Tag: MOJANG – Nixinova News

Mojang Controversially Updates Minecraft Usage Guidelines

2023-08-07T06:41:00Z

The usage guidelines for Minecraft have been updated by Mojang for the first time since 2020, which has had a controversial reception by players.

The new usage guidelines for the game set out how consumers of Minecraft (players, server owners, content creators, and the like) are allowed to use the game and how they may use the "Minecraft" brand name in their work.

One of the primary issues causing controversy is the general wording featured in a clause that states that any content may be taken down at any time if we [Mojang] think that it is appropriate to do so, or we [Mojang] don't like what you are doing.

This is interpreted to mean that any content can be taken down at any time, for no reason.

Another controversial change is a clause stating that servers may no longer limit access to only players that own specific out-of-game content.

It further states that if the server is to have paid access, all players must be able to purchase this access and the cost must be the same for all players.

This is interpreted by players to likely affect the popular anarchy server 2b2t, which has a player queue when joining. Players are able to purchase priority tickets for this queue.

All servers must also now be suitable for children, with gambling, pornography, violence, terrorism, explicit lyrics, or other unsafe/mature content no longer being allowed.

The commercial usage guidelines are also changed to now encompass any non-commercial blogs, servers, community forums, fan sites, fan clubs, news groups, events, and gatherings.

Any in-person events related to the game are not allowed to use official Minecraft brand or assets on marketing materials create[d] and may not accept for-profit sponserships. The "Minecraft" name may be used now in a secondary name, secondary title, or description only.

Other changes include all servers being obligated to include "not associated with Mojang" disclaimers as well as terms of service disclaimers.

The full usage guidelines can be viewed on the Minecraft website.

Minecraft 1.19.1 Released with Controversial Chat Reporting Feature After Month Delay

2022-07-28T08:34:00Z

The first patch release for the 1.19 Caves & Cliffs update to the Java Edition of Minecraft was released today, after being delayed one month from its initial release date of 28 June.

The main focus of the 1.19.1 update is a new chat reporting feature, which has ended up being highly controversial in the Minecraft community.

The player reporting feature allows users to report multiplayer chat messages to developer Mojang, who are able to issue permanent bans from online gameplay if a message breaches the game's terms of service.

The feature arrives alongside a change to how messages are sent in multiplayer. All messages are now cryptographically signed by the client before being sent to the server so that the messages are verifiable.

As stated in an FAQ, the type of behavior that will get someone suspended or banned is hate speech, bullying, harassment, sexual solicitation, or making true threats to others. Early testing of the feature included 'profanity' and 'violence' as valid reporting reasons, but these were removed in a subsequent development build.

Criticism around the new feature revolves largely around concern that players will be have their accounts banned for messages that have been taken out of context and privacy concerns about private chat messages now being able to be read by Mojang staff if reported.

There system has also been shown to be exploitable, with players being able to misconstrue what another player has responded to. The exploit dubbed "gaslight" involves a player sending a private chat message to themself (which to the chat reporting system is indistinguishable from a public message), and then asking an unrelated question in chat. The private message and the response to the question are then reported, where to the reporting system it looks as if the response is to the private message.

https://twitter.com/Gildfesh/status/1552354161139757057

Apart from the chat reporting addition, the update also includes changes to the allay mob. Allays can now be duplicated by feeding one an amethyst shard while it dances to jukebox music.

The next major update to Minecraft, 1.20, is still yet to be announced.

Minecraft Will Soon Require a Microsoft Account to Play

2022-02-05T07:25:00Z

The period of voluntary migration from Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts will soon end, leaving players forced to use Microsoft accounts if they want to be able to play Minecraft: Java Edition.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1489660040097243144

The transition process from older Mojang accounts to newer, more secure Microsoft accounts began for Java players back in June of last year.

From last June until 10 March 2022, upgrading to a Microsoft account has been completely voluntary. From mid-March, all players will be forced to upgrade their Mojang accounts or else they will be locked out of playing Minecraft.

Mojang states that Microsoft accounts offer players more security measures to protect their accounts, such as two-factor authentication.

