Java & Bedrock Have HUGELY Different Updates

[00:00:00]Did you record this video before the snapshot came out? Yes, actually I did.

[00:00:03]Mojang brought out a snapshot on a Thursday. Yes, we read that right. And that's because they entered their peak vacation season and so this mostly fixed weird issues like the cauldron cushion bug I showed off in that video as well as fixing the hay bell to make it pixel consistent. But this means that there's probably going to be a long wait for the major feature of Java multiplayer, which is a stark contrast to the bedrock version which has just shipped one of their biggest exclusives of the year.

[00:00:26]This raises the question of why there is such a big difference here and I want to answer that today along with getting into the changes that the new Xbox boss has been putting into place. We've seen what it's resulted in at Bethesda and it actually looks like broadly good news.

[00:00:39]But let's talk about it all today because hello, I'm Icat and this is Q&A sess. And one of the interesting questions that I I I one of the interesting sarcastic questions I get is Java doesn't have multiplayer. This is news to me as a Java player. So this is something really important. Java does not have peer-to-peer multiplayer right now, which means you can't just play with a friend unless they're on the same network as you. This, for most people, does not count as multiplayer, at least the majority of Minecraft and other video game players. And instead, as Henro says, if you want to play on Java, you need to open to LAN and you need to actually set up a server. And to them, that's the appeal of Java. But in reality, most people who are just playing with their friends would prefer an easy option where you just hit a button and you can do it. Most people prefer simple options if they have the choice and that is why Java multiplayer is such an exciting feature. But it is one that we're probably going to have to wait till the end of the summer for. And one of the interesting suggestions Handro says is one thing that would be really big for this is if one day they could have native crossplay between the two versions of Minecraft. And this raises the big question of why can't you have crossplay between the two versions of Minecraft. And Pay No Boot says simple answer. Bedrock players are gay.

[00:01:47]And you know what? It's hard to argue with that one actually. To be totally honest with you. Oh, that was weird. Oh, it's it looks like I'm smiling, but it's the combat cool down in my face. To be totally honest with you though, I always wondered why the Minecraft team didn't just buy up the existing tech Geyser and say, "Yeah, look, we can solve the problem of there being two Minecrafts."

[00:02:06]And the answer is that actually if you join any Geyser server, things get really janky really quickly. So, ignoring the fact that the chat is way bigger on Bedrock could be solved.

[00:02:16]ignoring the fact that there is a combat cooldown that exists that isn't actually clear on Bedrock. There's no animation that could be fixed. There are all sorts of other issues that you just have to put a lot of work into dealing with before you can even consider having server par. So, um, one of those is the fact that advancements are world specific on Java, therefore server specific, but are global on Bedrock. So, look at that. Silver Ninetail just made the advancement Stone Age, and I could probably make the same if I wanted to.

[00:02:45]And yet this is a weird one that is not being done by everyone. Also, the um I was trying to see a furnace minecarts would exist. And apparently crafting tables just don't really work correctly with the crafting system most people use on Bedrock because they just assume if you're playing a Java server, you're going to craft the Java way. So, it's weird. It's janky. It's slow. It's strange. And so, unless they bring full parity to Minecraft, you can't have full parity of Minecraft servers. And as this video is kind of hinting at, full par can't really easily exist, because fun fact, Minecraft is adding features that are different to both versions all the time. Not just with that Java multiplayer, which I'm very excited for, but also with the bedrock cloud saving.

[00:03:29]And this is obviously an especially big issue when we're talking about some of the fundamental systems in the game. We usually bring up redstone or structure blocks or the very command system as easy examples. But actually, let me use a more recent example of the cushions.

[00:03:43]So, cushions are an entity, and I've learned from the comment section of my recent video. You have to make sure that you don't get the pedants down. They are an entity that are different to a mob in that a mob can move around, but a cushion cannot. Okay, have we satisfied the pedants? Okay, so now that we've gotten that out of the way, um, one of the interesting questions that I got this week that I wanted to test was this really fun one asking, "So, hey Toycat, I noticed you said that you could actually use cushions as a roof. But if you did so, would it actually prevent water from getting through?" So, let's break these blocks and then let's set the weather to be rainy right here. And something interesting you'll note is that although you can sort of wait, something you'll note as I look into the sky, did I set the river to rain? I thought I set the weather to rain, but apparently not. But something interesting is the fact that you can't actually leave a cushion unsupported.

