Minecraft: Story Mode is coming to Netlfix later this year.

That’s according to an exclusive report from Tech Radar.

That’s not a new TV show, it’s a video game developed by TellTale, the studio behind the popular Walking Dead games.

Of course, whether TellTale makes games or “interactive stories” is up for debate, and Netflix is insisting that the company doesn’t consider this a video game.

“We don’t have any plans to get into gaming,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. ”There’s a broad spectrum of entertainment available today. Games have become increasingly cinematic, but we view this as interactive narrative storytelling on our service. ”

You say tomato, I say tom-ah-to. Whether Minecraft: Story Mode is a game or an interactive story hardly matters. Games are, in essence, interactive stories of one kind or another. And while TellTale’s “choose-your-own-adventure” games may be less gamey than Call of Duty or Super Mario Bros. they’re still games as far as I’m concerned. Call them whatever you like.

Credit: TellTale Games
Minecraft: Story Mode

It doesn’t sound like Netflix is interested in adding gamier games to the streaming service, which is probably for the best (at least for now.) But this could pave the road for lots more interactive stories, whether those are walking simulators like What Remains Of Edith Finch or other TellTale series like The Wolf Among Us. And that’s great. One of the great things about games (even interactive story games) as opposed to TV shows and movies is that they invite us to participate. We aren’t just passively consuming our entertainment, we’re engaging with it.

In any case, Netflix has already expanded into the ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ category with offerings like Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale. I’d love to see them take that effort further and develop full-fledged interactive stories for grown-ups. I’d love some of the old fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books to come to life on Netflix.

In related news, TellTale is reportedly developing a Stranger Things game. Or, well, an “interactive story” version of Stranger Things.

That could be neat, though I think the studio needs to evolve the way it makes games. Other offerings, like Dontnod’s Life Is Strange, have pushed the envelope and TellTale needs to rise to the occasion.

Minecraft has been big business for Mojang and Microsoft, but they’re not the only ones making money off a game that’s almost ten years old. There are others who have grown up with the game, learned its strengths and weaknesses and now found opportunities to make a living doing what they love.

20 year-old Florian Funke is one of those people. He’s the Managing Director of Spark Squared, an outfit that describe themselves as a “Minecraft production company”, and who offer their services—for a fee, of course—to anyone who wants them to build, develop, mod or render anything within the game.

Build worlds, basically.

“‘Building’ means that we create different landscapes, buildings, recreations and more”, Funke tells Kotaku. “We design gaming environments for Minecraft players, educational environments for students or work on recreations for our enjoyment.”

“During ‘Development’ we code custom tools and plugins for Minecraft servers, YouTube series and other. Additionally, we create Minecraft ‘Mechanics’ and ‘Mods’ for minigames and adventure maps, including ‘3D Models’ of monsters, machines and more. And lastly, we render images of all the work in 3D rendering software.”

Spark’s client list is pretty varied. “We work with a lot of the most popular Java and mobile edition Minecraft servers and create various gaming and lobby environments for them”, Funke says. “We have also worked with the mobile live-streaming service Mobcrush on creating products for Minecraft’s official Marketplace.”

“Furthermore, we are working on expanding more into the educational space and have already worked with ‘English Highways,’ an official UK government company that is in charge of building and maintaining highways. We created a world with the goal to get young children more interested in engineering and trying to fill that skills gap.”

While on paper that might sound like basic mod work of an existing game, something that can be handled by a couple of people in their spare time, in reality it’s relatively big business. Since its creation five years ago, Spark has grown from a couple of teenage schoolboys dabbling in a hobby into a company that now employs a range of staff full-time, from management to developers to artists, as well as calling upon a roster of around 40 freelancers.

NM Corporation, a map based on the work of Paul Chadeisson
I came across Spark’s work the other day when an artist I’m a big fan of, Paul Chadeisson, tweeted out some images showing how Spark (as a fun personal piece) had turned one of his works into a massive 3D space in Minecraft.

You can see that creation above (Funke rates is as one of the company’s favourite efforts), but I’ve also included other examples of their work as well, ranging from sci-fi worlds to medieval kingdoms to ancient Rome.

You can see more of Spark Squared’s projects at their company site.

Since 1979’s The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki has delighted audiences around the world with his imaginative vision and ability to create fully realized fictional worlds. And even among Miyazaki’s pantheon, few settings can rival Spirited Away‘s bathhouse. A microcosm of capitalist inequality, the bathhouse manages to engage not just the imagination, but the rational mind. It’s a perfect match, then, for one of the world’s foremost crossovers of creativity and rationality, Minecraft. Thanks to Youtuber Alan Becker, you can experience the bathhouse and its surrounding areas in a completely new medium.

Alan Becker went above and beyond with this project, which he’s been working on for years. Not only is this the most realistic looking Minecraft server I’ve ever seen, but Becker put just as much detail into areas that might never be seen as he did into the main attractions. In the video, Becker explains that he went on dozens of Japanese house tours to mimic the Japanese style inside each home surrounding the bathhouse.

Like these houses, dozens of areas that appear only for a split second in the background of the film are completely finished and furnished. Becker even uses reflections in Chihiro’s parents’ car windows to make an educated guess as to what an area would look like.

In the video, Becker takes us through the movie scene by scene, pointing out the locations of nearly everything onscreen. No Face may have eaten up most of the bathhouse, but Becker took note of everything.

Sony refuses to let PlayStation 4 users play games with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch users.
Microsoft and Nintendo are both vocally pushing for the ability to play some games across competing platforms. “Minecraft” is already able to be played across many — except for PS4.
Microsoft and Nintendo released a joint advertisement this week showcasing the ability to play “Minecraft” across the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
Though “Minecraft” is also available on PS4, and the commercial is ostensibly for “Minecraft,” Sony’s console is excluded from the credits.

Microsoft and Nintendo just teamed up to take a powerful shot at Sony’s PlayStation 4.

Since we’re talking about businesses here, that powerful shot came in the form of an advertisement — a seemingly innocuous commercial for “Minecraft” that showcases the ability to play the game across competing game consoles. In “Minecraft,” players on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC/Mac, iOS and Android can play the game together.

There’s just one platform missing from that: Sony’s massively popular PlayStation 4.