Although Mojang says the process is quick and simple, some users have reported been locked out of their accounts once migrated, with Microsoft's account recovery process seeming ineffective.

All players who migrate upgrade their Mojang account receive a "migrator's" cape that can be equipped to their player character.

More information about upgrading accounts can be found in the upgrading FAQ on the game's help website.

Critical Security Bug Affects Minecraft Java Client

2021-12-10T04:50:00Z

Original story (see the update below)

A critical security issue has been discovered that affects multiplayer servers in versions of Minecraft Java Edition as far back as 1.7.

https://twitter.com/slicedlime/status/1469150993527017483

Developer Mojang has not officially provided any specifics about the exploit, but advises users not to play any versions before 1.17 or any modded versions for the time being.

Mojang says that restarting the game's launcher should download a fix for the vulnerability, fixing versions 1.12 through 1.18. Versions prior to 1.12 may still be vulnerable.

The exploit lies in the logging utility program Log4j, before version 2.15. Minecraft makes use of this program for servers, but the program is also used by many other services.

How the vulnerability works is that Log4j allows connections to be made to arbitrary URLs using the logging text ${jndi:ldap://<url>}, which may then download malicious code to a user's computer. A malicious user may craft a chat messages that creates such a connection.

Any server running with a vulnerable version of Log4j (i.e. many unpatched Minecraft versions) is susceptible to having an attacker remotely run the downloaded code on a user's computer, which may allow the attacker to gain access to the device.

Mojang today released a release candidate for version 1.18.1, which they state fixes this security issue.

As a temporary workaround before the release of 1.18.1, Mojang advises disabling the lookup feature of Log4j using a JAR argument when starting the game.

https://twitter.com/slicedlime/status/1469165146463522818

Update

Mojang has published an article about the exploit, confirming the Log4j library as the cause and giving advice for users across different versions and mods.

Mojang has now released a patch for all earlier affected versions of Minecraft. The game's launcher must be restarted to get this patch.

Minecraft Realms has also been patched and is now safe to play on.

The all-clear has now been given for Minecraft players to play on unmodded multiplayer servers.

Mojang warns that modded clients may still be at risk from this exploit, but notes that popular third-party clients Forge, Fabric and Paper have been updated to patch the vulnerability.

https://twitter.com/slicedlime/status/1469277539927474189

Mojang will give updates on their social media channels if any further information becomes available.

Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs Update Part 2 Released

2021-12-01T20:15:00Z

Part II of the 1.18 Caves & Cliffs update for Minecraft was released by Mojang yesterday for all platforms, concluding the two-part update series.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1465713529634410498

1.18 is a continuation of the Caves & Cliffs update in which both the underground and aboveground have been completely overhauled with all-new , more realistic terrain generation. This is the first time since 1.7 in 2013 that the terrain has been overhauled.

The world height limit has been increased 64 blocks, up to altitude 319, and the bottom of the world has been moved down 64 blocks as well, from altitude 0 to altitude −64. This is an increase of 50% and makes the world feel so much bigger.

Caves have been revamped, becoming unrecognisable to caves from older versions of the game. They can now generate as massive openings and expansive labyrinths, though there are also some new very tight, claustrophobic caves – a large variety.

The previous update, 1.17, did not change terrain but added the relevant new blocks, items, and mobs, so 1.18 does not contain any of these, but rather focuses solely on terrain generation.

Five new biomes have been added in 1.18, all mountain-related. These are the grove, meadow, jagged peaks, stony peaks, and frozen peaks.

Due to the terrain overhaul, several hilly biome variants, such as the birch forest hills or modified jungle, have been removed since hills may now generate in any such biome.

Also biome-related, the dripstone and lush cave biomes, introduced but not implemented in 1.17, may now generate naturally underground.

A new terrain feature in 1.18 is the large ore vein, noodley lengths of iron or copper ore that may generate hundreds of blocks long. Some ores like diamond are also now less likely to generate exposed to air.

Lots of new music has been added, with a new music disc "otherside", as well as five new songs by Lena Raine and three by Kumi Tamioka to spice up your gameplay.

Some features that were originally going to be in this update, such as the deep dark and archeology, have been pushed back to future updates to become more complete.

