Well, the day we have all been waiting for is almost here! The Minecraft Bedrock update is nearly upon us. Microsoft announced this week that the Minecraft Bedrock update will hit Nintendo Switch consoles June 21st, 2018! I’ve been getting a lot of questions, both from my co-hosts and from listeners alike. And that’s what I’m hear today to do: Answer some of the most common questions that y’all have been asking about the Minecraft Bedrock update.
I guess the best place to start is by answering the big question. What is the Minecraft Bedrock Update? Seems like an easy question, right? Well, not quite. There are many editions of Minecraft. And the edition you are playing will actually give you more information than you realize. At the time of writing, there are multiple editions available.
Minecraft: Java Edition– Ah, Java. The OG, one and only, original Minecraft. This is Minecraft Vanilla. The Minecraft you can mod. The Minecraft for PC (All hail the Master Race). This edition will continue to be supported, but will not be compatible with cross-platform play.
Minecraft: Playstation 3/Vita Edition-These two editions are considered Legacy at this point. They are both on last gen hardware, and are Cross Buy/Cross Save compatible. You can start a world on your PS3, save it to the Minecraft cloud, and download your save on the PS Vita version of the game. Even the DLC is Cross-Buy on these platforms. Well, most of it anyway. I seem to remember having to buy the Star Wars DLC and some of the later ones twice.
Minecraft: Playstation 4 Edition-If you’re wondering why I listed this one separately, here’s why. While technically compatible with the 3/Vita version of the game, the saves are not interchangeable. Much like moving Pokemon forward generations, where they can never move backward through the games, the same applies here. You can transfer 3/Vita saves to your PS4, but there they will remain. Also, not much of the DLC you buy in the PS4 version will also work with the 3/VIta. So prepare to buy some of your favorite characters again.
Minecraft: New 3DS Edition-What, they did that? Yup! And it came out months after the Switch version. Stripped of an online store to buy DLC from, you get what’s in it, and what’s in future updates. They are updating the N3DS version to get the Mario Mash Up Pack, and a couple of other small additions, but they have said there won’t be much support for this Legacy edition for too much longer. Plus, no 3D. Come on guys!
Minecraft: Wii U Edition-This version was the first version on a Nintendo console, and also the first to offer the Mario Mash Up Pack, and was amazing at the time. It also, like the PS3/Vita version, has the ability to send your worlds forward to the Switch Edition and the Switch version after the Bedrock update. This is the last of the Legacy editions of the game.
Minecraft: Switch Edition-This is the current version available for Switch owners. However, this version will cease to exist on June 21st. It will be replaced by Minecraft, which we will get to shortly. If you, like me, own this game, you get a free upgrade to Minecraft when it launches in June. All your worlds will transfer to the new version. The process for this has not yet been made clear. My theory is that it will create a new save file on your Switch, and it will read the old save data and pull it into the new version. I expect this to be a one way transfer, much like the other versions. All the DLC you purchased for Switch Edition will be available for redownload when the new version is released.
Minecraft will be the gold standard going forward. If you are playing Minecraft, and it does not say X Edition, then you are playing the Minecraft Bedrock update version. This version, from what I’ve read, is currently available on Xbox One, PC, iOS, Android, and Switch (June 21). Like their console counterparts, your saves and worlds are stored wherever your games are normally stored. So the Switch, will store them on the console. This version will actually perform better than Switch Edition. For instance, currently the Switch will render 7 chunks around you in handheld mode. Bedrock will give you 60 frames per second in both modes, but will also render a whopping 14 chunks in both modes! That’s a major boost. That means in handheld you’ll be able to see twice as far, and it should maintain a mostly solid 60 fps of smoothness.
As for the cross play, you will need a free Xbox live account. On the home screen, there is a button that will let you login to your Microsoft account. Not sure if you have a Microsoft Account? Do you log into windows with an e-mail address? Do you have a hotmail/live e-mail address? Do you Skype? If you answered yes to one or more of the previous questions, you my friend are the proud owner of a Microsoft account. Just make sure you know your password. I’m sure your system will save it for you.
The best part about this is that I can finally play Minecraft with my friends on Xbox, PC, and Mobile. There are two different modes of online play. Switch online, and Cross Platform. Switch online will work as it always has. No voice chat (announced at the time of writing. I generally use Skype or Discord, join ours here at Infendo.com), and you will need to be a paid subscriber come September 2018. And all DLC purchasable on Switch is playable on Switch only online. If you sign into your Microsoft account, you can play cross platform. Again, I am not 100% certain on the exact details of how it works, but I do know you can play here with ANYONE playing Minecraft (Bedrock). The only downfall, is you can not select certain DLC when you are in this mode (IE Mario skins from that mash-up pack). There is also no mention of Mods being available for this version anytime in the near future.
Hosting worlds is another common question that has come my way. Here’s what I know. Right now, and in Switch Only Online, the world is hosted locally on the host’s Switch. For instance, the original Infriendo Game Night world is stored locally on my Switch, and will only be available when I am online, in that world, and someone joins me. This should still hold true for Minecraft. However, Minecraft may come with Realms functionality at launch, or it ma be patched in later like it was in Xbox One. But if we get that service, it is a subscription service through Microsoft that allows you to create a world any of your friends can log into, anytime, provided they have an invite code. You send them a code, they sign in using their Microsoft account, and they can play whenever, from their copy of Minecraft. It has not been said if this will be available at launch, or even at all. I will update this article if/when that comes to pass.
Command blocks, another feature I am not as familiar with, do seem to make an appearance in Minecraft, but I’m not sure they are the be all end all they are in the Java Edition. From what I’ve read, they have either been nerfed by having overpowered commands removed, or they just have not been fully bug tested and some key commands may be missing. As with other parts of this article, I will likely amend this when they come to pass.
Marketplace is another cool feature available in the Minecraft Bedrock update. It is a community driven server based store where you can make purchases with an in game currency. Unfortunately, because I have never played on a platform that supported it, I don’t know very much about it. I will do my best to update this article once I have more information.
So there you have it folks! The Minecraft Bedrock update in a nutshell. Still have questions? Comment down below, hit me up on Twitter, or head over to the Question Block on our Patreon. Hell, go into Discord and tag me! I don’t mind!