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Why did Mojang make a whole new edition instead of just rewriting Minecraft in C++?

Basically title, this thing with two editions of the game slows down development because they now have to write the same thing twice and it splits the userbase. They also don't want to make Bedrock edition for Linux for some reason.

42 comments
  • Probably because of legacy issues, such as the modding community, java players becoming vehemently against switching to Bedrock because of issues such as:

    • No built-in way to select version
    • No modding, like at Java
    • Microtransaction
    • etc.
  • It's a good question. Really the only thing that would have been completely broken if moving to a new version are game mods, which are written in Java. Everything else could be converted to work with a new C++ based version.

    Though doing so would result in a lot of new bugs, systems would have different behavior leading to broken mob farms and redstone. I think this would be the main reason. Keep Java around until the Bedrock Edition could handle these worlds with minimal issues.

    However, Bedrock involved into a very corporate product. Microtransactions, ads, etc. Java Edition players would be angry if they were forced to move to this version.

    Another factor is that Microsoft really doesn't support Linux and MacOS systems. They likely didn't want to add support for them in Bedrock Edition.

  • I play exclusively multiplayer on a variety of servers and Bedrock support has always been an afterthought to Java in those spaces.

    Custom plugins and mods would likely be why, dual supporting for Bedrock is usually out of the question unless the server is quite large and can justify that with enough staff/donations to get it done.

    There would definitely be a huge outcry if support for Java was dropped for that reason.

42 comments