Minecraft is one of the widest available games in terms of the platforms it targets. Over the course of its lifetime since 2011, 18 different platforms have seen a Minecraft release. As the hardware ages, support for the game ends and the latest platform to be dropped is the Apple TV.

As MCV reports, Microsoft isn't making a big deal of ending updates and support for Apple's device. Anyone playing Minecraft on the media box will have seen a message pop up explaining what is happening. You can see the message in full in the tweet below:

The 10 year old mentioned it on Sunday. Didn't see the splash screen then but here it is... pic.twitter.com/XYQ2TirzM7 — mac-interactive ???????????? (@macinteractive) October 9, 2018

If you aren't happy about this and made any purchases for the game in the last 90 days, Microsoft is offering to refund your money. That's going to be welcome news if you've recently spent a lot of cash in the game and it should help you move to a different platform and start buying things again on the marketplace.

What the end of support really means is, when something breaks it won't get fixed. That will most likely happen when Apple releases software updates for the box. The game could continue to work for years, but it could just as easily be a few months.

If you're thinking of switching platforms, there's lots of options. I suspect jumping to the Nintendo Switch or New 3DS will prove most popular, but any of the current crop of games consoles have a version of the game available, or you could stick it on a cheap Linux or Windows 10 box under your TV.