What you need to know
- Mojang Studios has been working on a native PS5 version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.
- This isn't as exciting as it sounds, as it mostly involves improving the performance and render distance.
- That being said, Mojang has confirmed the new PS5 version is officially launching on Oct. 22.
- Current PS4 owners will receive the PS5 version for free, and PS5 beta testers will gain access to all Minecraft cross-play features.
Here's a fun fact for you! Minecraft isn't really next-gen optimized, and instead runs in backward compatibility across Xbox and PlayStation platforms. This isn't as big a deal on Xbox with its more seamless cross-gen compatibility, but it's disappointing across the board. We've known for a while that Mojang Studios was working on a native PS5 version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition alongside the support of community testers, and now we have an official release date.
Minecraft is dropping on the PlayStation 5 on Oct. 22, 2024, and will be a free update for all PS4 owners. It's a great change and is a part of Mojang's new approach to Minecraft development, but it's not as exciting as it may seem at first glance.
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Better performance for PS5 players, and little else
For years now, many Minecraft console players have hoped that Mojang Studios would properly optimize Minecraft to take full advantage of the more powerful current-gen consoles, such as adding ray tracing. At the very least, many felt the Xbox Series X|S deserved better treatment, being Minecraft's home ecosystem (at least on paper). Alas, it never happened, and there's no sign it's going to. That's not changing with this release.
Minecraft may be getting a native PS5 version where it's not technically Xbox Series X|S Optimized, but it ultimately won't be that different. Minecraft will more reliably run at 4K resolution and 60 frames-per-second (FPS) and support longer render distances on PS5 following this release, but it already does so on Xbox Series X|S, which Mojang first began testing nearly a year ago. There won't be any enhanced features or ray tracing, just a native version that better takes advantage of the PlayStation 5 than Sony's PS4 backward compatibility layer.
This is still good news for PS5 Minecraft players, though, as better performance is always welcomed. There's more Minecraft news just around the corner, too, as Mojang is set to air its first new and improved Minecraft Live show in a few weeks. We may even see more about the upcoming live action Minecraft movie, which just released its first cursed trailer. After that, the free PS5 update for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition rolls out on Oct. 22, 2024. You can check out the original announcement post at Minecraft.net.
