Microsoft Corp. won’t be leaving Minecraft fans out in the cold come Windows 10 later this month with an announcement over the weekend that a new version of the wildly popular building game will be released at the same time as the new operating system.

Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta is said to be effectively the Pocket Edition of Minecraft for all Windows 10 devices, and will also allow users to create and explore online with up to seven other friends using Xbox Live.

Mojang (the Microsoft-owned company behind Minecraft) said in a blog post that the new version will develop and evolve over time with the help of user feedback, and hence that’s why it’s being launched as a beta version, as, in their words “it’s not quite finished, and will become even more fun over time.”

The new version will allow users to play online and local multiplayer with other Pocket Edition players (with an update due to arrive soon after launch,) offers multiple control schemes, allowing users to switch between controller, touch, and keyboard controls “with little to no effort,” and the ability to record and share game play highlights with built-in GameDVR.

Minecraft for Windows 10 will also allow users to help shape the future of Minecraft “with built-in player feedback mechanisms,” although it isn’t clear exactly how in depth or easy to use the feature is.

Limited features

The pocket version of Minecraft is usually considered to be a limited version of Minecraft by dedicated players/ users, or as Jeff Gerstmann at GiantBomb points out:

..including compatibility with Pocket Edition must mean that this version is limited in its feature set, right? I’m no engineer, but I suspect moving away from Java could result in a more optimized and feature-rich Minecraft client. But this sounds like a separate thing built for more cross-platform compatibility that sort of brings the console-level feature set back to PCs. I’m not really sure why PC players would actually want that, considering the core version of Minecraft has been way more functional for years now, but again… it’s hard to parse out the full details from this initial announcement.

The move away from the Java client was always eventually going to happen under Microsoft’s ownership, but the question becomes one of at what cost to Minecraft players?

The new version of Minecraft for Windows 10 beta will be free for existing players, or $10 for new users.