Bedrock Edition

The Bedrock Edition (also known as the Bedrock Platform, Bedrock Codebase or Bedrock Engine) refer to the multi-platform family of editions of Minecraft developed by Mojang AB and Microsoft Studios, originating from Pocket Edition. Prior to this term, this entire product family has been referred to using as "Pocket Edition", "MCPE", or "Pocket/Windows 10 Edition".

The Bedrock Edition includes Pocket Edition, Windows 10 Edition, Gear VR Edition, Apple TV Edition, Fire TV Edition, and Xbox One Edition, and is soon to include ports to the Nintendo Switch, all of which will be consolidated under the title of Minecraft (with no subtitle) starting with the release of the 1.2 Better Together Update.

As with Console Edition and Java Edition, updates are free of charge.

Gameplay
The objective of the game remains the same as its Java and Console Edition counterparts, where players can build virtual realities in a sandbox-like environment. Like its counterparts, the Bedrock Edition also has survival elements present in other versions of the game such as brewing, hunger, and dimensions like the Nether and the End. The multiplayer mode is cross-platform compatible between all touch-screen devices capable of running the Bedrock Edition.

The HUD and other elements are adapted to mobile standards of gameplay. Interactions are made via touchscreen (both the iOS and Android versions of Bedrock Edition have the same gameplay ). To comply with the disadvantages of touchscreen gameplay, several features were revised. For instance, the crafting system uses the MATTIS system and items are disposed by long-tapping their icon on the hotbar. For better visibility on mobile screens, blocks being aimed at are highlighted rather than outlined. Unlike mobile's crafting menu, Windows 10 Edition's crafting menu is similar to the Java and Console crafting menu. The game was released with graphics similar to that of Minecraft Alpha (bright green grass blocks, old cobblestone texture, etc.), but as of Alpha 0.8.0, graphics have become equivalent to the Java Edition with light tinting and shading affected by the Sun's position. Differences from the Java Edition include:


 * Some mobs have some sort of difference from their Java Edition counterparts. See the Mobs section below.
 * Multiplayer allows for 4 ways of player connection:
 * Through LAN, allowing for 8 players to be on a single world
 * Through Pocket Realms. Pocket Realms was closed in Alpha 0.7.6 and now available again in Alpha 0.15.0.
 * Through a user-created external server. A list of server software can be found on MCPE server software.
 * Through Xbox live

Exclusive features
Bedrock Edition differs from the Java Edition in a variety of ways, such as more vibrant graphics, revised terrain and exclusive items. The development team stated that once Bedrock Edition is up to date with Java, it will start making its own diverse progress.

Development

 * Planned Versions
 * Mentioned Features
 * Removed Features
 * Development Versions

Release
A video of an early prototype was released on Twitter, showing the game on the Xperia PLAY. The alpha version was later released, and became no longer exclusive to the Xperia PLAY on the 7th of October 2011. The non-exclusive version was going to be released on September 29th for Android but there were several severe bugs that needed to be fixed; the release was delayed until the 7th of October.

A version for iOS devices was confirmed to be released before 2012 in an interview with Mojang and was subsequently released on the 17th of November 2011

Alpha
After the initial releases for iOS and Android, updates were released in parallel, with the same features being added for both platforms. During the Alpha stage, various aspects of gameplay were introduced into the Bedrock codebase including: crafting, smelting, more blocks, items, mobs and more game modes to bring it closer to the Java Edition. As the Minecraft Pocket Edition development team works closely, often blocks released on the computer version are released around the same time for the Pocket Edition. Certain features were also tested on Pocket Edition before their Java releases, such as beetroots and their related items, and also block models.

During the Alpha phase, the Bedrock Edition was ported to more platforms: first the Pocket Edition was released for FireOS on September 13, 2012, and for Windows Phone on December 10, 2014. The Windows 10 Edition Beta was released on July 29, 2015, at a higher price than the Pocket Edition, although Java Edition owners can redeem a copy for free. The Gear VR Edition was released April 27, 2016 for the same price as the Pocket Edition.

Two spin-offs, based on the Bedrock codebase, but separate from the Bedrock Edition, were also released during this period. The Pi Edition is a free version of Minecraft for the Raspberry Pi, which remains on an old alpha version of Bedrock. The Education Edition was released for Windows 10 and Mac on November 1, 2016.

Full Release
On November 11, 2016, 1.0 (the Ender Update) was announced. It was released on December 19, 2016, along with the Apple TV Edition and Fire TV Edition. Pocket Edition began to receive updates again for Windows 10 Mobile on February 22, 2017.

From 1.2, the Better Together Update, all editions of the Bedrock Edition no longer have the "Edition" subtitle and are renamed to simply "Minecraft". Ports of the Bedrock Edition for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch will be released along with the update, and owners of the original Console Edition for these consoles will be able to download the new version for free.

Builds
Starting on November 22, 2013, Mojang began to publicly release testing versions of full updates to Android users who opt into the beta program, in order to get major feedback, especially for bug reporting. This enabled the official updates to be considerably more stable.

Versions from 0.8.0 to 0.12.1 required opting into a Google+ group to receive development builds. Players would then see development updates appear as normal updates in the Play Store. On July 17, 2015, the Google+ group was removed due to the amount of spam and advertisements that the group attracted."  On November 3, 2015, the PE Beta team published a dedicated blog which was subsequently used for users to opt into the 0.13.0 beta program and to display changelogs for these development builds.

The Xbox Insider Hub app is used to opt into the beta program on Windows 10 since July 31, 2017, and on Xbox One since August 24. Before the release of the Better Together Update, the Xbox One beta was available only to owners of the digital version of the original Xbox One Edition, and not owners of the disc version.

Success
As of December 2013, Pocket Edition (the only Bedrock Codebase edition at the time) had sold 16.5 million copies, while at the same time, the Java edition had sold 13 million. These calculations came out after the 0.8.0 update. This was considered a huge success, with Pocket Edition outselling both the Java Edition and Console Edition, despite being considered to be the least-developed at the time.

On December 2, 2016, Marsh Davies announced that Pocket Edition had sold over 40 million copies (at the time, Java Edition had sold over 24 million). It is not clear if this statistic included Windows 10 Edition and other Bedrock Codebase editions or not.

Pocket Edition is also usually in the top 10 and regularly #1 in the App Store's and Google Play's Paid Apps Section in the Top Charts.