Minecraft Better Together Update delayed until Spring

Excited to get your hands on Minecraft’s upcoming Better Together update? Wellllll… you might have to wait a bit longer than we first thought. Earlier today, the official Minecraft Blog updated with a new FAQ’s post, detailing everything you need to know about the big update, which is set to allow cross-platform play between the Switch and Xbox One/Windows 10/Mobile versions of the game, as well as a tonne of new features and a shiny new game engine. During Microsoft’s big E3 presentation, the update was advertised to be coming in Summer in the US (Winter for us in the Southern Hemisphere). The FAQ, on the other hand, tells a different story:

Q: When will the Better Together Update launch?

A: The Better Together Update will launch this Autumn, once it’s ready and we’ve satisfactorily evicted bugs from the premises.

Damn. For the record, that’s a US Autumn, which is Spring for Australia. The FAQ also went into a few details that have remained somewhat vague since E3. I’ve listed the more interesting ones here:

• The Switch Edition of Minecraft will be retitled to, well, just Minecraft. If you already own Minecraft on Switch, you’ll still be able to play the old version and its minigames, but it won’t get any more updates (the Wii U version should still get updates, however).
• Microsoft says they’re working on figuring out how to get your saves to transfer from the current Switch Edition to the new engine. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for this one, because losing so much progress would be awful.
• DLC should be transferrable from the old version to the new one. It might not all be available when the update goes live, but it’ll all get there eventually. Hopefully this delay means it’ll all be there when the time comes to upgrade. Also, platform-specific DLC will not be available to use online. Sorry folks, no Master Chief on the Switch just yet.
• Add-ons (kinda like simplistic mods) will be accessible on Switch, though it’s a little unclear if they’ll be able to be purchased through the Switch or just accessed when playing with someone on the Windows 10/Mobile version of the game. We’ll have to wait and see on this one.

There’s a tonne of information on the FAQ, far too much for a single article, so click here to see the whole thing — it’s quite a read.