Comment by chrisdalke
23 days ago
There's actually two completely separate games (Java edition and Bedrock) that can't cross-play with each other. You can buy a Bedrock edition Minecraft for Windows that should be able to cross-play with the switch.
Java Edition is the original game and it's fairly easy to either host your own server (The dedicated server is just a .jar you run) or pay for a server ($10-40/mo) using a game server host.
Unsure about bedrock, there's some instructions here (https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/wiki/bds/#wiki_bedrock_de...).
There are extensions/plug-ins to the standard Java server, allowing Bedrock players, and xbox accounts to join:
https://geysermc.org/
(Plus Floodgate so they don't need a Java account)
I just setup a new family minecraft server last week and have successfully hosted java and bedrock players simultaneously (one coming in from a Nintendo switch, another from their phone and several from Java clients).
There are also plug-ins allowing older (or newer) client versions to connect to your server as well (ViaVersion, ViaBackwards).
Oh that’s awesome! I’ll have to try that.
FWIW with the Java version you can easily create a LAN Server in game, by joining a world and then opening it to LAN.
https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4410317081741-H...
EDIT: I just realized this works on Bedrock too, but don't know how the support on the Switch is
https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4410316619533-H...
Bedrock has self-hosted servers available too: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server/bedrock
They're pre-compiled Windows and Linux binaries, but if I'm remembering correctly, I think they're statically linked, and I had no trouble running the Ubuntu one on my Fedora system.
I used to keep a Bedrock server running on my desktop, and my son and I could pop in from a phone, tablet, or laptop whenever we wanted to.