For a visual guide to this update, see my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBtSLwqPk3Y&t=54s

Minecraft Live 2021: Everything You Need to Know

2021-10-16T20:26:00Z

This year's annual Minecraft show, Minecraft Live, has concluded, with a host of news and announcements, including which mob has been chosen by the community to be added to the game.

Minecraft Live 2021, hopefully the last year without in-person events, was a two-hour long show made by Mojang featuring all things Minecraft.

The pre-show featured many community members from around the world, including Mumbo Jumbo, Smajor, and Jazzghost.

Mob vote

This year's mob vote gave the community three options to choose from:

the glare, which helps you find which areas are dark enough for hostile mobs to spawn by becoming grumpy when it's too dark;
the allay, which when given an item goes and collects any more of that item it can find nearby and drops them off at a music box;
and the copper golem, which can be built by a player and likes to press buttons, and can freeze into a statue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s58orudNZ94

The glare came in last, receiving only 11.2% in the first round of voting and was eliminated.

The copper golem came second, receiving 37.8% of the vote in the first round and then 45.7% in the second round.

And the community has spoken: in first place is the allay, with 51% in the first round and 54.3% in the second, becoming the next community mob to be added to the game.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1449428016778682369

Update news

The first segment gave a recap of the soon-to-be-released 1.18 Caves & Cliffs Part II update, which revamps both underground caves and aboveground mountains.

But the update players were waiting to hear about was the following major update, version 1.19.

At the end of the show Mojang announced the Wild Update, focusing on nature above the ground and creepyness below the ground. The update is set to release on all platforms next year.

Note that all footage shown for upcoming updates is still a work in progress and may be subject to change.

Deep dark

The Wild Update includes some features previously set to be added in Caves & Cliffs Part II, specifically the underground 'deep dark' biome. This can be found at the bottom of the world and give you spooky challenges to try and overcome.

The deep dark contains sculk catalysts, which detect when a mob has died nearby and spreads sculk blocks to nearby rock. It also contains the sculk shreaker, which detects movement and creates a loud wailing noise and gives a pulsating Darkness status effect to anyone nearby.

In the deep dark generates the deep dark city, a spooky green- and gray-themed structure where the warden may patrol. The warden pops out of the ground if you make too much noise and can kill in two hits. It can also detect if you get too close too it.

Mangrove swamp

The swamp biome will receive an a new variant, the mangrove swamp, adding mangroves, mud, frogs and fireflies. The swamp came second in the biome vote of Minecon Live 2019.

Mangroves start from a small shoot and grow into a medium-sized tree with vines and thick roots. The addition of mangroves adds a new tree and wood type along with a new variant of all related wooden blocks.

A new method of transporting items will also be implemented, allowing you to place boats in chests to transfer many items across a large area more quickly. Doing so currently has remained a pain for over a decade now.

The mud block generates naturally in the mangrove swamp but can also be created by pouring a water bottle onto dirt. Mud, when placed above a dropstone block, will slowly be drained of its moisture and turn into clay. Mud can also be crafted into mud bricks.

To give life to the new swamps, frogs have been added, as well as their food source, tiny fireflies. Frogs start life as tadpoles, found in the ocean, which can be picked up in a bucket. There are different types of frog, dependent on temperature when growing up, such as the snowy frog or tropical frog. Each frog type has a unique ability.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1449433273071980548

Other news

Minecraft will be coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC on 2 November, including both the Java and Bedrock editions and many other games.

New Seasonal Adventures have been announced for Minecraft Dungeons, featuring new rewards, pets, skins and emotes.

Minecraft Live 2021 Mob Vote Choices Revealed

2021-10-13T20:15:00Z

Every year at Minecraft Live, Mojang asks the viewers to choose one new creature to add to Minecraft out of a given selection.

This year, the three mobs to choose from are the glare, the allay, and the copper golem.

The glare is a small ghost-like mob that floats around, trying to make its way to an area that is dark. If it finds a dark area, it will get grumpy.

If chosen, you could use this mechanic to find an area that is dark enough for monsters to spawn. This would replace having to use the in-game debug menu to check light levels.

