Microsoft has confirmed that the old gen versions of Minecraft– which is to say, versions of the game for PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita, and Wii U- will be reaching end of support with the next update, the Aquatic update, citing low player base for those versions.
“Although we’d love to keep bringing new content to all our players forever, the older generation of consoles now make up less than five per cent of our active players,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a new blog post. “We’ve made the difficult decision to focus our efforts to support players where they play Minecraft the most and where we plan to add new features: on Java, PlayStation 4 Edition and the versions of Minecraft made with the Bedrock Engine on other consoles, mobile, and Windows 10.”
Curiously enough, the Nintendo 3DS version of the game- which is exclusive to New 3DS consoles, and released last year- has not been mentioned as one of the versions that is going to be sunset. It’s interesting, because New 3DS is technologically the most inferior platform the game is on, and that version can’t constitute a big portion of Minecraft‘s player base either. It probably has to do with how recently that version released, more than anything.
If you want to play Minecraft, you can play it on, well, literally anything- apart from the old gen versions reaching end of life, you have it on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, New Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