Of the big three game console makers — Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo — Sony is the final holdout when it comes to multiplayer gaming across competing systems. Moreover, Sony is even outright locking some game accounts to the PlayStation 4: “Fortnite” players started the #BlameSony hashtag over the past few weeks due to the revelation that, if you tie your “Fortnite” account to a PlayStation 4, you can’t sign in with it anywhere else.
Thus, Microsoft and Nintendo are taking advantage of Sony’s mistake, and they’re going all in. Nintendo’s latest commercial for “Minecraft” even features an Xbox One controller alongside a Nintendo Switch controller:

Microsoft and Nintendo vs Sony
Nintendo
That’s a pretty big deal in the world of video games.

Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo are direct competitors in the video game space, and seeing two of them team up against the other to change a pillar of console gaming is more than rare — it’s unprecedented. This is not a thing that happens.

For its part, Sony hasn’t said much about its stance on multiplayer gaming across platforms. Some PlayStation 4 games, including “Fortnite,” allow limited cross-play with PC/Mac and iOS/Android, but not the Xbox One or Nintendo Switch. And, at one point in 2017, “Fortnite” briefly supported cross-play between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players before it was turned off (Epic Games said it was a bug).

Which is to say one thing: Cross-play is technically possible, but without Sony’s support, PlayStation 4 players are left to play games mostly with other PS4 owners while Xbox One and Nintendo Switch players have a more open experience.

Check out the full ad right here:

Oh my glob! Minecraft is coming to Adventure Time in an extra-geeky episode.

Cartoon Network unveiled the first official clip on June 15 from the upcoming episode Diamonds and Lemons, for fans to glimpse their favorite Adventure Time characters reimagined in a blocky Minecraft-esque format.

The surreal animated show features Jake the dog and Finn the human who live in the mythical land of Ooo, along with Princess Bubblegum, the Ice King, BMO the video game console and others.

In the clip we see blocky versions of Finn, Princess Bubblegum and half demon, half human Marceline Abadeer, collect gems and other items in a Minecraft type of game.

The episode is set to air July 20 on Cartoon Network. Plus Funko toy company is releasing Adventure Time x Minecraft collectible figures from its Pop! Vinyl line, also in July.

The popular animated show Adventure Time is set to end sometime in 2018.

As part of TechRadar’s PC Gaming Week 2018, we take a look at the history of Minecraft, from its humble beginnings to being the best selling PC game of all time.

“I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program”

Markus ‘Notch’ Persson
Our story begins back in 2009, when a number of people had some seriously good ideas. One was Zach Barth, now known best as the founder of perennial puzzle innovator Zachtronics, who coded and released multiplayer mineral-em-up Infiniminer over the course of a few months, abandoning the freeware project after its source code was leaked.

Another was Swedish coder Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, just shy of 30, and previously a developer on sandbox MMO Wurm Online. Persson was working in his spare time on a kind of Dungeon Keeper/Dwarf Fortress/Rollercoaster Tycoon combo (as odd as that may sound) named RubyDung.

It begins
Attempting to introduce a first-person view into the game, he was less than satisfied with his results – and then he found Infiniminer.

Zachtronics’ Infiniminer was the inspiration for Minecraft’s blocky structure

Zachtronics’ Infiniminer was the inspiration for Minecraft’s blocky structure

“My god,” wrote Persson on his Tumblr, “I realized that that was the game I wanted to do… I tried to implement a simple first person engine in that style, reusing some art and code (although not as much as you’d think) from RubyDung.”

Even his very first version, coded in Java, is immediately identifiable today: even though it wasn’t yet formally named, this was Minecraft.

“The response was very positive,” wrote Notch a few months later, “and I was blown away [by] the framerate, and how well it ran in a browser, so I decided to go for it.”

Pulling in character models from an earlier game idea named Zombie Town, he put the first alpha version of the game, now sporting that iconic name, up for test.

It received an immediately positive response. Players were fascinated by Minecraft’s freedom and its creative nature, so Notch quickly went to work on adding new features.

Within a month, Minecraft had sand, water, lava, rudimentary dynamic lighting. Within two months, the earliest multiplayer tests were underway, and the speed of development picked up even further.

Going Alpha
Development quickly moved towards a paid Alpha version, which required a premium account for access.

“I thought, if I don’t charge I’ll never get paid,” Notch later explained in a 2012 PC Gamer interview. “If I wait until the game is done, it’s never going to be done because I won’t have the money to sustain development.”

Minecraft’s Alpha sales began on June 13th 2009. Less than a month later it had sold over 1,000 copies and gained over 20,000 registered players, enough for Persson to scale back the hours spent on his day job and dedicate more time to Minecraft’s development under the Mojang Specifications banner.

Later in 2009 Minecraft’s Creeper-toting survival mode began testing, which turned Minecraft from a neat toy into a proper game, and led to sales that, even at a discounted rate for early adopters, were strong enough that Persson was able to leave his day job in May 2010, a year after the game’s initial tests; by June, 20,000 paid accounts were registered.

Creepers. Why did it have to be Creepers?

Creepers. Why did it have to be Creepers?

An explosion in development, which saw a regular Friday update schedule adding features like redstone, minecarts, dungeons and spooky underworld The Nether in quick succession, led to another explosion in sales, and caused Persson to expand the number of brains working on Minecraft.

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Mojang Specifications morphed into Mojang AB, founded alongside other Swedish coders, part of a group which, along with Notch himself, had been courted by Valve – a company which, at the time, was still interested in producing its own games.

“I got a Skype call from Bellevue,” game designer Jakob ‘JahKob’ Porser told PC Gamer. “Notch was like ‘I met with them, they want to hire me, obviously I’m not interested in this so let’s just make it happen. Let’s start this business.’ I was like, OK, I’ll quit my job tomorrow.”

Jakob Porser (left) and Markus Persson, in 2010

Jakob Porser (left) and Markus Persson, in 2010

The duo was soon joined by business developer Daniel ‘Kappische’ Kaplan, followed by CEO Carl Manneh, hired (on his own advice) from Persson’s previous employer jAlbum, artist Markus ‘Junkboy’ Toivonen, and coder Jens ‘Jeb’ Bergensten – and as Minecraft’s sales continued to expand, the team would continue to grow along with it.

“Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either.”

Markus ‘Notch’ Persson
Even with Minecraft still very much in its early stages (although now playable in its own browser-free client) our pals at PC Gamer magazine made Minecraft its game of the year in 2010.