Mojang have previously stated that they want to replace features of the debug menu with proper mechanics, calling it bad game design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYIQsr9vsws

The second mob is the allay, another ghost-like mob that, when given an item, will fly around collecting any more of that item it finds lying around. When a note block is nearby, it will dance, and drop any items it is carrying.

If the allay is selected, you could use this to easily collect fallen items from, e.g., a mob farm. The current method to do this is lots of water streams moving items, which exploits buggy water mechanics that Mojang may not want to keep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdxGwg7cgjw

Lastly, there is the copper golem, a player-crafted mob similar to the existing iron golem. The copper golem is attracted to copper buttons, a new block that would be added if the copper golem is selected, and will randomly press the buttons.

If chosen, you can use this mechanic to create a randomiser, which is quite difficult to do in Minecraft normally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVdBhu0KgJo

These three mobs are able to be voted on by the audience of Minecraft Live, starting at 16:00 UTC on this Saturday, 16 October.

In addition to the mob vote, the show will also announce the theme of version 1.19, the next major update after Caves & Cliffs Part II.

Minecraft Live 2021 Announced

2021-09-04T03:41:00Z

Minecraft's annual Minecraft Live convention for 2021 was announced yesterday by developer Mojang.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1433445392423833602

On 16 October 2021 at 16:00 UTC, Mojang will host a live show all about the game. It will include interviews with developers and community members and a new mob vote where players can vote for a new mob to be added to the game.

Additionally, the theme of the next major update to the game, version 1.19, will be announced, and more information about the remaining features of the Caves & Cliffs update may be revealed.

More information will be released by Mojang as we get closer to the date of the event.

This is set to be the last livestream-only Minecraft event, with Minecraft Festival set to begin next year, an in-person convention reminiscent of the old Minecon convension which ran from 2011 to 2016.

Watch the announcement trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qrUb7a821c

Fourth Experimental Snapshot for Java 1.18 Released

2021-08-18T04:24:00Z

The fourth experimental preview snapshot for Minecraft: Java Edition version 1.18 has been released, implementing new world generation.

Like its preceeding test versions, this snapshot ("1.18 experimental snapshot 4") makes changes to existing world generation, in this case making changes to the placement of various terrain features in a world.

In this snapshot, badland and desert biomes are now larger and extreme hills are now even more extreme.

Biomes in general have had their positioning in the world tweaked to avoid harsh boundaries between different biomes, and now generate less noisily, reducing the likelihood of tiny biomes being placed into a world.

Changes have also been made to structure placement. Jungle and desert pyramids will now no longer generate floating mysteriously on bodies of water.

Finally, river placement is now more natural, with rivers now creating fjords in mountain ranges instead of being weirdly placed.

The full release of 1.18, Caves & Cliffs Part II, is set to be at the end of this year. Proper snapshots for 1.18 are expected to start in the coming weeks.

Experimental Minecraft 1.18 Preview Released

2021-07-14T02:22:00Z

The first development version for Part II of the Caves & Cliffs update for Minecraft has been released, but in an unconventional manner.

This update comes simultaneously released on both editions of Minecraft, as "1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1" on Java (which must be downloaded from the Minecraft website instead of the launcher) and as part of version 1.17.10 on Bedrock (available under a toggle).

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1414978370971045900

The changes available in these versions include complete overhauls to cave, mountain, and terrain generation. Caves are now massive and mountains are much taller and now come in more varieties.

Specifically, there is now an increased height limit, five new mountain biomes, three new types of cave, and new ore distribution.

Many of these features were originally in early development versions for 1.17 but were reverted when Mojang announced that the Caves & Cliffs update would be split in two.

Mojang clarify the experimental nature of these preview versions by saying everything is subject to change [and] some features may be significantly changed or even removed in the future.

These are very early previews of the 1.18 update – Mojang says proper development versions for Caves & Cliffs Part II will probably start sometime around September, so there is still a two-month wait for new features.

Version 1.18 is set to release at the end of this year; Part I of Caves & Cliffs was released in June.

