Minecraft On Mobile Will Soon Get Command Blocks, Mods

Minecraft is popular, perhaps even notorious, for all the expressions of creativity and man hours lost in its open-ended, blocky, digital world. It is, however, perhaps a little known secret that that isn't the case for all versions of Minecraft. The original PC, not Windows 10, version of the game holds all those promises, but the mobile "Pocket Edition" and Windows 10 edition, which is a lot like the mobile edition, are a lot less capable. The wheels of change are turning, however, and soon those two versions will also be just as powerful.

Inside the world of Minecraft, in all editions, redstone has been the catalyst of change and many custom items. However, the power that the in-game element offers is quite limited compared to two things that Minecraft for PC exclusively has. One of those are command blocks, which lets players write new rules that enable features such as teleportation. Another are mods that, much like their regular PC gaming counterparts, let players change the programming of Minecraft itself, at least to some extent.

These two are the building blocks, almost literally, of many of the famed Minecraft mods and creations. They have long been possible on PCs but severely lacking on mobile. Microsoft and the now Microsoft-owned Mojang are intent on bringing the mobile versions, as well as the pseudo-mobile Windows 10 version, on par with the PC experience, fully opening up Minecraft to limitless possibilities, even if you're own your smartphone only.

It's not a done deal yet, however, and there are still many critical pieces missing. Developers are still researching ways to make it all possible without giving players all the keys to the Minecraft kingdom. Text input will also be a major consideration, as control blocks usually require entering a huge amount of code. Not a problem if you have a Bluetooth keyboard handy, but definitely an issue with only a touch screen.

There's no definite target date yet for these exciting new features, which could be disappointing to some Minecraft players on mobile. The silver lining is that Mojang has publicly committed itself to the task, making it just a question of when, rather than if.

VIA: CNET