Minecraft is about to enter its final form. In August, the Better Together update will land and unify the game across nearly every platform, from iOS and Android to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. This unification comes courtesy of the Bedrock Engine, which currently powers all mobile, Windows 10, Amazon Fire and VR versions of the game. Now, it won’t matter which platform your friends use to play Minecraft — every version will be the same, they’ll share DLC and updates, and all players will be able to create new worlds together.
Well, nearly all. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360 versions of Minecraft are not included in the initial Better Together update.
“Beginning with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, we’ll be expanding that code base so that all — the vast majority of our community is united,” marketing lead Emily Orrson says.
The Better Together update brings Bedrock to the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions of Minecraft, allowing them to play with nearly every other version of the game. With the update, participating consoles get Realms (the game’s multiplayer mode), plus the newly launched Community Marketplace. Any existing worlds will transfer directly to Bedrock, as will all DLC players have purchased. The Better Together update also brings infinite worlds to Xbox One and Switch, up from the current, limited grid of about 3 miles by 3 miles.
“They’ve been asking for some relief there for a long time, and now they’ll be able to walk right up inside of those worlds and continue generating them infinitely,” executive producer Jesse Merriam says.
But players on PS4, arguably the most popular current-gen console on the market, won’t be moved to Bedrock right away.
“Our goal is to unite all Minecraft players,” Merriam. “Today we’re able to confirm Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, but all of our current-gen partners — we’re interested in connecting all of the Minecraft players. It’s just about what we can confirm today.”
The PS4 and Xbox 360 versions of Minecraft will retain their platform-specific names, while the Java version will formally be named Minecraft: Java Edition, which is what most players call it anyway. So, now, there’s the core Minecraft game and three fragmented editions (PS4, Xbox 360 and Java) that aren’t guaranteed to receive the same updates or cross-platform capabilities as the main version. It’s a welcome step toward unity, but not a complete leap just yet.
“We’re partnered very closely with Apple, Google, PlayStation, Nintendo, Amazon, our VR partners — a lot of that, it just is a lot to make sure we’re always working in everyone’s store and everything else,” Orrson says. “Right now we are doing our best to get everybody connected, but it is work to work through all of the scenarios we encounter.”
Microsoft bought Minecraft in 2014 for $2.5 billion, so it makes sense the Xbox One version is getting some love in the Better Together update. Of course, Sony builds the PS4.
“It’s not for lack of wanting to or effort on our part,” senior global communications manager Aubrey Norris says. “We are in discussions with our partners right now. We want PlayStation and we invite Sony to bring PlayStation players onto Bedrock, but we can’t get any further into — these are confidential discussions.”
Microsoft and developer Mojang are far from done with Minecraft. Better Together is part of a larger push to transform Minecraft into a “creative platform.” Developers want it to be more than a game. They want it to be the foundation for community-driven innovation, connection and creativity.
The Community Marketplace, which hit Pocket and Windows 10 editions in June, was a big part of this transition, allowing players to search for, buy and sell their own in-game creations.
Servers are also getting some attention in Better Together. These allow players to mess around in completely unique worlds built by dedicated fans. Now, there’ll be a Servers tab next to the “Worlds” and “Friends” tabs at start-up, introducing a whole new community of players to fan-favorite universes like Lifeboat, an endeavor created by a 14-year-old and his dad that boasts 6 million players per month. Initial servers landing on Bedrock are Lifeboat, CubeCraft, Mineplex and InPvP.
One final update makes Minecraft even more self-contained: A built-in crafting recipe book.
“We want to bring the strengths of all the existing crafting systems together,” Merriam says. “Today, the Java edition is really known for discovery and experimentation as you go to the crafting grid and try things out and see what actually turns out to be a recipe.”
The recipe book will allow fans to toggle recipes directly in the crafting grid, eliminating the need to set down the game and find the relevant Wiki page. But, those who like to experiment with recipes are free to ignore the book completely.
“Anyone who’s interacted with a hardcore Minecraft fan will know there’s a lot of pride a kid will feel if they know the recipe for a boat,” Merriam says.
If you want to make Minecraft a bigger part of your social life, good news: Microsoft is making it easier for players to join multiplayer worlds.