For a visual overview in the changes in the Java Edition version, see my video below:

https://youtu.be/52ocZPUewQU

Minecraft 1.17.1 Released for Java

2021-07-07T07:45:00Z

The first patch release for the Caves & Cliffs update on Minecraft: Java Edition was released today as version 1.17.1 by developer Mojang.

This update does not add any new features but rather includes some tweaks and fixes to improve the game.

https://twitter.com/adrian_ivl/status/1412406784271212546?s=20

Ultra-rare blue axolotls used to be able to be found in the wild, but they can now only spawn via breeding.

Two new death messages have been added for named aquatic mobs that die on land. These messages are not visible in the in-game chat, only being found in log files on-disk – the logging of deaths of named mobs is also new.

There have also been a few changes to the game's internationalisation. Classical Chinese has been added as a new language, and incomplete languages East Allgovian German, Manx, and Sicilian have been removed fron the game. New characters have also been added to the game's font.

The Caves & Cliffs update was released last month for all platforms as version 1.17.

Minecraft Earth Shuts Down

2021-07-01T20:08:00Z

Mojang's mobile AR game Minecraft Earth has been shut down and is no longer playable.

The cause of the game's death is COVID-19, as the discouragement of unnecessary travel over the past year and a half has lowered the player count of the game.

https://twitter.com/MinecraftEarth/status/1410282240781828100

The announcement came in January, when Mojang said they [had] made the difficult decision to [...] end support for Minecraft Earth in June 2021.

The game has been removed from app stores, and all content and service support for the game has now ended, making the game unplayable even if it is still downloaded on your phone.

Minecraft Earth was an augmented-reality game in the vein of Pokémon GO where players had to wander around their world to collect resourced and go on adventures.

It originally was released in beta in July 2019 with a gradual geographical rollout, fully releasing that December. Support ended 30 June 2021.

Minecraft Java Account Migration Process Begins

2021-06-27T07:02:00Z

The migration of existing Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts has begun, with a first batch of players receiving information on how to migrate their accounts over to the new system.

Mojang announced yesterday that migration has been opened to a limited amount of players.

https://twitter.com/MojangSupport/status/1408564982262865920

Players in the first batch will have received a notification in the Minecraft (Java Edition) launcher or on their profile page on the Minecraft website telling them they are now able to migrate their accounts to the Microsoft login system. Notifications are not being sent out via email.

https://twitter.com/MojangSupport/status/1408566724325101569

Mojang accounts have been in use for almost a decade now, since 2012, and Microsoft account logins have been the default for new players since last year.

Microsoft accounts offer players increased account security and player safety features, [says]](https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360050865492-Minecraft-Java-Edition-Account-Migration-FAQ) Mojang. Migrated accounts have access to two-factor authenication, making it harder for unautherised users gaining access to your account.

Microsoft accounts also offer a cohesive playing experience with players being able to use the same account for all editions of the game.

Once the to-be-announced voluntary migration period (which is expected to be a year or so) is complete, players still using Mojang accounts will not be able to log in to play Minecraft: Java Edition.

Preliminary account migration dates were apparently leaked back in January but Mojang did not begin the migration on the original date set.

Hypixel Back Online After Large-Scale DDoS Attacks

2021-06-22T20:24:00Z

The Hypixel Minecraft server is now back online after being in emergency maintenance mode for the past few days.

The server went down suddenly in the morning of 18 June (UTC), with Hypixel said on their website that network suffered a large-scale direct denial of service (DDoS) attack. These DDoS attacks have continued over several days.

https://twitter.com/HypixelNetwork/status/1405685074289299461

The team said their top priority is to mitigate the impact of these attacks as quickly as possible while working on permanent solutions that will shield [them] better from future attacks.

The server had been suffering from connection issues for several days before their emergency downtime, with the team having identified the issue with an upstream provider causing intermittent connection issues to the server and forums.

Hypixel have identified the cause of the security issue as a recent configuration change in their server hosting having left the network vulnerable.

On 19 June Hypixel stated that they had moved all their server hardware to run under Cloudflare, making the server 100% Cloudflare, with full DDoS protection from now on. However, this required the moving of many physical hardware units to the new network, which they say has taken a fair bit of time.

