The launch of the Nintendo Switch is, in many ways, the opposite of the Wii U's launch. Nintendo poured a lot of money and effort into marketing the Switch, it hit the shelves with a critically acclaimed must-have game from a beloved property, and the system boasts a simple but extremely practical gimmick (an easy switch between TV play and portable play).
Nintendo recently pulled another smart move: It made dang sure the Switch received a port of Minecraft ASAP – pre-loaded with the exclusive Super Mario Mash-Up Pack, no less. Minecraft still commands kids' attention, to say nothing of their pocket money (or their parents' money). Like Pokémon, count on it being around for the long haul.
Nintendo's rush to bring Minecraft to the Switch demonstrates the company can learn from its mistakes. The company pooh-poohed Minecraft until the tail-end of 2015, when the Wii U edition of Minecraft landed on the troubled system and instantly became one of its top-selling titles, especially in Japan. Minecraft on the Nintendo Switch can only help bolster the system's sales in a big way, even though its numbers are already kind of bananas.
Like USgamer's own Mike Williams, I'm a bit of a Minecraft fan. I'm not as rabid over Mojang's boxy world as the average ten-year-old, but I can easily get lost in hours of mining, farming, and adventuring. Minecraft on the Switch is a big deal for me, because I'm ever-curious about which version of the game can offer me the best experience.
Mike's review of Minecraft: Switch Edition breaks down the differences between the PC version of the game, the portable versions of the game (i.e. the iOS and Android version), the console versions, and the Nintendo Switch version.
Here, I list my own quick breakdowns of each Minecraft format (excluding the Wii U and the Vita, because both are dead in the water). I also pick my favorite, and offer up my reason for the choice.
Hopefully this guide will help you pick the version that's right for you, too!
PICTURED: Fresh, unspoiled land begging for a destructive hand.
Minecraft for the PC
Pros:
By far the most robust version of Minecraft. It's been around forever, and its online community is huge.
It runs on pretty much any PC (put that 486 away, you know what I mean).
Its worlds are infinite.
It supports tons of mods and add-on features.
Can't beat a keyboard and a mouse control setup, though I suppose it depends on whom you ask.
It's as portable as Minecraft gets. Wherever your phone or tablet exists, there's Minecraft.
Its worlds are infinite.
It supports add-ons.
It supports mods, though installing them can be tricky if you don't know what you're doing (especially on iOS).
There are online multiplayer options.
It's cheap ($6.99 USD, and often on sale)!
Cons:
Its touch-based controls are clumsy compared to other options.
Performance varies depending on your device, especially if you're using an Android device.
Every edition of Minecraft is the “Punch Trees” edition.
Console Editions (Xbox One, PlayStation 4)
Pros:
World size is finite, but you can choose between three pre-set sizes. This can help keep you from getting lost.
Local co-op play for up to four players (split screen).
There are online multiplayer options.
Add-ons are supported.
Cons:
Uses a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. Not the worst thing if you're a console gamer, but people used to PC game controls might have a hard time.
Mod support is spotty at best. It's possible on the Xbox One if you employ some wizardry via Windows 10, but not really possible on the PlayStation 4.
Not exactly portable.
“ALL HAIL MARIO. MARIO IS LIFE.”
Minecraft: Switch Edition
Pros:
Comes pre-loaded with the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack.
Supports other add-ons.
Local co-op play for up to four players (split screen).
Lets you select items in your inventory with the touch screen if you're playing in handheld mode (no drag-and-drop, though).
Using controllers in handheld mode keeps your fingers off the screen and gives you a better range of vision.
Switch between portable and TV mode instantly. Game looks great in both modes, though there is a bit of pop-in if you fly up high.
Cons:
Online multiplayer options are bare-bones (see Mike's review for more info)
No mod support.
Locked into a “Medium” game world size (3072 x 3072 blocks).
Local players each require their own set of Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller; no single Joy-Con support.
Costs more than other console editions of Minecraft ($29.99 USD vs $19.99 USD).
No Homers Club.
So which is the best version of Minecraft?
For the complete experience – easily accessible mods, frequent updates, well-rounded control options, and a robust online community – PC is your best bet.
The Nintendo Switch edition of Minecraft comes in at a close second. I'll echo Mike in calling it the best portable version of Minecraft, though there are a couple of caveats.
For one thing, local split-screen Minecraft is a lot of fun, but the Switch version's inability to support individual Joy-Cons is disappointing. For another thing, the Switch version's flaccid online multiplayer capabilities are a bummer. That could change in the future, but at the time of this writing, we don't know if or when it'll happen.
That said, I value Minecraft more as a relaxing experience rather than a communicative one. And there's nothing more relaxing than playing Minecraft wherever you like with a solid control set-up that combines a touch screen with traditional controllers.
If you're part of a household that has a mix of old and young Minecraft fans, Minecraft for the Switch is also a safe purchase. Your family will have a blast playing together locally, and the fun can go portable in an instant if someone needs the TV. Just make sure you have an extra set of Joy-Cons on-hand, and / or a Pro Controller.