You already can play with thousands of other Minecraft gamers on customized multiplayer areas called servers, but it’s kind of a pain. Microsoft’s aspirin will come this summer, though, when Minecraft will get a built-in server browser that makes servers easier to discover and use, said Minecraft marketing leader Emily Orrson. Microsoft announced the move Sunday in conjunction with the massive E3 videogame conference.
“The amount of different ways to play is going to exponentially expand,” Orrson said. Think of it as adding a little more escapism to your escapism.
The server browser is good news if you’re looking for a fresh way to play the game. And with more than 100 million copies of Minecraft sold, it’s a good bet plenty of people will try the servers. Already today millions of people play on servers — more than with some high-end triple-A gaming titles.
Four servers will be available to start: Lifeboat, InPvP, Mineplex and CubeCraft. But more will come later. As with Microsoft’s addition recently of Microsoft’s marketplace to buy assets like character skins and downloadable minigames, though, Microsoft plans to expand beyond the limited number of launch-time partners, Orrson said.
In the blocky virtual world of Minecraft, you survive by digging and harvesting raw materials, “crafting” those ingredients into tools, weapons, and more refined materials, then using all that to survive the nightly onslaught of bad guys called mobs. You can also play in a no-threat creative mode that lets you build everything from fanciful floating castles to working electronic devices powered by Minecraft’s “redstone” circuitry.
Xbox, Switch join Minecraft ‘Bedrock’
The changes come with the “Better Together” update to Minecraft, so named because Microsoft is bringing some relatively isolated versions of the game into the fold. The company builds its “Bedrock” version of Minecraft for Windows 10 PCs, Apple TV, Oculus Rift and Gear VR headsets, and mobile devices powered by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
With the summer update, Minecraft for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch gaming consoles also will become bedrock versions. That means anyone playing with those versions will have access to the same marketplace and server options as the other versions, and that any purchases made on one system will be available to you on the other — as long as you log in with an Xbox account.
That convergence also means playing multiplayer games on a variety of hardware is easier. Any of the Bedrock versions can work together, said Jesse Merriam, Minecraft’s executive producer.
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The art of Minecraft: Building beauty, block by block
The Xbox 360 and Wii U editions still remain separate for now. So, too, are the original versions for Mac and Windows, built with the Java programming language. All the Bedrock versions now are simply being called “Minecraft,” while the Java-based versions will be called Minecraft Java Edition.
Microsoft’s desire for convergence has its limits, though. Its Mojang studio continues to develop Minecraft Java Edition even as it brings its more advanced features to the Bedrock versions.
“We have no intention to push people one way or other,” said Minecraft communications manager Aubrey Norris.
As part of the company’s big show at E3 Microsoft talked about the latest Minecraft update.
The“Better Together Update” unifies console, mobile and Windows 10 versions of the game.
The new update also features better graphics and cross-platform support to let Windows 10 and mobile Minecraft players play the game together.
As part of the update, Minecraft is ditching any special branding associated with Minecraft for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, mobile games or VR — they’ll all just be known as “Minecraft”. There’s a ‘Minecraft: Java Edition’, which is the original PC game (still supported).
The unified branding is designed to let buyers know they’re all getting the same game, that they can play with anyone no matter what device they’re using, the company said.
Supported devices for unified game play include:
Windows 10
iOS
Android
XBox One
Nintendo’s Switch
If players own Minecraft for mobile or VR, they’ll get an update for the summer. Minecraft for Xbox One or Nintendo Switch owners will get a new update for free, and the existing worlds that gamers have created are going to be available on the new game.
The new update also means that any downloadable content will be available across all devices. So a pack bought on mobile will also be available on Xbox and Windows 10 editions too.
As an additional added perk, Minecraft is throwing in a server browser to its latest update. Launching with four servers, Lifeboat, Mineplex, InPVP and Cubecraft — which lets players join public servers that have monthly users numbering in the millions according to the company.
It’s different from Minecraft Realms, which are privately cloud-hosted servers available for smaller groups.
Finally, there’s a new graphics pack for 4K viewing — better lighting, shadows, and water effects, the company said.