Today Hypixel is running an initial test with their new setup, with a severely limited player count and regular downtime. In their update edit they state that all of the new hardware has been configured to the new network and all the core servers and minigame servers are working great.

https://twitter.com/HypixelNetwork/status/1407390563746287618

Only players with paid ranks are allowed on the server as Hypixel transitions to limited maintenance mode. Any time-sensitive purchases players have bought will have their durations extended.

Historically, Hypixel is no stranger to massive DDoS attacks. The team say they have dealt with DDoS attacks for well over 8 years now and we have a great understanding of the [current] situation. Three years ago, in April 2018, Hypixel switched to using Cloudflare for DDoS protection after a series of attacks by Mirai botnets.

Minecraft 1.17.1 Pre-Release 1 Released

2021-06-18T20:40:00Z

The first pre-release for Minecraft: Java Edition version 1.17.1 is out now, beginning development of the first bug-fix update for the Caves & Cliffs update.

Pre-releases are the equivalent of beta releases – the update is mostly ready and only small changes and bug fixes will be made from now on.

1.17.1 had no snapshots, as it will not add new features and instead just focus on fixing issues with the full release of 1.17.

This pre-release fixes a couple dozen issues, most of them reported during development of 1.17, relating to issues like disappearing ender pearls and font issues.

However, this pre-release also includes a couple of minor changes. Cauldrons now fill up with powdered snow twice as often, drowned zombies now drop copper more often, the blue axolotl can no longer spawn naturally, and screaming goats can be bred from regular (non-crazy) goats.

As it is in the pre-release stage of development, 1.17.1 is expected to release relatively soon, within the next few weeks or so.

Java Edition 1.17.1 is not to be confused with 1.17.1 on Bedrock Edition, an update released last week for the Nintendo Switch to fix a server issue.

Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Part I Released

2021-06-08T20:22:00Z

Part I of the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update has been released today by developer Mojang on all platforms.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1402280448622010382

Part I does not include all Caves & Cliffs features due to the update being split in two back in April.

However there are still a plethora of new features available in Part I. These include:

amethyst geode structures, found underground
azalea flora, found in the new lush caves
the axolotl, found underground, which attacks aquatic mobs
goats, found in mountains, which like to ram other mobs
glow squids, found underground, which drop glow ink that can craft glowing item frames or signs
copper ore and copper blocks, which weather over time
candles, which come in 16 different colours
tinted glass, an opaque form of glass
the spyglass, used to zoom in on a far-away area
dripstone stalactites and stalagmites
deepslate rock, found at the bottom of the world and can be crafted into many different variants
bundles, used to store a haphazard collection of items
sculk sensors, which detect vibration
and more!

Features to be added Part II include the manor world generation changes like an increased world height, mountain biome overhaul, and the deep dark biome set to include the new warden mini-boss. These features were originally added during development for 1.17 but were removed when the update was split.

Part II of Caves & Cliffs is set to release at the end of this year as version 1.18.

In the meantime, Part I is available now on all supported platforms. Simply update the app on mobile or open the launcher on PC to get the new version, 1.17.

Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Release Date Announced

2021-06-01T03:24:00Z

The release date for Part One of the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update has been announced by developer Mojang.

The first part of Caves & Cliffs is set to be released on 8 June, Mojang announced earlier today, which is in just one week's time.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1399380652261265414

Part One does not include all Caves & Cliffs features due to the update being split in two back in April.

The new features in Part One include amethyst geode structures, found underground; azalea flora, found in the new lush caves; the axolotl, goat and glow squid mobs; copper ore; candles; the spyglass; stalactites; and deepslate rock.

Features to be added Part Two include an increased world height, mountain biome overhaul, and the deep dark biome set to include the new warden mini-boss.

Caves & Cliffs will be released as version 1.17 on both Java Edition and on Bedrock Edition on all available platforms.

This announcement comes alongside the release of the second pre-release for 1.17, which fixes bugs.

Pre-Release 1 For Minecraft 1.17 Released on Java

2021-05-27T20:50:00Z

The first pre-release for Minecraft (Java Edition) has been released as the release of the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update edges closer.