“Minecraft sits among the very best of games, just because you can play so many games inside it,” wrote Jaz McDougall. “It’s a primal urge – to build a goddamn hill fort – in gaming form.”

Continued success
The snowball kept rolling downhill. January 12 2011 marked the milestone of one million Minecraft accounts registered; the wave of hype, and Minecraft’s core of accessibility and simplicity, saw 10 million accounts registered just 6 months later. This was a hot property, and it was time for it to spread its net even further.

The creepy lava-filled underworld of The Nether

The creepy lava-filled underworld of The Nether

But, Minecraft had a pretty fundamental problem: Java. Notch’s original choice of programming language was, while somewhat awkward, perfect for Minecraft’s requirements at the time.

It had already aided in fostering a growing scene of modders tweaking Minecraft to their own ends, and facilitated cross-platform play between PC, Mac and Linux.

Those mods, while unsupported, extended the game often in a very positive way; some (including pistons and horses) impressed Notch and Jeb enough to make their way into the game proper.

The complex overheads of Java, not really made for games as heavyweight as Minecraft was becoming, were an impediment on absolutely every other platform.

To truly get Minecraft out to the masses, an entirely distinct branch of the game entered development for the rising smartphone market: Minecraft Pocket Edition, now coded in C++.

Moving platforms
Minecraft Pocket Edition wasn’t quick off the mark – it has consistently lagged behind mainline Minecraft in terms of features since it was revealed – but it brought Minecraft first to Android (specifically the Xperia Play) and then to iOS.

Five days after the reveal of Pocket Edition, yet another C++ branch emerged during a presentation at 2011’s E3: the console edition. Initially an Xbox 360 exclusive title, it was developed out of house by Scottish developers 4J Studios.

Minecraft’s formula translated perfectly to touch controls

Minecraft’s formula translated perfectly to touch controls

The Java edition was not left behind by any means. Formally leaving its Beta stage at the Las Vegas MineCon convention in November 2011 (and jumping up to double the price of its initial Alpha release) it continued to be the bearer of new features; version 1.0 introduced The End, adding a formal ending to the game.

It also marked the end of Notch’s lead role on the project, as he handed over the reigns to Jeb, who remains the project lead to this day.

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“I think I’m more interested in doing new development of new games, rather than maintaining a game,” Notch told PC Gamer.

“I have this tendency of getting bored or frustrated with things after three to five years. Jeb turned out to be a really good game developer, who was very compatible with how I felt Minecraft should be developed.”

Notch himself moved on to other development projects, although he scaled back his efforts to hobby projects and challenges which interested him after creative block caused his first major follow-up project, 0x10c, to fizzle out.

0x10c wasn’t exactly Minecraft in space, but it was an ambitious project

0x10c wasn’t exactly Minecraft in space, but it was an ambitious project

Shortly after the official release of Minecraft, the team behind multiplayer mod Bukkit joined the Mojang team, helping to improve the multiplayer experience and develop a mod API.

This, and an ongoing scheme of regular updates and additions, meant that Minecraft’s formal release wasn’t the end of its development story by any means.

A growing empire
Bolstered by its absurd sales figures and a growing popularity with kids, Minecraft’s extra-curricular activities increased. Toys and branded merchandise flooded the shelves, and the first Minecraft LEGO set – created after a successful campaign on the company’s Cuusoo (later Ideas) scheme – was released just a month after the Xbox edition emerged.

The latter was (as expected) an immediate success, shifting a million downloads in five days, selling an average of 17,000 copies per day after its May 2012 release, and racking up over 4 million sales on Xbox Live Arcade alone by October 2012.

Texture packs like Sphax give Minecraft a fresh look

Texture packs like Sphax give Minecraft a fresh look

By April 2013, shortly after the release of the education-focused Raspberry Pi edition of Minecraft, the Java and Pocket editions surpassed 10 million sales each.

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Later in 2013, the game’s exclusivity clause with Microsoft elapsed, and versions for PS3, PS4 and PSVita were announced; Minecraft had well and truly outgrown its indie game status. And Persson, as the oft-maligned figurehead of the biggest gaming phenomenon the world had ever seen, was struggling under the weight of online pressure.

“Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang,” he tweeted in June 2014, “so I can move on with my life? Getting hate for trying to do the right thing is not my gig.”

CEO Carl Manneh’s phone immediately lit up with enquiries as to whether Persson was serious. He was: Activision Blizzard and EA each expressed an interest in picking up Mojang, but the company’s prior relationship with Microsoft (and, presumably, a superior monetary offer) saw a deal being made.

Microsoft takes charge
“I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.”

Markus ‘Notch’ Persson
The Redmond company hadn’t always been particularly interested in Minecraft, at least if one-time Microsoft-contracted developer Peter Molyneux is to be believed.

“I can remember coming to things like [Gamescom] back in my Microsoft days and talking to Microsoft,” he told GamesRadar. “They thought it was rubbish. You know, it didn’t have a character, it didn’t have a story, it didn’t have a tutorial, the graphics were, you know, like 1980s graphics… they totally, totally missed that.”

They didn’t miss it in late 2014. Following the launch of Minecraft’s paid-for online server option, Realms, and ten days after the launch of Minecraft on Xbox One, it was announced that Notch and co. were to sell Mojang to Microsoft for a cool $2.5 billion.

The completion of the deal on November 5 2014 marked the end of the founders involvement with the company – Persson, Porser and Carl Manneh departed Mojang.

Under new leadership, but maintaining the same dev team that had driven it since Notch’s original sidestep in 2011, Minecraft’s expansion rolled on.

MineCon 2015, at London’s Excel centre, broke the Guinness world record for the largest convention for a single videogame. The Pocket edition was ported to Wii U, Windows 10, Samsung’s GearVR, Apple TV and beyond. By 2016, total sales for Minecraft across all platforms hit 100 million.

A key for Minecraft’s Windows 10 edition comes free if you buy the Java version

A key for Minecraft’s Windows 10 edition comes free if you buy the Java version

And Microsoft was by no means done with Minecraft. An Education edition, which builds on the creative, problem-solving aspects of Minecraft which had made it such a popular game with young people and adults alike, launched in November 2016

Meanwhile, Pocket Edition finally (after five years) reached version 1.0. A Chinese beta followed in 2017, preceding the most significant behind-the-scenes update in Minecraft’s history: the Bedrock Engine.