[00:04:27]When you break the block under a cushion, things stop working. Which means that although you can have a cushion roof on the bedrock version of the game, you actually can't have it for very long. You need to have blocks blow it if you want it to last. This is the more consistent behavior, but it's also far less fun. And so, which one should Java do? Cuz if Java takes the uh, you know, the its approach where you can put them inside of blocks, you'll be able to make 155 different colors. That's super cool. And the answer is it's really difficult. And that is one of the many reasons why every single update has some par compromises. But it means that even though we bring huge changes like boats breaking. Wow, incredible. Uh this comment even agrees with that. But also with the fact that on the bedrock version there is always going to be some layers of DRM because of the marketplace. Fun fact, those do exist in the game. Also fun fact is Sensit 86 asked why don't they just add it to the game? If you haven't seen it, Mojang put out a blog post talking about the APH for Legends because it's one of their big exciting things that they've just brought out this week. It is going to result in a lot of sales for them. But if they know that people are excited for the APHA, why not just bring it to the game? Because so many people, including Censored 86, used to make portals in their worlds after watching them in videos. And the answer is, well, let's just say The Elder Scrolls put out some shocking information about this. But also, let's say that, let's be real, many people like Josbon say, "Yeah, that new cloud save thing you're excited for, Toy Cat, that won't be free." If you haven't heard, cloud saves are coming to PC as part of the next update, as unless they remove it at the last minute, as they've done a few times this year. But that means that you'll be able to have your world backed up to the PC automatically, which is a very big deal.

[00:06:03]Many people left in the comments saying, "This would be huge for me. I wouldn't have lost a world that otherwise I will." And I want to say for people like the Josbonss of the world, if you're cynical about this, you're right to be, but for the wrong reason. It's not going to be charged, even though it is going to use Microsoft server capacity, but instead it's going to exist for the exact same reason that cloud saves exist on the Xbox and the same reason that there's a Minecraft Windows edition to begin with. You might not recall this, but there wasn't a Minecraft bedrock for Windows when Microsoft took over Mojang, but it was one of their very first priorities to boost that Windows ecosystem. And so this same thing is happening with cloud saves so they can boost what I assume is going to be the one drive ecosystem. One drive is one of the most infuriating parts of the modern Windows experience. And let's be real, it's probably one of the few parts that most people pay for. I mean, who even pays for Excel anymore? Are you weird or something? Do you not know that it's either a free or b that Google has their own version which is actually free? But secondly, the interesting thing here is the fact that actually I think that this is going to be a push for you to buy some cloud storage and you know just kind of improve your reliance on your Windows machine, which is important to them and that's why they're doing it.

[00:07:11]However, I think a far better feature if they want to get me tied into this ecosystem would be world transfers from consoles without using realms. This is something that Sephi got 200 likes on.

[00:07:23]And honestly, hear me out here.

[00:07:24]Microsoft are a company that have made a really big deal about how much they love the cloud. Um, you know, these days they're talking about AI a bit more, but they love the cloud and they're a cloud computing company. And so, how do you get people excited about the cloud? Let people move their saves between various Minecraft platforms. This sounds impossible if you're a Java player maybe, but actually it's being done on the consoles and all of the bedrock platforms with screenshots already. You can have a 100 screenshots that you share between all of your Minecraft devices. You can have the same friend list across all these devices. Next, I think they should let us have the same world across these devices. And yes, it would cost Minecraft some money, but then people would be able to freely play everywhere and it'd be another huge incentive to play Bedrock where you might spend $10 or let me remind you, £10 on an APH for Legends map where, wow, all of a sudden they'd make that money back. I'm just saying, seems like a pretty good idea. Speaking of Minecraft console and good ideas, can I take 10 seconds to say I really like Corey Pope's 7222 ideas? Which is like, if we're accepting that mending is a part of Minecraft, even though it doesn't make any sense, why don't we just make Neite indestructible? Why don't we just skip the whole Harrah about like, oh, you've got to make sure you go to this right villager and just say if you get Neite, uh, then sure, you you've earned the right to have it go incredibly slowly down or not at all. In fact, I think we should say I think we should up the durability massively or make it indestructible. Love your idea, Curry Pope. But also, Bar Talon says, "When is this coming to the Nintendo edition?" And the answer is, like any bedrock feature, it comes to all of the additions at the same time, unless it's for Windows and Xbox like clouds saving, which is actually kind of funny cuz the same is true for Vibrant Visuals, which will be coming to Nintendo Switch later this year when it gets a native version.

