Editorial: Answering the biggest Pocket Edition questions!

Here at Powered by Redstone, we get a lot of questions from players about Minecraft. Most have short answers (like when is Minecraft 1.x coming out), but some have longer answers. Today we will cover the biggest questions relating to Minecraft Pocket Edition, and hopefully we will make more for the other platforms as well. So here we go!

Why is Redstone not in Pocket Edition yet?

This is probably the biggest question we get regarding Pocket Edition. Think about Redstone on the PC. Redstone makes Minecraft lag like no other object in the game. Add a couple of redstone blinkers in the PC Edition and your powerful Intel i7 CPU PC can be brought down to 20 FPS. Imagine what that would do on a phone without being heavily optimized. It might run well on an iPhone 5S or a Galaxy S4, but Mojang also has to develop the game for lower hardware to make sure everyone can play the game.

Why is [PC Edition feature] not in Pocket Edition yet? It's the same game, can't they just move it over easy?

Unfortunately it's not easy. While Minecraft PC Edition is coded in Java, iOS only accepts applications and games programmed in C++ and Android only runs modified Java apps that run under it's Dalvik engine. In addition, Minecraft PE Edition uses several Java libraries that are not available on other platforms. Most of the time, features must be recoded from scratch to run on Pocket Edition.

What's taking so long for the update?

This question is more common than you think. Pocket Edition's fanbase is generally younger than the PC Edition's, because PE is more easily accessible and is a simpler game. This simply comes down to a game of patience. It takes time to add new features to Pocket Edition, give the developers a break. Patience helps too :)

Why does Pocket Edition take time to be approved?

After Mojang finishes a new version of Minecraft Pocket Edition, it must be sent to every app store (Apple App Store, Kindle App Store, and Google Play Store) to be reviewed. The review process of each app store is different, for example the Apple App Store reviews every app under a number of criteria manually while the Google Play Store simply runs an automated scan for malware. The review time for each app store is different, which is why sometimes (for example) a release comes out for Android before iOS.

When is Pocket Edition getting The Nether/End?

Mojang has said before that adding extra dimensions to Pocket Edition causes problems, especially in multiplayer. The host device would have to keep every dimension a player is located in it's memory, causing lag among other problems.

I'm going to switch to SurvivalCraft if Mojang doesn't add [insert feature here]!!!

Then do it, nobody's stopping you :P