Minecraft executive producer talks about building a relationship to bring Minecraft to Wii U, and the success the game has found on Switch

There was a time when many believed Minecraft would never appear on Nintendo platforms. Thankfully that ended up not being the case, and Minecraft has found success on numerous Nintendo platforms. In an interview with Famitsu, Minecraft executive producer Roger Carpenter talked about working with Nintendo to bring the game to Wii U, which paved the wave for future collaborations.

Since the release of the Wii U version in 2016, we’ve been building up a more amicable relationship with Nintendo. With the move to the Bedrock Edition in June – more so than before – we’ve realized cross-platform play, and that seems to have appealed to a lot more users.

As for Minecraft being a hit on the Switch… This might seem obvious, but the hardware’s design and the game’s playstyle were a perfect match for each other! You can play while lying down in your bedroom or living room, or even when you actually go and meet up with friends. About a half a year ago you’d see children in restaurants around the UK playing Minecraft on their tablets – now they’re playing on their Nintendo Switches! So, it seems that Minecraft isn’t just popular in Japan, but the UK too. Cross-platform play was what realized that boost in popularity; we figured, “if we’re going to have cross-platform play, it should be on the Switch, too.”