Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

'Minecraft: Pocket Edition' to cease updates on Windows Mobile phones

By

minecraft pocket edition windows updates 6101688423 a8f9baa976 b cropped
Mike Prosser/Flickr
Windows Mobile will now see a major hole in its already wide app gap as Minecraft: Pocket Edition will cease updates on the platform.

Sources confirmed to Windows Central that Minecraft: Pocket Edition will be ending support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 mobile devices.

Recommended Videos

It is reported the amount of time users spend on Minecraft: Pocket Edition on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 mobile is very low. So low that it doesn’t seem to be worth developer Mojang’s time to continue supporting the platform. The game will still remain available for download, but new features will be absent.

As of now, it’s uncertain if Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition will continue to see updates. While both Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition were updated simultaneously, both are still separate apps and are not part of the Universal Windows Platform.

This comes as surprising news as Microsoft purchased Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014. Although Mojang is under the Microsoft umbrella, Minecraft would continue to be supported and updated for Sony, Nintendo, iOS, and Android platforms.

Windows Mobile has seen a steep decline ever since Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft. Under Steve Ballmer, there seemed to be more emphasis put on the platform. Nadella even caught the ire of investors for doing such a poor job with bringing Microsoft-made apps to Windows Mobile. Nadella hinted that Microsoft is waiting to reinvest with Windows Mobile on the enterprise end and is waiting for the next big leap in mobile technology.

Late in 2016, Microsoft unveiled that Windows 10 would soon be able to run on ARM processors via emulation. This was a massive technological achievement and points to Microsoft eyeing to create a true all-in-one phone/computer hybrid. Patents also surfaced of a new mobile device that can fold out into a tablet. Many believe this could be the long-rumored Surface phone.

Regardless of future conjecture, now may not be the best time to be a Windows Mobile fan.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Imad Khan
Imad Khan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…
Apple is updating one of the oldest apps on your iPhone
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro showing the screens.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro (left) and iPhone 15 Pro Max Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Apple has updated one of its original iPhone apps, the Clock app, in the first iOS 17.4 beta. Specifically, the update includes a small, but significant change to the Stopwatch function.

Read more
iOS 18 may be a giant iPhone update. Here are 6 things it needs
iPhone 15 Pro display with iPhone 15 Pro Max in background.

A new year means new software updates. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, iOS 18 could be the “biggest” update for iOS in quite some time, though this is something we tend to hear every year. I’m not sure any iOS update has been as big as the jump from iOS 6 to iOS 7, as a lot of the features and design changes since then could be considered iterative.

Personally, I think the last “biggest” iOS update for me was iOS 14, as it allowed for home screen widgets and app icon customization without a jailbreak for the first time. Since then, there haven’t been as many new features in iOS that have been game changers for me, but this is all subjective. What was a big deal for me may not be the same for you, and vice versa.

Read more
Apple is about to change iPhone web browsing forever
The search bar position in Safari on iOS 15.

Apple has today announced a major change that could revolutionize the web-browsing experience for iPhone users. Alas, this browsing boon will be limited to users in the EU bloc. This news was announced alongside Apple's plans to add sideloading and third-party app stores to the iPhone.

To comply with the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple says it will allow developers to use other browser engines for their web browsers. That means Apple will no longer force them to use its own WebKit rendering engine, which is the underlying tech behind what any web browser can do on your phone. That’s a massive rule change.
Deliberately spoiling the browsing experience

Read more