Minecraft’s latest Switch update reportedly freezes the game on the loading screen

Players of the Switch version of Minecraft are experiencing problems loading the game after its latest update.

A new patch was released for the game earlier this week, bringing it up to Version 1.19.70 and adding improvements to the emote system as well as other tweaks and bug fixes.

However, as reported by Nintendo Life, Switch owners are complaining that they’re no longer able to play the game after downloading the update.

Specifically, players appear to be getting stuck on the game’s loading screen, which gets as far as 66% then stays there permanently.

The issue was raised as a bug on Mojang’s support page and was initially closed by the studio, which believed it to have been resolved.

After players continued to raise the issue, however, the studio reopened the issue, saying: ” Sorry for any confusion, we are looking into this! Thank you for your patience.”

The studio then tweeted: “We are aware that the 1.19.70 update is causing some performance issues for players on Switch. We are actively looking into solutions and hope to have the issues addressed as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and we apologise for the issues caused.”

Some players have reported that the issue can be resolved, albeit partially, by closing the game, putting the Switch in airplane mode, restarting the console and booting the game again in airplane mode. Nintendo Life claims this method worked for it, but others say it hasn’t resolved the problem.

4J Studios, the Scottish developer best known for the Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox versions of Minecraft, announced in October that it will be moving into publishing and focusing on releasing games made by other Scottish developers.

The studio’s first published game, Skye Tales by Dundee-based studio Puny Astronaut, will be released later this year.