Released as part of the ‘Better Together’ update, the Bedrock Engine brought every platform running some form of Pocket Edition, from mobile to console to Windows 10, into line with each other under the hood, and over it too.

Cross-platform multiplayer and unification of DLC items landed, along with 4K graphics and planned upgrades to the non-Java Minecraft (now dropping the ‘Pocket Edition’ tag and simply going by ‘Minecraft’) would happen simultaneously.

There’s still a division within Minecraft – the now-explicitly named Minecraft Java Edition continues development under its own internal team at Mojang.

Mods extend the gameplay of the Java edition in various entertaining ways

Mods extend the gameplay of the Java edition in various entertaining ways

The future is blocky
“In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.”

Marcus ‘Notch’ Persson
So what’s next for Minecraft? Standing at 144 million paid accounts and boasting a record of 74 million simultaneous players as of January 2018, and surely on its way to ousting Tetris as the top selling video game of all time, Minecraft doesn’t show any signs of going anywhere.

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The mod scene, bolstered by integration with the Twitch launcher, continues to thrive. The game continues to be a big draw on YouTube.

Meanwhile, merchandise sales haven’t dipped; Minecraft has become a staple of Lego’s commercial efforts. And there’s even a movie on the way, due for release in May 2019, although details about it are currently scarce.

What we do know is this: there’s an infinite world out there. One man’s idea, and another man’s experiment, have grown into something that has delighted an entire generation of kids, and changed the way we think about games.

Minecraft isn’t a graphical masterpiece, and it’s not, by any stretch of the imagination, a game with an AAA storyline. It’s an experience that remains as relevant today as it did nine years ago – and how many games can say that?

TechRadar’s fourth annual PC Gaming Week is officially here, celebrating our passion with in-depth and exclusive coverage of PC gaming from every angle. Visit our PC Gaming Week 2018 page to see all of the coverage in one place.

You want to get your kids the best games, but how do you know they’re appropriate for their age?

Like movies, every video game released in the UK is given a PEGI age rating. These are 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18 and represent the appropriate age level for the game.

Use these as a guide to determine if a title is suitable for your child, and read reviews from websites such as Common Sense Media. Each boy and girl is different, so if you don’t think a game is suitable for your child, don’t buy it.

Most games consoles like the Nintendo Wii, Xbox One and PS4 have parental controls, which let you keep your children safe by restricting what games can be played and setting time limits. Internet Matters, a not-for profit e-safety organisation has an interactive Parental Controls tool that shows you how to turn these settings on.

We’ve rounded up the best games for all ages and all consoles. Let the games begin!

3+
Paper Mario Colour Splash
Paper Mario Colour Splash game

Step into a world made of paper, where, armed with his trusty paintbrush, Mario has to add some colour to areas that Bowser’s minions have made look drab. Sure to brighten up any day.

Amazon

Nintendo Wii U

Just Dance 2017
Just Dance 2017

With songs from Justin Bieber, Queen, Sean Paul, Major Lazer and more, this rhythm game is sure to get the whole family up and moving. Even Granny.

Amazon

Nintendo Wii

FIFA 17
FIFA 17

The best football game in the world is back. New additions include story mode, which lets you live like a Premiership footballer, and the new Frostbite engine, which makes for a more realistic playing experience.

Game

Xbox One (also available on Xbox 360)

Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure
Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure

Snoopy is on a mission to be reunited with the rest of the Peanuts gang, and it’s up to you to help him. Find the hidden Beagle Scouts and you’ll unlock a special surprise.

Amazon

PlayStation 4

7+
Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Zero

The Lylat system is in danger from an evil empire. It’s up to you to step into the boots of legendary space pilot Fox McCloud and blast through foes in an effort to save the universe. No pressure.

Game

Nintendo Wii U

Planes: Fire and Rescue
Planes: Fire and Rescue

This game is based on Disney’s Planes film, and is just as much fun. It sees you teaming up with Dusty and his friends to extinguish fires across Piston Peak Park.

Amazon

Nintendo Wii

Lego Marvel Avengers
Lego Marvel Avengers

What’s more fun than Marvel’s Avengers family? The Avengers family in Lego form! Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and Thor are all here in brick-based glory. Hours of fun.

Tesco

Xbox One (also available on Xbox 360)

No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky

This game gives you an entire universe to explore. It’s up to you whether you fight, trade, or just go off exploring. A serene sci-fi smash.

Amazon

PlayStation 4

12+
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

Originally released in 2006, this critically acclaimed instalment gets an HD makeover 10 years on. It’s also playable using certain Amiibo figurines.

Amazon

Nintendo Wii U

Brave
Brave game

A flame-haired princess is on a mission to rid the land of an evil taint created by a supernatural bear named Mordu. The slick game mechanics put it a step above the usual film tie-in fare.

£13.84, Amazon

Nintendo Wii

ReCore
Recore

Made by the people behind the legendary game Metroid Prime, ReCore sees you play one of the few remaining humans alive who must team up with robotic pals to save your lives. Hectic stuff.

Game

Xbox One

Knack
Knack

Knack can go from three feet to 30 feet tall using mysterious relics – you’ll need plenty of them if you want to slay the Goblin army and save humanity.

Game

PlayStation 4

[Read more: What is cyberbullying?]

16+
Batman: Arkham Origins
Batman: Arkham Origins

Ever wanted to play as the younger Batman? Now’s your chance in this rip-roaring fighting game. There’s also an arsenal of Batty’s patented gadgets to help you on your way.

Amazon

Nintendo Wii U

Back to the Future
Back to the Future

Six months after the events of the third film, Marty must travel back to 1931 to save his pal Doc. Even if your child is too young to remember the films, this game has plenty to entertain them.

Amazon

Nintendo Wii

[Read more: 12 apps for big and small children]

Destiny – The Collection
Destiny The Collection

With five adventures in one, this collection is unbelievable value, especially if you’re yet to experience the thrills of the Destiny universe. First-person shooters don’t come much better.

Game

Xbox One

Aragami
Aragami

A stealth game with a difference, this sees you having the ability to control shadows. You can also make weapons appear and even summon a shadow dragon. Should help you on your quest.

