Mojang's original version of Minecraft, which millions play, will now require a Microsoft to play for security's sake, Microsoft says.

New to Minecraft? Here's all you need to know about the difference between Bedrock and Java, and how it affects you.

Java is quite platform-independent and mostly upwards compatible, so it is common to compile a piece of code using a given J2SE version and expect it to work in later JVM versions.

Minecraft runs on Java version 17 as of this pre-release – and you can expect the same to be true of the live version of Java Edition once 1.18 officially lands.

The forthcoming Minecraft: Education Edition, written in C++, looks faster and smoother than the old Java version, but won't be compatible with all the old mods. If Microsoft mis-handles the ...