Fans Aren't Happy With The State Of Minecraft On Switch, But Mojang Is Rolling Out A Hotfix

the state was so bad that i literally switched to the xbox version over a year ago lol (no pun intended)

For some people (me included) the game has been totally broken (as in, crashes on loading every single time) since November 2019: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCPE-48406

EDIT: Oh, JULY 2019, not November!

Me too: crash, blocks, fail to login into Ms account... It's a mess

I’ve said this on a previous article, but their new Jurassic World DLC was a complete disaster on switch. Barely loads and is is full of blue areas. It’s absolutely unplayable. Here’s hoping we see some tangible improvements across the board from Mojang.

I played a lot this game on early development stages and then a couple of years after the 1.0 released. At that time you could very easily choose the version you play. This feature was removed or it was never a feature for console?

Minecraft on Switch is horrid. How this game is continuously in the top charts is beyond me.

The Nintendo Switch version has been crap ever since the Bedrock version was released. Glitchy, terrible performance and slow overall.
Bought packs take ages to load and often are not recognized as owned at all.

I got so fed up with it, that I stopped playing Minecraft on Switch because of it. They never fixed it.

I have had problems with Minecraft on Switch before, I remember how the introduction of 1.13 was particularly glitchy for me, it had some severe issues that essentially made it unplayable. I think it would crash a lot, even while loading. To be honest I just prefer to play the old "Minecraft Nintendo Switch Edition" release on Switch since it is a lot more stable and actually works. When I want to play new Minecraft I just play the game on my Xbox.

Gonna sound stupid, but what's the difference between Minecraft that's for the Nintendo switch and Minecraft: Nintendo Switch edition. I mean, they ARE two different games, right?

@Jeronan If you have the old "Nintendo Switch Edition" just play that, it's a lot better. Pretty much the only way I could play the game on Switch since late last year.

@MeowMeowKins The newer release simply called "Minecraft" is basically the current version that is always getting updated with online/cross play compatibility. It's the same game they have on pretty much every platform these days. The "Nintendo Switch Edition" is an older version of Minecraft that they stopped updating a while back. It seems like they did a much better job of making it work on the Switch as it was a more focused version for this platform, only problem is how it's lacking the features and updates they have been adding but if you just want pure classic Minecraft it works.

@Kasma88
I expected technical problems with the Jurassic World DLC and didn't buy it.

I downloaded only one DLC from their marketplace (The Legendary Phoenix), which was for free. And it has some serious framerate problems. Creatures are spawning but everything slows down and you're hardly able to fight against them.

I'll never ever download something again from the marketplace or even think of buying a DLC until I have a proof (video review or something) that it's playable on Switch.

Why do they feel the need to put inferior versions of the game on consoles? Why can't they just put out the java edition on switch.

@JayJ Ah, okay. That would explain why when I bought Minecraft, they had a bunch of Minecraft in stock, and had stopped selling the other version. Thanks for the info!

@JayJ I was no aware of tha version differences. So if an individual tha got Minecraft physical edition back in 2018 is not getting the new updates anymore?

@Tisteg80 I’ll be doing the same thing in the future, too. I’m not a regular Minecraft player and was unaware of the problems with the game. Assumed that being such a popular game it’d at least be playable. Live and learn I guess!

@abdias As far as I can tell the physical edition is the new version. The Nintendo Switch Edition says it in the title and looks like this, pretty sure it was digital only:

My son keeps having to sign into my Microsoft account each time he starts minecraft. I keep getting those emails saying a new sign in on a new device. They need to fix this.

I bought quite a bit of dlc for my kids and it all got deleted... so that was a lot of wasted cash. Ah well... Fooled me once.

There's two ways to complain about something, first you have ally, and then grace

It's been slow since say one on my sons.

I can’t comprehend my it runs so bad on switch. It runs better on my old mobile devices! Microsoft takes forever to log in, heck sometimes it doesn’t even work and you have to do it manually. I love the game, but this is just unacceptable.

"Fans aren't happy" could be in the headline for a lot of things, tbf.

I was playing it daily on Switch, on a realm, until about February of this year and never had any crashes, that's weird. The performance can be slower than on other platforms in busy spots of the game world, but that's expected.

I haven't played it on switch since then though, so don't know how the game is on there right now.

