![]() But so far that cross-play capability has eluded the original Java-based version of the game, and saved games still can’t be shared among platforms. Mojang also added cross-platform play to Minecraft via a 2015 update, allowing Pocket Edition players on PC, iOS, Android, or Windows Phone to play together on a local network or five PC players to play together over Xbox Live. (Fans still complain that Mojang still has yet to add the “Ender Dragon” and other legacy gameplay elements to the Pocket Edition, however.) But over time, Microsoft has cherry-picked some of the most popular content and ported it to its other, cheaper platforms, including “redstone” to the Pocket Edition and shared servers. Microsoft has justified the relatively high price of its legacy Win32 app by highlighting its flexibility, which allow users and designers to do practically anything they want with the platform ( except sell stuff) via software modifications. Microsoft’s cheaper Pocket Edition offers much of the same Minecraft experience for far less. ( Minecraft for the PC exists in two versions: the traditional Win32 Java app, and the more limited beta of the Pocket Edition UWP app.) Microsoft also has rewritten Minecraft in C++ as a so-called UWP app, capable of being run on the PC as well as Windows phones. Today, you can find Minecraft everywhere: as a PC game written in Java, but also for OS X and Linux for Android and iOS the PlayStation 3, 4, and PlayStation Vita and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. In 2011, however, Persson released an early alpha of the game to the Google Play app store, and in 2012 he ported the game to the Microsoft Xbox 360. Creator Markus “Notch” Persson also committed to offering the full version of the game to those who purchased it while in its beta state. From 2009 to 2011, Minecraft existed solely on the PC as pre-release software, gaining an audience by word of mouth. ![]() This all might come as a surprise to PC gamers, given that Minecraft was one of the games that, for a while, was synonymous with the PC. Today, Minecraft’s console and mobile versions might not offer quite the same flexibility, but they’re a good compromise. Over time, some of these key PC-centric features have been pushed to other platforms. Mojang and Microsoft also prioritized the PC, launching new features (special “redstone” blocks, potions, new enemies and skins) on the PC first, and then later porting them over to other platforms. Why this matters: For many years, Minecraft offered elements of the game on the PC that simply weren’t available elsewhere, with mods and shared servers being the chief appeal. Minecraft simply isn’t a PC game any more, according to Microsoft’s latest numbers. Console sales represent 41 percent, just topping the 40 percent of users who have bought the Pocket Edition for mobile and the UWP version of the game. In fact, in the United States, the number of traditional copies of Minecraft sold on the PC is just 19 percent. But if you dig into Microsoft’s numbers, they reveal that far, far more users are buying Minecraft on platforms other than the PC.
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