Apple TV Edition

This page describes an edition of the game that has been officially discontinued.

 

This edition is no longer updated nor available for purchase, but can still be played if previously downloaded on a compatible device.

Minecraft: Apple TV Edition

Author(s)	Mojang Studios Key staff members Jens Bergensten Aron Nieminen Daniel Kaplan Shoghi Cervantes Daniel Wustenhoff Tomas Alaeus Xbox Game Studios[1] Tommaso Checchi Jason Major
Platform(s)
Written in	C++
Latest version	1.1.5
Release date	December 19, 2016
Rating(s)	Apple: 9+
Size	207 MB
License	Proprietary software
Source available	No

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Minecraft: Apple TV Edition is a discontinued derivative of Pocket Edition designed to run on tvOS. It was announced on October 27, 2016, officially released on December 19, 2016, alongside the Fire TV Edition, and discontinued on September 24, 2018.^[2][3] The release of the Apple TV Edition coincided with the Ender Update.

As of 1.1.5, the Apple TV Edition has not received new feature updates, such as the Better Together Update, the Update Aquatic, Village & Pillage, Buzzy Bees, and so on. It was previously unclear if or when the Apple TV Edition would be updated, due to a bug.^[4][5] The version was officially discontinued with a message provided via the in-game patch notes and removed from the Apple App Store on September 24, 2018.^[6]

The Apple TV Edition's most recent feature update is the Discovery Update.

Development

Release

No beta version of the Apple TV Edition was released. It was announced by Tim Cook at the October 2016 MacBook Event and then by Mojang on the day of its release on their website's blog.^[7][3]

For a limited time​^{[more information needed]}, Apple TV Edition was bundled with seven pieces of DLC (Holiday 2015, Town Folk, and City Folk skin packs, along with the Plastic, Natural, Cartoon, and Festive 2016 mash-ups). Afterwards, Apple TV Edition moved from individual pieces of DLC to content in the Minecraft Marketplace. While players could no longer purchase Minecoins as of September 24, 2018, they could continue to use remaining Minecoins to purchase and use content in the Marketplace.

Discontinuation

On September 24, 2018, Apple TV Edition was removed from the Apple App Store and the following message was broadcast via the in-game patch notes. The patch notes were localized in all supported languages, with local phone numbers and websites for Apple Support included for each region/country.

Nimbus Controller Bundle

On September 19th, 2017, Apple, SteelSeries, and Mojang collaborated to release the Nimbus Minecraft: Apple TV Edition controller bundle.^[8] The bundle cost $39.99 and was available for a limited time only, exclusively at Apple stores in the US and UK. The bundle included a Nimbus controller and a scratch card containing a download code for the game; however, the majority of these codes expired in mid-2018. Since the game could not be properly played without a traditional controller, this bundle was seen as the easiest way for players to get into Minecraft: Apple TV Edition. It is unclear when this bundle was discontinued, but it is likely that it did not sell well.

Gameplay

In addition to features which existed in Pocket Edition, the Apple TV Edition had the ability to play with up to seven players through local multiplayer. However, Apple TV Edition was out-of-date as of 1.1.7 and the Better Together update and could not play with other Bedrock Edition platforms beyond this version. It supported Realms, but could only play with other users of Apple TV Edition after that update.

Due to tvOS limitations on saving app data locally, Apple TV Edition is the only version of Minecraft that doesn't store world data locally; instead, it is saved to the user's iCloud storage. As a result, this version requires an Internet connection to play, even though world data must be downloaded to the Apple TV device first. Worlds may not save properly if iCloud storage is full or the game is exited too quickly.

Trivia

• Three achievements are impossible to collect due to a bug in the game's final update.^[9]
• Keyboard functionality is broken on newer versions of tvOS.
• All DLCs in Apple TV Edition are included directly in the game's code rather than being downloaded from an external server. While there is no known way to hack the game to unlock the DLC, the default skin can easily be modified to any of the DLC skins or any skin available online.^[10]
• Apple TV Edition is the third-shortest supported version of Minecraft, lasting just 92 weeks before it was discontinued. It is surpassed only by New Nintendo 3DS Edition at 70 weeks and Nintendo Switch Edition at 58 weeks.
• Apple TV Edition was the last version of Bedrock Edition to include the Edition subtitle, as it never received the Better Together Update.

Gallery

• 
  Minecraft: Apple TV Edition logo
• 
  Apple TV Edition App Store page
• 
  Apple TV home menu banner
• 
  The message shown in-game announcing the discontinuation.
• 
  Minecraft: Apple TV Edition Nimbus Controller Bundle
• 
  Minecraft: Apple TV Edition Nimbus Controller Bundle scratch card
• 
  Apple TV Edition credits

Promotional screenshots

References

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