That’s not what I meant. A developer version makes sense, but it’s not a special fun secret thing. There are what are known as developer kits or just “DevKits” for video game platforms like the Switch 2 or all the proceeding consoles since the 1980s. A developer version, while not the most benevolent approach, is plausible but not special.

That’s the one!

At this point, micro transactions for cosmetics are like candy. Kids will resent you and the values you try to impose if it makes them less able to participate in group activities. Restricting it to an allowance makes sense, disallowing it does not. I say this as someone who was banned from playing any video games as a kid for bullshit reasons.

There’s a reason that, when people realized smoking was toxic, they petitioned governments to ban them in increasing amounts and thus eventually de-popularize tobacco, rather than try to get kids to not smoke. If all your friends are allowed to, fuck whatever the reason is that you can’t.

Yeah, I’ve heard that before. “Oh, there’s a secret Mewthree that is only in the Japanese version. My uncledad works for Nintendo.” “There’s a secret island in World of Warcraft that the mods meet in to chat in private that if you manage to get there, you get admin powers from a developer. They ban- I mean, gave them to a friend of a guildmate.” “If you buy crypto, someday you’ll be video game rich and real rich, but the government don’t want you to know that.”

Fair, I wasn’t aware of stability issues.

Basically this.

I do want to point out, they COULD do BE ethically. Remove the subscription option and take a cut for all mod sales, and let private server operators and Realms use purchased mods while continuing to not charge players. Then put a legal ToS condition that using Realms requires such servers be operated without profit. Watch people set up private servers and Realms for their friends and charge private servers for API access. Done deal.

Of course, somebody at Microsoft wasn’t satisfied with that. They wanted complete control.

Protips for preparing for a potential end of java in a way that at least forces M$ to do something actually productive:

0. Don’t go quietly. Hold out if you are that determined to see Java continue.
1. NEVER get the Marketplace pass in Bedrock. It’s a bad deal meant to cater to fleeting, fad-chasing players. It also locks you out of purchasing limited-time items like any cosmetics and cancelling the subscription still leaves you screwed for 30 days.
2. If you’re a PC player, run a server or rent a Realm only if you don’t know anyone who has them and you can afford to. If you’re playing on Steam Deck or another Linux gamerdeck, do not host a local server, though Linux desktops are supported by the Minecraft Bedrock Dedicated Server software if you want to run one on a local, stationary setup.
3. Always buy Add-Ons, never Worlds, and never ever via “Marketplace Pass”. They rotate out mods in the pass, so it means you don’t even own a license to use it, let alone own the information you download as would be preferred (but will sadly never happen under Bedrock). I don’t know wtf Microsoft’s idiots were thinking at first, but Worlds are both useless and now functionally obsolete.
4. Avoid buying franchise “packs” and those sketchy “educational” sponsored content “adventures” exclusive to particular graphics cards. These are ultimately nothing more than an attempt to turn Minecraft into an advertizing medium like TV or social media, and support could end up dropped entirely for licensing reasons. Individual cosmetics appear to be an exception to this, as of April 2025.

Bugs seem gone, and you can make sideloadable mods for Minecraft. The issue is that many players just hate Windows (and tbf M$ wants too much if they think it shouldn’t be on Linux) and many others are long time fans of mods that can’t be replicated for legal reasons (e.g. Mystcraft) or who are not financially able to partake in a majority-paid modding experience.

Does anybody remember a mod for java which had something like “magic door to the Backrooms but it’s eldritch stone passageways”? And if you dug too deep you’d get stranded in an infinite darkness dimension with no light and only useless black voxels that break if you mine them. Would love to see that in Bedrock.

Eh, I never liked redstone. Everything else except Creepers was based on either reality or mythology. Redstone is just… Ugh.

Any recommendations for a good “realistic” replacement for redstone? Electricity, pneumatics/hydraulics, or even magic runes?

Well, I’ve never had a reason to play a nonexclusive game on Switch, fortunately. My condolences and I wish you a suitably-good laptop in the near future.

I freaking knew it. ^ _ ^