If your child uses a tablet or console to play games, there’s a good chance they’ll be playing online.

An online game is one where the entire game or some part of it is played over the internet. Online games are played using internet-connected devices such as a smartphone, tablet, console (Xbox or PlayStation) or PC, connecting using wi-fi, or (in the case of a phone or tablet) mobile data.

Online games allow you to play in real-time with people all over the world. So instead of playing against the game, you can play with real people.

According to Ofcom, 76% of children aged 12-15 and 62% of children aged 8-11 play games online. Perhaps more worrying for parents is that a quarter of 12-15-year-olds have played games online with one or more people they have not met in person.

Research from Ditch The Label, found that 57% of the 2500 12-25 year olds questioned have been bullied online. Read more about Cyberbullying.

How does online gaming work?
Games consoles such as the Xbox and the PlayStation have huge online communities – called Xbox Live and PlayStation Network respectively – where gamers can play against each other and communicate through headsets.

The majority of modern games have an online mode of some description and some games are famous for their online modes, such as the Call of Duty first-person shooter series. In November 2015, fans of Call of Duty: Black Ops III racked up 75 million hours online within just three days of its launch.

Facebook has a thriving online gaming community which allows you to invite others to play games such as Farmville and Candy Crush by sending an invitation.

With over 100 million players worldwide, World of Warcraft is a hugely popular PC role-playing game (RPG) where gamers pick characters and meet others in a virtual world.

Another popular online game is Minecraft, which has over 100 million users on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Android and iOS versions.

Internet Matters, a not for profit organisation dedication to providing information to keep children safe online has lots of useful facts about different types of online gaming, check it out here.

Risks of online gaming
Playing games online can be great fun for your child, but as a parent it’s worth being aware of the potential risks:

1. Bullying: When your child plays a game online, they may play with people they don’t know. These people could call your child names, bullying them or ‘griefing’, which is when bullying tactics are used to win games.

2. Inappropriate content: If your child plays with older children they may encounter swearing or talk about subjects they don’t understand and find upsetting.

Many online games include adult themes such as war and death, swearing and sexual content that won’t be suitable for every child.

3. Grooming: The anonymity of the internet allows people to hide behind fake identities. Your child may think they are playing with someone who is not who they say they are. Adults may try to develop a relationship with a child through online gaming that could have dangerous consequences. Incidences like this are fortunately rare.

4. Hidden costs: Some online games are free to play, but developers encouraging players to pay to upgrade weapons or skip levels.

Upgrades can range from a few pence to hundreds of pounds. Within the mobile app Smurfs Village, for instance, ‘A Barrell of Smurfberries’ costs nearly £24; if you child buys it accidentally, you’ll get the bill.

Tips to ensure your child is online gaming safety
Online gaming can help your child to learn, explore and develop creative skills and if you follow these simple tips you can help them do this safely.

1. Check game ratings: Games are given a Pan European Gaming Information (PEGI) rating that will give you some indication of the suitability of a game for your child.

Eight areas – drugs, fear, discrimination, bad language, gambling, sex, violence, and online gameplay with other people – are considered to produce age ratings of 3, 7, 12, 16 or 18. Find out more about what the games ratings mean.

Use these ratings to make an informed choice about whether a game is suitable for your child. Remember the ages are a guide, you know your son or daughter better than anyone, if they are old enough, but sensitive, the game might not be suitable.

2. Talk to your child: Communicate with your son or daughter about potential dangers online so that they understand the risks. Find out what they play online and who they talk to.

If you ban a game, talk to your child about why you don’t think it’s suitable so they understand your reasoning.

3. Set restrictions: Decide how long your child is allowed to play online in a day or a week. If you have a younger child, consider letting them play in the front room rather in their bedroom so you can keep an eye on what they are playing.

4. Keep information private: Encourage your child not to give out personal details, such as their email, date of birth and address that could be used to locate them.

Make sure they use a gamer name that doesn’t give too much information away, for instance OrangeGremlin is a safer name than Matthew95Bristol.

Encourage them to remain friends with other players only within the game, and not on other social networks like Facebook or Instagram.

5. Parental controls: Most gadgets have parental controls designed to help you restrict the type of content your child can access.

BT Broadband customers can activate BT Parental Controls, which lets you set filters to block certain topics. Once activated they cover all devices connected to your Home Hub and if you use the BT Wi-fi app. Find out more.

6. Report abuse: If your child encounters bully or abuse online, don’t be afraid to report the perpetrators.

Read more about reporting abuse on Xbox Live.
Read more about reporting abuse on the PlayStation Network.
7. Turn off the internet connection: Stop younger children going online and accidentally spending money by turning on flight mode on smartphones and tablets.

Apple allows you to turn off in-app purchases for iPads and iPhones, find out more.
Google lets you add a PIN code that needs to be applied when buying digital content, find out more.
8. Join in: You might feel that your gaming years are long gone, but the best way to find out what your child is up to is to play along with them. They are probably keen to show you what they are doing (and possibly beat you!) and you’ll have a greater understanding of what they are up to and how the device or game they are using works.

Nintendo and Microsoft have teamed up for a Minecraft commercial that seemed strangely historic for those of us who grew up thinking about console generations as a series of figurative wars. Both consoles were highlighted, both company’s logos were on the screen and the hook was the ability to play the same game across two consoles or using a gaming PC.

Sony was, of course, not involved with any of this. The company doesn’t support cross-platform play between consoles, and limits the use of Fortnite accounts on other platforms if they’ve ever been used on the PlayStation 4. In the case of Minecraft, Sony’s excuse from 2017 was that cross-platform support would make PlayStation 4 players less safe, a claim that Microsoft’s Phil Spencer rejected out of hand.

But it might be as simple as an economic issue.

“BTW when I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money,” industry veteran John Smedley tweeted. “They didn’t like someone buying something on an Xbox and it being used on a Playstation. Simple as that. Dumb reason, but there it is.” Smedley used to be the president of Daybreak Game Company, which was once called Sony Online Entertainment. He’s now the general manager of Amazon Game Studios. The tweet has since been deleted.

This is the explanation that actually makes the most sense, and we can see the account issue come up in the FAQ section of today’s Minecraft blog post talking about the release of the “Better Together” update for Minecraft on the Nintendo Switch:

Q: What’s a Microsoft Account and why do I need it for a Nintendo Switch?