[00:09:06]However, if you're curious about that native version coming with the Mario Mashup, uh OV views says, "Wait, the team updating the Mario Mashup pack was still 4J Studios." And I assume the answer is yes. But technically, they haven't confirmed it anywhere. And something someone shared with me this week is the fact that 4J Studios have actually delisted all of their marketplace content. If you haven't seen this yet, type in 4J. In fact, just type in 4J into your marketplace search bar, and you'll see that there are only two maps left by them up. one of which they published for Stampy and the other of which is the Ice Age mashup pack. Every other piece of content is either listed by Minecraft, so they have no control over. Um, weirdly enough, if you put in 4J, Minecraft stuff shows up instead.

[00:09:47]Uh, every piece of content has been unlisted or indeed delisted, you might say. And you can confirm this by going to find Seasons in the City. This was one of their first Minecraft marketplace maps. They still have it listed on their website, but if you go to buy now, it says, "Oops, we couldn't find that page." That means that 4J have decided to just delist and ignore the sales of all of their marketplace content which is kind of sad because they did make a surprising amount of content like this Jungle Explorer for example and in my opinion they made very high quality technically speaking stuff but I also don't think that they played the game correctly. the marketplace. Um, I think they assumed that it'd be about quality first, like the mashup era, but instead the marketplace is all about flashy thumbnails, like vanilla vehicles, and there's a magical like spider robot looking one. Oh, yeah. I want to buy this with all of my money. This is how people actually make decisions. And that is something that is very important and big teams have made a lot of money. I uh you would be surprised when I tell you about the level of wealth. I've spoken to some marketplace partners on this stat for but also it's because you need to know that you need to it's like YouTube. It's regular content a lot more than it is like one big piece of content a year. And so 4J have decided why don't we just drop this and that's what they've done. They still reference these mini games. At least that's what I can tell seven mini games is when they say 4J students and numbers. They still reference these but you won't find them listed anywhere. And I guess if they're working on like a Minecraft style game, it feels like it cheapens their brand to say we also make content for Minecraft.

[00:11:17]And so that's wild, I've got to say. But it is something that's real. Oh, also I do need to give an important piece of context. While researching this, I found this comment that was a year old on the Jungle Explorer trailer saying they can no longer find this on the marketplace and in which is by the way even weirder because they bought the things ages ago.

[00:11:34]Wait, actually, sorry, this is silly.

[00:11:36]Can I not f I I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to play it. I was about to go on a tirade about how like I'll be real with you. I'm probably never going to load this up again. Oh, they took it away from me. I gave them money. That's actually okay. Well, this has changed into a bit of a consumer rights issue more than anything else. But fun fact, um your 4J packs do not exist anymore.

[00:11:57]And I would guess that one of the big reasons they wanted to do this is that, let's be real, they make a full They make big games, including Minecraft console edition and a game that is in the Minecraft genre. It probably cheapens the brand to be like, "But look, we also made Minecraft skins at some point." Speaking of cheapening the brand, one of the most interesting things we saw recently was the shakeup that's been happening at Bethesda. Now, this is notable because Xbox has started to lose money despite having used the Minecraft brand uh to prop up the rest of its business. And so we know that they want to change what's happening over there. And we're getting the little bit of idea about what's going on at Bethesda because obviously if Minecraft is making as much money as it is and yet the whole business is making 4% you can be sure that every studio is losing money including Bethesda who have some of the biggest IPs out there. And this is fascinating. Cute dog. This is fascinating because of the fact that there is a uh you know I think it's fascinating because if you can have uh such big brands and still not really be doing anything with them, that is a classic case of management. And it seems as though Bethesda have all of a sudden been kicked into gear either by these announcements or directly uh by the new Xbox CEO. And so we've seen this announcement that The Elder Scrolls creation program made $10 million for creators. That's like after they took their cut, which is fascinating because it really puts into perspective even though Skyrim was was such a successful game and so many people would download mods. Uh I feel like that is tiny in comparison to the marketplace. Um, you know, it really does go to show that like Minecraft's user created content market is huge, even by comparison to other huge games. But also, they made these free announcements. There is going to be an Elder Scrolls 6. Very exciting for anyone who likes Skyrim. There is going to be a Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas remaster. The second one of those gets me excited. And that's why I'm also excited that the new Fallout game is going to be made by Obsidian. These are the people who made Fallout New Vegas.

