to gain wings. Players can jump from high ledges and glide gracefully to the ground, the rate of fall can be controlled by looking up to gain altitude or looking down to glide to the ground.
With the updates in place, “Minecraft” players will definitely appreciate the more uniform gameplay experience across all platforms. Meanwhile, check out the video below released by Team Mojang showcasing The Ender Update.
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