A: A Microsoft Account is a free account you can sign-in on device that allows Minecraft players on Switch to play with others on non-Nintendo devices like iOS, Android, Xbox One and Windows 10 via cross-play, Realms or Servers. Having a Microsoft Account also enables the portability of your MINECOINS and marketplace purchases to other devices and platforms. To create an account click here.

The game industry is turning into a business of accounts, not hardware, and you can guess how enthusiastic Sony must be about the idea of someone logging into a Microsoft account from the PlayStation 4.

But outside of the terminology, it’s the last part of the description that has to stick in Sony’s craw: The use of the Microsoft account is what allows someone to give Microsoft money for in-game items, and then bring those items onto other platforms. Sony only gets a cut of the revenue if these purchases are made on its platform, which is why this is a topic it’s willing to be so stubborn about.

And this is likely what Sony is afraid of in the grand scheme of things. Imagine a world where game accounts move from hardware to hardware willy nilly, and purchases made on one platform were accessible everywhere. Where’s the profit for the platform holders? If you buy all your content for a free-to-play game on another platform and use that content on the PlayStation 4, the hardware just becomes a conduit through which you play games you paid for on other platforms.

The play part of cross-platform play is the least important aspect of this issue for Sony. The important issue is the use of third-party accounts to purchase things away from Sony hardware, and then using them on Sony’s platform.

So why don’t Microsoft and Nintendo care? My guess is that Nintendo is Nintendo, a company that has already played by its own rules and has ridden that sense of adventure directly into huge profits, and Microsoft is currently way behind Sony in the console business, and this is a way to bring attention to something the Xbox can do that Sony refuses to match on the PlayStation 4.

But if Sony lets Minecraft purchases from Microsoft come onto the PlayStation 4, and it lets purchases from Epic Games come onto the PlayStation 4 through the accounts tied to other games and companies, it’s not going to be able to deny anyone else, which means that Sony would lost the ability to guarantee itself a heavy cut of all the virtual currency and in-game items being sold for those games.

That’s the nightmare Sony is worried about, and that’s why it’s been so unwilling to budge. The question is how much pain the company is willing to endure before it decides the lost profit is worth the positive press and player contentment.

With the Electronic Entertainment Expo kicking off Tuesday in Los Angeles, Facebook shared new data related to how its users are talking about the video game convention on both Facebook and Instagram.

Over the past seven days, 17 million Facebook users made 55 million posts, likes and comments related to E3, as well as the major games and companies at the show. Of these users, 61 percent were men and 39 percent were women. In addition, 33 percent of users were between 25 and 34 years old.

On Facebook, the top five countries talking about E3 and the major games and brands over the past seven days were:

U.S.
U.K.
Australia
Brazil
Canada
The most-talked-about video-game publishers on Facebook from June 9 through 11 were:

Sony
Microsoft
Nintendo
Bethesda
Ubisoft
The most-talked-about games on Facebook during that period were:

Minecraft
Kingdom Hearts
The Legend of Zelda
Resident Evil
Super Mario
Fallout
Fortnite
Call of Duty
EA FIFA
The Elder Scrolls
Altogether, the most discussed female video-game characters on Facebook over the past seven days were:

Princess Zelda
Lara Croft
Bayonetta
Aya Brea from Parasite Eve
Cortana from Halo
Finally, the top gaming-related Facebook video (in terms of video views) over the past seven days was the official reveal trailer for Electronic Arts’ FIFA 19.

Over on Instagram, 17 million users had “around” 46 million interactions surrounding the E3 press conferences, video-game consoles, video-game titles and other related terms over the past seven days.

On Instagram, the top video-game-related hashtags from the past seven days were:

#ps4
#xbox
#fortnite
#gaming
#gamer
The “most-buzzed-about” games on Instagram over the past seven days were:

Fortnite
Minecraft
Call of Duty
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (also called PUBG)
Super Mario
In a statement, Franco De Cesare, director of console and online gaming at Facebook, said, “Every E3, we see people come to Facebook to connect around the games and publishers they love—and this year is no exception. We’ve seen this community of gamers continue to grow and evolve each year, with women and female characters entering a growing portion of the conversation. For the first time, we’re also excited to share the gaming conversation on Instagram, where gamers bring the same passion for the games they love as they always have on Facebook.”

Amino, a social networking platform founded by two entrepreneurs who graduated from Northeastern University, has raised $45 million during its third round of financing.

Amino centers on smartphone apps that connect users who share an interest in topics that appeal to relatively small groups of people, including Pokémon, Minecraft, and Dr. Who.

“We are trying to connect the world through people’s passions,” said Ben Anderson, the co-founder and CEO of Amino. “We want to create an engaged community for every interest in the world.”

Amino apps have been down­loaded tens of millions of times by users in more than 100 countries, Anderson said. He said the average user spends 70 minutes per day on the platform—almost as much as Snapchat and Facebook combined.

“Most investors have never seen anything like this,” said Anderson, who graduated from Northeastern in 2012 with a degree in music. “It’s a massive opportunity and the users love it.”

Amino plans to use the new funding to improve the platform’s voice and video chat features, Anderson said. “We want to bring real-time connections to life even more.”

The app is available in seven languages—English, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French, and Portuguese—a testimony to its global appeal. “We are reminded every day that what we are building applies to cultures all over the world,” Anderson said.

Ben Anderson, left, and Yin Wang co-founded Amino in 2011. Photo by Meryl Natow/Amino

One of Amino’s most popular features is the “Amino Creator,” which enables users to custom-design communities of their own. Three such communities have more than 1 million members, including a community dedicated to pop music from South Korea.

Anderson acknowledged Northeastern for helping him shape Amino into a social networking platform that appeals to a global audience. IDEA, Northeastern’s student-run venture accelerator, awarded him $20,000 in gap funding, connected him with an accoun­tant, and perfected his business plan.

“Honing a business plan forced me to think about where I saw Amino going,” said Anderson, who was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Class of 2017, a list com­prising 600 of the nation’s brightest young people. “For a young founder, that guidance was invaluable and helped me to avoid unnecessary pitfalls.”

Amino has raised more than $72 million since 2014. Marc Meyer, the co-director of Northeastern’s Center for Entrepreneurship Education, said that Amino has raised more venture capital than any other IDEA venture.