If, however, you have a kid who wants to play Minecraft because all his friends are playing it online, and if you're not especially interested in joining in, go ahead and nab the PC version.
Nintendo just pushed the Version 4.0.0 update for the Nintendo Switch. The new update adds—among other things—the ability to transfer profiles and save data to another system along with video capture for certain games. Two features oft-requested by the Nintendo community.
The Nintendo Switch 4.0.0 update comes with a variety of new features and improvements including:
Video capture for select games
New profile icons from games like Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The ability to transfer profiles and save data to another Nintendo Switch system
Pre-purchase options for select games on the Nintendo eShop
Video capture and data transfer are notable inclusions in the update given how popular these features are in other systems like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. So far the “select games” available for video capture are The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, ARMS, Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon 2.
To capture video, simply hold down the capture button during gameplay. Players can trim the beginning and end of any given clip and post them to social media like, Twitter and Facebook.
You can download the update right now by connecting your Switch to the internet and finding the “update” option in the system's settings menu.
Update: The post has been changed to reflect additional details regarding video capture on the Nintendo Switch.
Minecraft is expanding in a big way. No longer will the massively popular construction game be fractured along console and platform lines. Thanks to the newly announced Bedrock Engine update, Minecraft will be connected across all platforms (except PlayStation), with more features so that Minecraft, just Minecraft, will be your one stop shop for everything you love about the game. Oh, and did you see how gorgeous it looks in 4K?
In a press preview for Minecraft's Bedrock Engine, Microsoft descriped the update as a future facing, unifying update that will prove Minecraft is “better together.” The impression I got however, was that Minecraft was making a big move towards evolving from a game, into a “creative platform.”
What the Bedrock update means is that edition names are gone, because there are no more editions. The Minecraft you buy on the Switch will be the same you buy on the Xbox which will be the same you buy on mobile. All the DLC you've ever bought on any version of Minecraft (sans PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U) will jump with you across a shared account. It's not perfect yet, some DLC will encounter issues jumping from one console to another, but Microsoft is hard at work ironing out those issues.
Until the update, Minecraft fans have created individual marketplaces and servers to branch out their creative dreams. Not so with the update which will incorporate server experiences into the core game. These servers and realms can be discovered in game, which the developers are very excited about, primarily with the idea of bringing fanmade experiences into the core game. To help with the transition, Minecraft incorporated some of the most popular private servers like Lifeboat into the proper game.
Finally, Minecraft will add a 4K visual update in preperation for the Xbox One X's new graphical powers.
I have some reservations that Minecraft is soldifying a grip on the creative works of others, but it seems that both private Minecraft developers and the Minecraft team have come into a mutual agreement, and the chance for casual players to discover these new servers naturally in the course of just playing the base game is good for exposure. At launch, popular servers like Lifeboat, Mineplex, and ILVL PVP will be featured, with Minecraft reaching out to more private servers in the future. Minecraft is also expanding multiplayer teams from five to seven to help facilitate this new focus on interconnected play. In addition, there is an open application process for independent developers who feel that their servers will be a good fit for Minecraft.
Along with the Minecraft encyclopedia which will be included into the core game, this move sounds like a big assimilation for the game. Soon, Minecraft, the game itself, will be the only service you need to have access to literally all things Minecraft.
While that sounds like a natural conclusion, Minecraft's decentralized growth means that this is actually a pretty big deal. And while I'd hate to see the unofficial Minecraft weaken as a result of the Bedrock update, it is very interesting to see Minecraft essentially become a creative platform unto itself, something that has the potential for even further growth if need be.
Time will tell if the update's centralizing move ends up growing the game to even bigger heights than it is already. The Bedrock update hits this Summer.
Back in September, Microsoft and Mojang launched the Better Together update for Minecraft on Windows 10, Xbox One, iOS, and Android. This update allowed players on those devices to play together and access the Marketplace on any of those platforms.
The new Better Together versions of Minecraft are known collectively as the Bedrock Edition. The Bedrock games avoid the “___ Edition” naming scheme on their respective platforms, being just “Minecraft” instead of “Minecraft: Pocket Edition” or “Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition”. This is the new foundation and codebase Mojang wants to build upon, hence the name.
In the case of Minecraft on Xbox One, if you purchase the game now on the Xbox Store, it's the Bedrock Edition, called “Minecraft”. If you had the previous Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, you get the new version for free, but the old one remains installed on your console. This allows players to switch back and forth between both versions and players are finding they prefer the old Xbox One Edition.
If you go to the Microsoft Store page for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, the game is rated at 4.5 stars out of 5 with 111,000 reviews. In contrast, the new Minecraft entry is rated at 2.5 stars out of 5, with 5,634 reviews as of this writing.
