Minecraft launches on Nintendo Switch!

Fresh from the warp pipe, it’s Minecraft Nintendo Switch Edition! It should be available on the shiny new handheld-and-home console today, first rolling out on the Nintendo eShop in North America, before following in Europe and Japan tomorrow.

Nintendo Switch Edition comes with fun features of other console versions of Minecraft, including our marvellous multiplayer mini games, Battle and Tumble. But of course, being for the versatile Switch, this version lets you play with your friends in all manner of ways: get together online for some eight-player action, eight-player local play (if everyone has a Switch) or squeeze four of you onto a couch to play splitscreen in front of the TV on a lone console. Some other blighted family member hogging the TV? Flip out the Switch’s kickstand and play in tabletop mode! That supports four-player splitscreen, too, with players wielding either Joy-Cons or the Pro Controller.

Then, after you’re done, click the kickstand back in and take your creations with you to play wherever you go. Play on the bus! Play in bed! Play it while backflipping off the head of a Goomba to slide elegantly down the full length of a flag pole! (Not advised.) It’ll run at a smooth 60fps and 720p resolution across all modes and play types, whether you’re playing on your TV or in handheld mode.

And Switch players also get an extra special something, unique to Nintendo’s consoles: the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack! It comes with a custom crafted Mario-themed world, with all the mushrooms, man-eating plants and oversized plumbing you’d expect - and a texture pack to match. You can explore it while listening to one of 15 tracks from Super Mario 64 and skinned up as one of 40 characters from Mario’s universe - Princess Peach, Toad, Yoshi, all the Koopalings, Wario and many more.

What a lot of fun stuff! Now on Nintendo Switch!