“Amino,” he said, “is highly innovative.”

Anderson said Amino does not make money. But he and co-founder Yin Wang are planning to build tools that would allow community curators to sell digital goods to users while taking a cut of the revenue for themselves.

“We’re really excited because we want to create a community for every interest in the world,” Anderson said. “We’re getting closer to that as times goes on.”

The official Nintendo UK Store now has the physical edition of Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch available for pre-order. The incredibly popular sandbox title will be available for purchase on 21st June and will cost you £24.99. Here’s the details:

Minecraft is a game about placing blocks and going on adventures. Explore randomly-generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles.

This Bedrock version of the game contains all the great previously released content, including the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack exclusive to Nintendo systems and all DLC, but now allows players to connect with friends on non-Nintendo systems via cross-platform play.

Even if Sony has started to mention new information about the company’s future PlayStation 5, it seems that they are not done with PlayStation 4 either. It is still going strong and consumers don’t feel the need for a new hardware or consider the platform out-dated. So, the discussions about Sony’s products are either focused on the future PlayStation 5 or on keeping the PlayStation 4 on the market for longer.

Sony is almost as important as Nintendo, a position which will enable the company to gain even more market share in the future but it shouldn’t be distracted by using more resources for one console than the other.

The PlayStation 4’s popularity
In 2018, PS4 will be on the market for five years. Sony may follow the PlayStation 3’s trend of lasting over seven years and go even further to confirm that it will last for three years or more, breaking the company’s record of such a lasting presence. Its lifespan may have been extended, but fans need to know what a future PlayStation will bring to the table. The company will consolidate the PlayStation 4 in order to catch the consumers’ attention and raise brand awareness for its next console.

The shift from the SNES-era systems to the PlayStation and from the PlayStation to the PlayStation 2 made Sony what it is today. The PS4 has introduced the 4K gaming together with Xbox One games but it seems that it would remain the last “traditional” console generation after the PlayStation 5 will be launched. However, the technological advancement will be a subtle one, making it easy to understand that consumers are really satisfied with the PS4.

The future PlayStation 5
Sony’s console will be the closest thing to a cutting-edge successor, leaving the days of testing proprietary hardware and Emotion Engine far behind. Whatever configuration of hardware Sony will use, it will look almost as a linear evolution of the PS4. The PS5 is expected to perfectly run your digital library of PS4 games, depending on the Blu-Ray drive. Since losing an entire library of digital games would be a great drive not to switch to a different platform, it would additionally lock consumers into their console choice.

Sony hasn’t made all the decision regarding the PlayStation 4 yet but it would be surprising if the company hadn’t already tried PS5 prototypes with a hybrid home console model for Switch or even with an eGPU for a portable device. However, in such cases, the hardware would likely be compatible with the PS4. The next console model will certainly have an upgraded hardware for the first time in Sony’s platforms.

When it comes to mobile games, there aren’t that many titles which can even compare with Clash of Clans. The developer who is in charge of Clash of Clans is constantly rolling out new updates which are filled with lots of in-game goodies such as new features, rewards and even content! In fact, a brand-new Clash of Clans update which changes the game’s version number to “10.134.17” is now available.

Clash of Clans 10.134.17 Update

The new update measures in at 98.6MB and it requires a minimum of Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system in order to work. As you can probably tell already, the new update is exclusive to Android smartphone owners and iOS fans will need to wait a little more until it becomes available for them too.

Bug Fixes and Software Improvements

Android fans should be happy to know that they are going to get their hands on this update ahead of everyone else because it comes with bug fixes and software improvements. While most people don’t pay that much attention to bug fixes and software improvements, they are the ones which make sure that Clash of Clans runs without any issues and that it never randomly crashes in the middle of combat.

Highlight Features

Now that we talked about the latest Clash of Clans update, let’s check out some of the game’s highlight features and see what it’s all about. First off, the game is free to play but readers shouldn’t think that the game is not of premium quality because of this.

Clash of Clans offers an awesome gaming experience where people get to build their own villages and then slowly, but surely transform them into unbeatable fortresses. In addition, Clash of Clans features different mods where players can fight against their foes and take their trophies.

Supercell announced that Clash Royale is scheduled to receive a major update on June 5th, 2018. The game developer has made it a tradition to release massive updates during summer time and to make things even better, the new Clash Royale update will focus on adding more features, gameplay changes and to balance classes. With that being said, let’s check out what are the most important changes that the new update will bring.

Four New Cards

Even though Supercell doesn’t want to unveil any important details about the upcoming update, the Clash Royale community has strong reason to believe that four new cards are going to be introduced in June. In addition, dataminers managed to find some hints which point towards these new cards.

Clan War

Talking about balancing the game, Supercell is expected to add some important software tweaks to the Clan Wars game inside Clash Royale. The last time Clan Wars received an update was back in April and rumor has it that the game developer is looking to fix tie games and to give players more incentive to mix in different troops in order to create a diverse war deck.

Funny Emotes

If we take a look at what the Clash Royale community has to say about emotes, we will see that they are both hated and loved. Some people love them because they make it easier to express themselves while others hate emojis because trolls spam them in the chat and this can get annoying. Nonetheless, Supercell wants to expand the range of emojis Clash Royale offers and fans should be ready to see more funny emojis in the summer.

New Troops

Last but not least, a previously leaked picture showed that Supercell plans to introduce a new Elite Archer troop. The special thing about this troop is that it uses a crossbow, and this might make it more powerful than the normal Archer class that we all know and love.

Whether you are a beginner or a professional player, the essence is advice on strategy. You don’t have to be a new player to learn, nor do you have to be an expert and to know everything. Crashing your enemies on your next mission will be easier with these quick Clash of Clans tips, so the battlefield may be perfect.

Choose wise targets
When you go to attack, it’s very important to ask for as little resources as possible and to steal as many as possible in Clash of Clans. Theoretically, this would be possible to accomplish relatively comfortably with a few hordes of archers, barbarians and goblins. Practically, it becomes very difficult because of mortars, the most dangerous “splash” type of defensive that ravages in the hijacking hordes. The secret is that using Lightning Spell with 4+ upgrades, you can easily escape from level 4-5 mortars, providing a break in the direction of attack of predator hordes. The success of a farming raid is much more likely in this case, with minimal consumption of resources.