It's also got Covid...

I’ll be honest, I haven’t had too many issues with the game since day 1. Sure it was pretty annoying when you have to sign into your Microsoft account at times and frame rate would dip down under 60 sometimes, but besides that I never really had any major problems. I’ve pretty much got used to bedrock version with little to no complaints and had a blast playing with my PS4 buddies...until the recent pig brute update, and holy s*** that was absolutely terrible! I really do hope they fix it this time.

Bought it but never played it, so cannot really complain I guess

I have been playing Minecraft since the beginning and my son has been since he could hold a controller. Even with our own heavily nodded server I have never seen an update do this type of damage. I would imagine even a modest amount of testing would have caught this and can only suspect that the complexity of the Nintendo/Mojang/Microsoft relationship is getting in the way. Defiitely worried about non Microsoft console versions of this game going forwards

I can't even play the game now due to "low space remaining". All worlds cannot be played anymore, and this issue is from 2018, and hasn't been fixed yet.

Can never login and therefore lost access to all paid DLC. Shambles of a product.

I don't know about others comments that "its never run on Switch!". I used to play it just fine on Switch, including cross-play on a paid for server with people on PC/mobile/Xbox. The "game servers" run worse, sure, but that's because thousands of players are logging into those at once. However, saying all that, we haven't been able to play on out Switchs since that last Piglin Brute update. The game would sometimes load...then freeze/crash...and completely lock up the Switch. The only way out of it would be a hard restart of the system. Its been VERY frustrating. Hopefully installing this hotfix will clear it up. I'll check later tonight after work.

I've noticed something like this but on my iPad. Now the game just closes after a minute or two.

I haven't played Minecraft on the Switch for ages, but when I bought the physical edition, I played it almost everyday for weeks and it worked flawlessly. Strange how it seems they really managed to bugger it up with the updates.

It’s already the worst version. I bought it for actual physical inputs on mobile Minecraft. Ended up getting the vita version. It’s lacking new stuff, but at least it’s functional!

@Monkeido yeah I'm not sure what's with all the "it's was already unplayable!" and "Worst version!" comments.

I assume it's bias against the bedrock version? Because the game isn't(/wasn't?) particularly different on switch compared to other systems with that version.

I haven't played the latest update but I never experienced any of the problems people are claiming they experienced going back to November or July of last year.

Still bitter that a pack I bought no longer registers as owned. The UI of Bedrock Edition needs a major overhaul and the Switch version needs to be better optimized.

And this is how they want everyone to slowly get into Bedrock and forget Java?
Been playing Java since the Alpha days and never looked back.

@Eel Indeed, seeing all the negativity against the Switch version is also exactly what made me want to tell about my experience with it. I believe it's possible that at the moment it's not working properly though, but I'm too lazy to check myself. ^^'

I'm still waiting for oceans to get a bump in loading. At the very least, any console version should be superior in that. Feels like a poor copy & paste job of the mobile ports.

Very very very grating. Game is unplayable. My switch is sitting right next to my router and has been trying to login for the last 15 mins and nothing. Not even a hard reset fixes this abomination of a game.

What gets me is, they are still selling this abortion of a game despite ALL the issues. We are expected to fork over money for a product that doesn't work. When did this become the new normal?

I don't want to waste a whole day being sent on a microsoft vortex of stupidity as is when i need to use anything miscrosoft related.

This is clearly a mobile port. Just give us a proper console port already.

I hope Mojang gets seriously flamed by the community for their awful treatment of the Switch version. I think it's gone on long enough that the negligence will finally come to hurt them significantly.

Tbh I haven’t really had any problems except for my switch getting really hot.

@Kirbyfan Beyond the heat and bugs, the Switch has also always had a problem going to the home menu and then resuming Minecraft. (Guess it's a memory issue? I don't think this happens for many games.) There's the "Mojang" logo loading screen, then next, most of the time the internet connection for the game just completely shuts off and you're forced to restart the software. Also you can't put the console in sleep mode while online in a server or anything.

Minecraft's networking on Switch is complete junk. My son tries to play with a friend on another Switch across the net and it maybe works 1 in 10. It's usually 20 minutes of wasted effort of different worlds, different person starting. Change over to MarioKart 8 or Pokemon and it works flawlessly. I'm not spending any more money with Mojang until it's fixed.