Minecraft’s latest update brings the mothership build to 1.12 and is substantial enough that it has a name: World of Color. Don’t blame me for the missing U; I’m as upset about it as you are.
Rolling out now for the core Mac and PC build, and presumably destined for the Windows 10, Pocket and console versions at a (possibly much) later date, Minecraft 1.12 overhauls the colour scheme on a number of blocks, gives you options for recolouring many common crafted items, adds two new types of blocks, and officially introduces parrots, probably without the cookie breeding system. In the trailer above, you can see some of the colourful creations the Minecraft community build using a snapshot of this update.
That’s not all, though. According to Mojang, Minecraft 1.12 features a new “advancements” system that will “help guiding your way through the adventure of Minecraft, and can be utilized by creators to make interesting custom adventure maps and mini games”. Maybe it’s just what you’re looking for if you’ve always wanted to get it together and reach endgame but get distracted and confused on the way. There’s also a new recipe book and “knowledge book”, so it’s clearly a good time to be a Minecrafter who loves books.
Here are the full patch notes for Minecraft 1.12: World of Color.
Added Glazed Terracotta blocks
Renamed Hardened Clay to Terracotta
Added Concrete Powder blocks
Added Concrete blocks
Updated base color palette
Added advancements
Added recipe book
Added Knowledge Book item
Added Parrots
Added functionality to save toolbars in creative mode
Added text-to-speech narrator
Added new sounds for the Note blocks
Added commands relating to recipes and advancements
By Alanah PearceAt this point, Minecraft is such a well-known game that reviewing its content in 2017 seems redundant. (For that, you can check out our reviews of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions and of Minecraft: Pocket Edition.) But with its recent release on the Switch the question that needs answering is how Nintendo’s portable console handles building these fantastic blocky worlds, and the answer is: pretty well.
The Switch Edition of Minecraft takes the appealing portability of Minecraft Pocket Edition and adds the precise, comfortable controls of a console. The convenience of playing Minecraft on the go and easily jumping into online multiplayer with friends on their own Switch devices would make it hard to go back to other versions of if it weren’t missing an essential feature: voice chat. That makes playing with friends who aren’t in the room with you much less fun, since there’s no way to coordinate your efforts with the up to seven other players in a game. You can get that human interaction locally by playing two-player split-screen mode, but this works much better when the Switch is docked, because the screen is a little too small to play in handheld or kickstand mode with multiple people. It’s possible, you just might not be able to see very well.
Like the current PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions (1.5), the Switch’s Minecraft lacks some other features that are on the PC’s 1.9 version, like the reworked combat system. And, unfortunately, Minecraft doesn’t use the Switch’s touch screen for faster inventory management – or anything else – so it’s not quite the best of both the console and Pocket Edition worlds. It does include a bunch of exclusive Super Mario-themed skins, though.
Lastly, I didn’t experience any noticeable slowdowns either in docked or portable modes, though it’s worth noting that Minecraft runs in 720p even while docked. Not that the resolution of these intentionally blocky graphics matters much, of course.
The Verdict
The Nintendo Switch version provides an authentic Minecraft experience that is hugely benefitted by the ability to play it anywhere with physical controls. The one drawback is the lack of voice chat, which makes online multiplayer less fun than on other platforms, so it’s best enjoyed in the same room as your friends.
Detailed maps of Exeter have been created on wildly popular world-building game Minecraft.
Four maps inspired by collections at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) will allow enthusiasts to virtually explore the historic Devon city.
Above: Watch an example of a city recreated on Minecraft
With over 100 million users, Minecraft is the second best-selling video game of all time.
The famous Caleb Hedgeland model of Exeter recreatedThe project is in partnership with the University of Exeter with funding from Arts Council England.
The first map is based on the model of 18th-century Exeter before the city walls were breached. The three future maps are of the Roman fortress, the Roman city and Tudor Exeter.
The first map is based on a model of Exeter constructed between 1817 and 1824 by Caleb Hedgeland.
One of the earliest surviving models of any town in Britain, it records Exeter in great detail as it was during the late 1700s when the city wall was still intact.
The model, which is on permanent display in RAMM’s Making History gallery, is the only surviving record of many of the city’s buildings and streets.