2. A strong army camp is a key
In general, you have a whole day before the war begins. During this waiting period, learn the battlefield, arrange the army and upgrade your air defense. If the walls are low, go for the battlefields. Pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of the target group before launching an attack.

3. Understand the idea of losing
Probably you’ve met many players in the game who have the Town Hall exposed, unprotected by walls or other defensive means. You have probably thought that there is no reasonable reason to leave Town Hall exposed to vandals, especially since, if it is destroyed, the struggle is lost. Wrong. This is a smart way of losing and fast moving into the game.

There are several reasons, but most importantly, whenever someone attacks you and destroys you, you will get at least one shield for 12 hours. In this way, regardless of the value of the attack you receive, you assure a relatively permanent shield, which in fact leads to the protection of the production of resources (elixir, gold), thus to development. Use this to create your advantage. Surround the Town Hall with traps (bombs, hoods, and tesla), discouraging the attack plan from the start.

GTA 5 has been a standout amongst the best games ever, and now, the same (or considerably more) is anticipated from its successor, the GTA 6. It is relied upon to be unique in relation to the past adaptations from multiple points of view, and ideally, it will satisfy the monstrous desires that have been developed by the past titles.

A standout amongst the most anticipated and expected changes in the Grand Theft Auto 6 is the introduction of a female hero as opposed to the typical all solid male saints in the course of the last five titles, like the trio formed of Franklin, Trevor and Michael from GTA 5, Carl “CJ” Johnson from GTA San Andreas or Niko from GTA 4.

We’ll get a strong female character
Rockstar hasn’t presented any strong female character since Catalina from GTA 3. Likewise, the engineer has been criticized for a sexist demeanor towards the female characters, on account of the strip clubs and whores in its games. Along these lines, the time has come for Rockstar changes course by demonstrating the world how well it can put a strong female character in the game. What’s more, there is no better method to answer the sceptics by presenting a female lead in the GTA 6.

Further, there have been gossipy tidbits that Vice City would be back in the GTA 6. The thought is certainly engaging. The GTA arrangement has been running for as long as 21 years, and returning to where everything began isn’t an awful thought with some corrective changes and distinctive condition. With Vice City back in the game, GTA would likewise get the chance to pivot the whole establishment, offering another series and more interest to the present generation.

Clash of Clans was originally launched in 2012 and the game has managed to keep its popularity along the years. The thing that keeps players coming back for more even after so many years is the fact that Supercell, the game’s developer, keeps releasing updates that include new content, features and software tweaks.

Clash of Clans Town Hall 12

The Clash of Clans community has been speculating that the next update Supercell is going to launch will introduce the highly anticipated Town Hall 12 and to everyone’s surprise, it seems like the community was right! Supercell recently published a short video teaser on YouTube where it announced that players should be ready to receive Town Hall 12.

Weaponized Town Hall

While the details about the new town hall are scarce, we do know that it’s going to be the first weaponized Town Hall in the game. In fact, the video teaser starts with the announcer saying that the town hall has always been a place of peace, but not anymore.

Electricity Defense System

Supercell has been doing a great job of keeping details about the new Town Hall a secret so that it can use the element of surprise when the official update is rolled out to everyone. However, this isn’t stopping the community from speculating about how the new town hall will be able to attack enemies.

The main theory is that Town Hall 12 will feature a special electricity defense system which will throw out splash damage. This is great news for Clash of Clans fans because it means that their new Town Hall will be able to destroy standard units such as Barbarians and Archers.

Changed Aesthetics

Lastly, the coolest thing about the new Town Hall is the fact that it changes aesthetics as players progress through the game. We know from a leak that there will be five levels of the Town Hall and that all of them will look amazing.

Amazon has the Piper Minecraft Raspberry Pi Computer Kit on sale for $213.03, which is the lowest this has been all year. It typically would run you almost $300.

With this kit, your child can solve puzzles in the Raspberry Pi edition of Minecraft by building their very own computer from start to finish. Once that’s done, they can keep building power-ups within the game by using physical controls, switches, buttons, and lights. It’s perfect for kids ages 7 to 13.

This kit rocks because it combines the technology and fun that children love with hands-on learning, which is not something that can often be said when it comes to hours of watching YouTube Kids or Spongebob. It introduces them to coding, programming, and building in a way that keeps their attention and focus. One reviewer said, “My son hates school and says he hates to learn. But he LOVES his PIPER and doesn’t realize how much he is learning.”

Remember when you used to tear the remote apart, and then put it back together, just to see how it worked? This kit is kind of like that, but your kids will be guided through the whole process with step-by-step instructions. It comes with a handcrafted wooden computer case with HD LCD display, a functioning computer running on a Raspberry Pi 3 project board, a ton of electronic gadgets like buzzers and lights, cables, a laminated blueprint with assembly instructions, a USB mouse, an 8GB SD card, and a custom Raspberry Pi Edition of Minecraft. It’s Wi-Fi enabled and has free automatic level updates as well.

It has been announced that Minecraft Bedrock will be released for Nintendo Switch in June. According to Mojang, with this update the company will address all the existing issues.

Multiple platforms, one codebase
First of all, the Bedrock update will make it easier for future updates to be implemented on all platforms at more or less the same time. This is extremely important because so far every platform had to get its own version of Minecraft, each with a unique codebase. Because of this, it was much harder for Mojang to release updates, as every platform required a separate update for the game.

Improved Cross-Play
Secondly, different versions of Minecraft created for different platforms meant that cross-play between players that were not using the same platform was much more complicated. The Bedrock update will use just one codebase, thus making it possible for gamers to play with each other using distinct consoles. However, not all platforms will be included in this unification. As usual, Sony wants to stay away from the others, so cross-play between PlayStation and other platforms will be impossible.

One update for all platforms
The Bedrock update of Minecraft will not only improve compatibility between different consoles, but it will also allow for any future updates to be released on all platforms, at pretty much the same time.

Also, the Minecraft Marketplace will become available for Switch users. With this feature, they will gain access to additional content created by other users, such as skins, textures and even entire worlds. Additionally, you’ll be offered some mini-games through the community servers.

The Bedrock update will be available for you at no cost at all in case you already have Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition. If not, you can purchase it from the Nintendo shop online or you can buy a physical copy. You can get your own copy for approximately $30, starting with June 21st.