The Hotfix seems to address some of the major issues. It doesn't restore it to the playable state it was before the change though. It seems every time I use chat - or try to write a sign - it still hangs for a good long time.

I'm not really head over heels for Minecraft, but it is fun to build in the same space with friends. Perhaps I got spoiled by playing Dragon Quest Builders first (Another reason why the multiplayer probably feels amazing because it kinda stinks on DQB).

@Tisteg80 I bought ZigZag that replaces all the textures in Minecraft. Once I learned how to pick the low res version of it I haven't had any real issues. I wouldn't buy any character skins since it takes forever to login to Microsoft and for it to realise you are trying to use a character skin.

I've been ok with it but my kids find online play on it unreliable. We haven't played it for a while now though and the kids have reverted to the PS4 version if they want their fix. They don't see Switch as the "Minecraft console" anymore (after intially seeing it that way with the portbability) so that is a shame

I actually never had many issues with it to be honest, hmm.
The network related stuff has always been a mess, yes. Login in is a dice throw, getting connected to the in-game store requires the right moon phase, the game realizing that you own a few assets so it doesn't default back to the standard skins for instance requires a lot of prayers...

But the game itself has been smooth sailing for me so far. Weird.

@Laoak Bedrock isn't an inferior version. It's just different. For example, it runs much better than Java because it was built on a more optimized framework. That's what allows it to run on phones as well. And each update it lurches slowly towards parity with the Java edition. If Java was on Switch, it couldn't run at all.

@MeowMeowKins Hey gamer, I believe that the difference is; Minecraft for Nintendo Switch is the original Java style edition & that the one that's simply called "Minecraft" is the newer Bedrock edition type.

@guerrino the original console version is not the Java edition. It was it's own c++ offshoot, much like bedrock.

The problem with Java, is that it's difficult to optimize, Java Minecraft in particular requires a decent gaming-capable PC to run well. The switch would most likely not be able to run the Java version properly, if at all.

For example, I have a cheap windows 10 tablet with 2-gb ram and Intel atom. If I were to install Java Minecraft, I would probably get like 2fps and a really hot tablet (assuming it runs). Bedrock Minecraft? That runs perfectly fine.

@guerrino thanks for the info!

@MeowMeowKins No problem, to clarify the Minecraft named versions are all the Bedrock edition. The old Java is only available for Windows XP/7, MacOS, and Linux. I understand that the older Minecraft for "Nintendo, PS4, etc." was kind of a legacy version before all of the difference platforms consolidated to Bedrock.

@Eel You are correct, gamer! I'm just glad that I didn't play my Nintendo Minecraft since the last update. Now, I'm going to wait for the patch(es)!!!

Nope. Got the hotfix. Now the game won't even start.

My sone hasn’t been able to log into his MS acct via the switch for over a month. Just downloaded latest version of Minecraft again, and still can’t log in. This blows, and honestly, it’s causing us to look elsewhere for entertainment since this has been a known issue for a long time.

I just got Minecraft for the Switch a couple days ago and it's very slow starting up and marketplace won't load or when I exit out of market or load my game it will keep loading and loading. When I try to close the game I get an error message and the game is forcefully closed

it didn't fix anything...at all. It's now almost March 2021 and the game is still unplayable!! Marketplace doesn't load,won'tload my skins,crashes..whatdid they fix? Nothing

I just updated our switch a couple of days ago and the freezing and glitching is the same. It's very annoying. It's weird because the glitching got worse after creating the automatic chicken cooker farm.

If we're by the house major glitching if we move far away from the base less glitching and some times nothing the further we move away from the base.

With recent update it did nothing please Nintendo fix this

It is absolutely inexcusable that Minecraft runs this poorly on the Switch. The game is a bloated piece of garbage as is; it frequently can't even log into the online servers, and now it's been locking the Switch up every time the kids try to even start it up.

Someone should class-action Mojang and force them to refund every single copy of the game purchased. I really can't understand the appeal.

@Sapper ikr..here it is 2021 and it's still crap

It is now August, and I recently got Minecraft for my Switch and...it runs perfectly OK for me. I'm able to go into multiplayer servers, there isn't any freezing or locking, and everything loads just fine. When I first started playing, there WAS a crash but now it doesn't happen.