“The Xbox One Edition was designed for Xbox, this version is literally a port from PC. The creative inventory is a disarray and difficult to navigate, placing blocks is much slower as being precise is terribly difficult. The graphics are a disgrace, the game crashes every 30 mins, everything is laggy,” said one review. (Edited for spelling and formatting.) 1
“The new crafting and inventory menus are quite cumbersome and seem rushed. It now takes easily twice as long to perform trivial tasks like swapping items in these menus in creative mode. The previous setup was much more streamlined and easier to use,” added another review.
“I played this version in beta and it was not ready for a public release. There are numerous problems that went unaddressed or were flat out ignored. To list a few: Frame rate is extremely unstable and drops considerable. This version is not optimized for redstone and more complicated devices produce massive amounts of lag,” said one review from last month.
The previous Minecraft editions were customized for their specific platforms by 4J Studios, who no longer seem to be involved in the new versions. They took into account the technology behind each console or device, and tailored the releases to those platforms.
Players are saying that the Bedrock Edition represents a step back. There are lost features like large biomes, some players dislike the new UI and Creative mode controls, there are reported frame rate issues, lag, and crashes that didn't occur in previous editions, and some players can't even convert their worlds over to the new version. One of the top requests on the Minecraft support site is for a console UI for the Bedrock Editions on Xbox One.
Players on Xbox One have gone around the problem by simply playing the old Xbox One Edition, but Mojang isn't updating that version anymore. If players want new features, they'll need to upgrade eventually. Currently, the Nintendo Switch version is supposed to join the Better Together party at a later date, but some Switch players are hoping that update can be pushed down the line until the Bedrock codebase has seen some fixes. Hopefully, Mojang and Microsoft keep plugging away at the new unified Minecraft, because players aren't happy.
Not only is Minecraft one of the most popular games on the planet, but the block-based building game has also been used to teach more than 85 million students basic coding concepts and computer science.
Code.org, a computer science teaching initiative partnered up with Microsoft and Minecraft back in 2015 as one of the earliest adopters of using Minecraft as a teaching tool in classrooms.
Minecraft has been a part of three different Hour of Code teaching initiatives and quickly became one of the most popular activities, no doubt because students were already familiar with the game, or if this was their first encounter with Minecraft, fell in love with its easy to pick up mechanics.
Code.org cites Minecraft‘s “vast virtual world” and “just enough structure in its uniform blocks and limited types” to help promote teaching of basic computer science concepts, but also algebra, chemistry, or this writer's own field, history.
One Maine elementary school teacher, Mike Harvey, uses Minecraft in his own Code.org curriculum and praises the game's “recognizable characters, elements, and event sounds” as attractive ways to get students interested in coding.
Coding has become one of the most popular extracurricular activities in schools, with many districts opting to add full-time, or mandatory coding requirements into its everyday curriculum. And while AP Computer Science programs don't need to be the ultimate goal here, getting elementary school level kids interested in coding will hopefully set them up for a future in the widely expanding coding market in the future.
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Minecraft is the juggernaut of kid gaming, backed by Microsoft and boasting nearly 144 million lifetime sales. A new study by Interpret confirms that Minecraft is still the most-played game among kids in the US, currently being played by over a quarter of gamers age 6-12. However, the title seems to have lost some steam recently. GameByte—an annual study of kids’ gaming habits and preferences—has tracked Minecraft playership since 2012, and the results of this year’s study show the first drops in active playership ever. Minecraft’s share of all gaming time by kids age 6-12 has dropped 5% since last year, although it still commands a hefty 13% of total game time.
A new study by Interpret confirms that Minecraft is still the most-played game among kids in the US.
These changes are small, but the dip into negative trending should worry fans of the game. One possible explanation is the recent rise of Roblox, a mod-friendly title that borrows Minecraft’s ethos of building and playing anything. Roblox still lags behind Minecraft (the study ranks it as the #2 kids game in the US by active playership), but its gains over the past 12 months are significant. Since last year’s study, Roblox’s active kid playership has more than doubled on both PC and console.
One thing that Minecraft and Roblox share is their ability to monopolize play time. Over one third of Roblox and Minecraft players report playing other games less because of these titles. This “one-game” phenomenon affects toys as well, causing a similar proportion of Roblox and Minecraft to play less with physical toys. “These players’ dedication to their game and the screen-time monopoly of these titles are having a big impact on their consumption of other games and toys,” noted Michael Cai, President of Interpret. “This means that game and toy makers not only have to contend with Minecraft, but also with Roblox, a rising star that may become its own juggernaut in time.”
GameByte is an annual, comprehensive survey of kids’ gaming behaviors and preferences in the US. For more information, please contact Diane LightWaight at diane.lightwaight@interpret.la or 323.794.3891.
Interpret is a full service market research firm focused on media, entertainment, and technology.
.jpg)
![Nintendo Switch Update 4.0.0 Lets You Transfer Your Saves to Another System [Update]](https://www.stonemarshall.com/wp-content/uploads/minecraft-332.jpg)
