We decided to let our kids play Minecraft, which is something I know of, but have never investigated.

My kids have a Samsung Tablet, and a W10 laptop and can play together fine (bedrock as I understand it), but their cousin, a hardcore Minecraft player, uses Java.

We want them to be able to play together. I see I can get them onto a shared server, but that isn't really what I want as I want them to be able to play just the 3 of them and don't want to build a box for that purpose only.

I am considering whether I just buy his cousin a Minecraft W10 license for his laptop, but are the accounts and assets available, transferable? My understanding is, that a MS account is mandatory in 2021 anyway, so I guess if that's the case, an account would contain all previously accumulated items and stats etc?

Right now, I just need a quick and easy way to get them playing together, ideally with the same hardware they have, and without having to start my nephew from scratch?

Any tips appreciated.