[00:13:43]And if I'm being real, I think the general consensus is that they don't and they're not going to be the same studio or the same people that made that game.

[00:13:50]They might be able to make a good game, but it's not the same people who made the last one, which is the interesting thing about Creative Theods and indeed about dev teams like this. And it's why it's such an interesting decision to have, at least in my opinion. I think it's why it's such an interesting decision to basically look at this and see how it applies to Minecraft because Mojang is not the same studio that they were 10 years ago. They're not the same studio especially that delivered Minecraft in the first place. It's um it's a very interesting thing because they have the legacy of it. They are the people who update it. And it means that ultimately when you're talking about what to do with that franchise, gaming's biggest, I think it is very fair to say.

[00:14:25]I think that this is a at least very slight little bit of a blueprint or look. I mean, uh, if you look at how, uh, Mojang has handled their most successful spin-off ever, I would say Dungeons, you can see they developed that in-house. When they when they when they handed off a game to an outside studio, Minecraft Legends, it actually went really poorly. So, interestingly, there a case of this having worked in the opposite way. You need a studio who deeply cares and deeply gets Minecraft from the outside as opposed to uh, I would say what's currently happened. And so is the future of Minecraft things like Minecraft Blast where it's way more developed by King the Candy Crush people than it's developed by Mojang or is the future uh of their you know them actually looking at their success record and say look we'll make dungeon style games we'll only make games we're super super interested in or was Dungeons even a fluke? Is it that you can't spin off the Minecraft genre? That's the interesting question I think you want to ask strategically. And then when it comes to Minecraft itself, it is a game where obviously the fact that the Elder SC, you know, the fact that the Bethesda team when they're trying to put out these big announcements, that's one of them tells us that they think that this is hugely important for their future is the same thing true for Minecraft. Is it actually uh you know, I think that one of the basically everything that comes from making the Minecraft franchise better and more successful probably impacts the end users in a good way except I would say weirdly enough this one. I think that Minecraft is one of the biggest games for how fatigue, you know, like it's seemingly again whe whether this is true or not, the industry standard is just load them up of microtransactions until they stop playing. And the level where you stop playing is, you know, like a some number of people like a huge number of microtransactions. You'd be shocked at how many mobile games exist on this formula uh where it's like, yeah, people like to pay to get more stuff because getting more stuff is fun and getting more stuff without having to be good is really good if you've got money and not a lot of time or skill. Um and interestingly, it's I I wonder if Minecraft is headed down that same pathway. That is the big fear. I would say from here way too early to be sure.

[00:16:26]But I think that's the thing you have to be cautious of is in unlike other games, Minecraft has a lot faster fatigue and so you can't just be like, "Yeah, let's just double ourselves from extra revenue here." Like I think that weirdly if if it were me and it's not me but if it were me in charge of this one I think what I would say is the bas based on how people react to the marketplace and based on how people react to base game updates people sp like you know even if Minecraft is making $10 million a year on the marketplace. Um last time we heard figures that sounds uh like it was over what they said but we haven't heard official figures in a while. So if they make 10 $10 million a year, they'll make a hundred million dollars just by well actually they'll make a billion dollars just by selling what is that like 30 million copies or something which is a realistic amount to sell in a year. The marketplace is always going to be dwarfed in relation to the number of sales they get, which is always going to be in relation to how good their updates are. So, in my opinion, it'd be like, you know, you're chasing pennies, literally pennies on the dollar, pennies on the pound, you're chasing cents on the euro, uh, by going for extra marketplace monetization. And that's why I have to hope that if you've got someone in charge who understands that you need to go big, that you need to do big things like this. That's what's going to happen. But ultimately, we won't know until we know. Um, looking at the hiring and firing pages, there's been no real update on people being let go. So, if you're worried about Mojang layoffs, they do not seem to have materialized. And for anyone who's uh excited about new hirings, still not visible, at least not to me. Anyway, I'm going to run now. So many people here.

[00:18:03]There's always so many people. How does that happen? If you enjoy this video, like it, favorite it, subscribe it, and consider if you like the long let's plays, checking out this one. This person here really enjoys it. Um the it's got the the uh the winner of the AB title test was 4 hours of Minecraft to sleep to. And if you need some Minecraft to play to or to sleep to or to do whatever it is you do while you need a podcast, that video is great and a small number of people are loving that. So maybe that's you. Anyway, thank you.

[00:18:29]Goodbye.

[00:18:35][music] >> [music]