Minecraft gets crossplay support on PlayStation 4

Owners of Minecraft on the PlayStation 4 will receive the latest version of the game, called the Bedrock Edition, on Tuesday. That means PS4 players will now have the ability to cross-play.

Kelsey Howard of developer and Xbox Game Studios division Mojang explains that this Bedrock version offers a ‘unified experience’ of gameplay compared to the current PS4 version of Minecraft, which is the same on all consoles. That means Minecraft players with their PlayStation 4 can now also play with players who have the game on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows and mobile devices. Also, PS4 players can now access the Minecraft marketplace.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer that PS4 players will need a free Microsoft or Xbox account to play the Bedrock version of Minecraft on the PlayStation 4. A monthly paid subscription such as Xbox Live Gold is not necessary. The spokesperson says that it has been in talks with Sony for some time to also release this version for the PlayStation 4.

The download that updates the PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft to the Bedrock version is completely free and will install automatically from Tuesday when players start the game. The Bedrock version will also be a separate client, so that players can also start up the old PlayStation 4 version.

More than two years ago, the crossplay update was already released for Windows 10, iOS, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Minecraft VR. The PlayStation 4 was missing from that list, because Sony stuck to blocking crossplay between different platforms for a long time.