I know I may be using a broad brush here, but everyone likes Minecraft, right? I’ve got so many versions of it that I’ve lost count and am currently in the process of creating my own Minecraft server. Well, there’s a specific version of the popular, world-building game for Windows 10 and, for those with the license for Minecraft PC edition, it was available as a free upgrade. Is that still the case?
Is the upgrade still free?
Sadly not. As of April 20th 2020, this offer was withdrawn.
Not that this was a surprise – you could only get the free upgrade if you’d bought the Java edition prior to October 19th 2018, so the writing was definitely already “on the wall”.
The history of Minecraft for Windows 10
With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft (owners of Mojang, the developer of Minecraft) released a beta version of Minecraft for Windows 10 on July 29th 2015. On December 16th 2016, they released the non-beta version 1.0. Named the “Ender Update”, this implemented the following new features:
- Templates and add-on packs
- The ability to play with Xbox Live friends
- You could play local multiplayer with owners of Minecraft on other Bedrock platforms
- You could use multiple control schemes – e.g. a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen
- It had Virtual reality support
- Record and take screenshots in-game via the Windows built-in GameDVR
Essentially, it was used to showcase the new gaming features present in Windows 10.
For those people who’d already bought the Java edition of Minecraft, Microsoft thought it was quite reasonable to allow them to update to this for free, which you could do via the Mojang website. Everyone could buy it from the Windows Store.
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