1.17 Pre-release 1 marks the point of feature-completeness for the update; from now on only bugs will be fixed in future pre-releases.

This pre-release readds the candle block as well as its crafting recipe. The candle was removed a couple of weeks ago due to incompleteness, and has been readded with a new lit texture.

Speaking of light changes, signs are now a lot more visible when glow ink is applied to them, having an outer glow now.

As is usual once an update reaches the pre-release period, a bunch of new achievements and menu splash text messages have been added, and the credits have been updated.

The achievements relate to the new features added in 1.17 and their names are always puns, as is common in video game achievements. These include "Whatever Floats Your Goat!" achieved when entering a boat with a goat and "Is it a Bird?" when looking at a parrot through the new spyglass.

New splash messages include Schwarzenegger reference "Get to the coppah!" and "[this splash text has been delayed until part 2]" which references the split of the Caves & Cliffs update into two separate versions.

Once the pre-release period comes, the full release of the update is nigh; expect 1.17 to release sometime in June.

Minecraft Dungeons Hidden Depths DLC Revealed

2021-05-11T06:13:00Z

A new ocean-themed DLC for Mojang's Minecraft Dungeons has been unveiled, along with a release date.

The Hidden Depths DLC will be released in two weeks time, on 26 May, the first anniversary of the game's release. It was originally shown during last year's MINECON livestream.

https://twitter.com/dungeonsgame/status/1391770024159981570

Hidden Depths will be the third DLC for the game's paid Season Pass, and the fifth DLC released in total. DLC is released for Dungeons every three months or so.

In this new DLC, players will have to fight a spreading corruption that has reached the darkest depths of the ocean, says Mojang. The DLC includes all aquatic creatures from Minecraft as well as some new mobs, such as the tropical slime and sunken skeleton, as well as an elder guardian boss.

Alongside this release, a new feature is coming to Dungeons: raid captains. These are challenging enemies that hide in various areas of the world. When killed, they provide useful bits of treasure. Also being added are new item enchantments and new game levels.

Minecraft Dungeons is available for Windows, Xbox, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. The Standard Edition is US$20 while the Hero Edition (which includes the Hero Pass DLC) is US$30.

Minecraft Reaches 140 Million Monthly Active Players

2021-05-11T05:02:00Z

The best-selling video game of all time, Mojang's Minecraft, has reached record active player counts even a decade after its full release.

Updated figures have been revealed in Microsoft's latest quaterly financial update.

The transcript states that Minecraft had nearly 140 million monthly active users, up 30 percent year over year in Q1 2021, with independent add-on creators earning over $350 million [USD] from more than one billion downloads in total from the official Bedrock Marketplace.

This figure is a sizeable proportion of Minecraft's total player count of 600 million, of which a third are paid sales and the remainder from the free version in China.

These new figures prove that Minecraft remains extremely popular a decade on from its full release in November 2011. It was first released publicly 12 years ago next week, on 17 May 2009.

This continued popularity is helped by the consistent yearly or half-yearly updates put out by Mojang, most recently the Nether Update as well as the upcoming Caves & Cliffs update. There have been over a dozen themed major updates since the game's full release.

First Bedrock Beta for 1.17 Caves & Cliffs Released

2021-04-21T22:36:00Z

The first proper development version for Minecraft (Bedrock Edition) version 1.17, the first half of the Caves & Cliffs update, has been released.

Beta 1.17.0.50 (Bedrock beta version numbers start at 50 for some reason) adds all of the features unique to Caves & Cliffs Part One.

The lush caves biome, filled with a variety of plants, now generates underground, filled with dirt, glay and moss.

New blocks added in this beta include all varieties of amethyst, raw metal blocks, tuff and calcite rocks, and tinted glass.

New items include item forms of the raw metals and the spyglass, including a unique animation for looking through one.

This beta also brings other features from Java Edition to bring update parity between the two editions, including copper being oxidised when struck by lightning as well as stalagmite growth.

The beta is available on Xbox One, Windows 10, and Android for users who have entered the beta program on each platform's respective store. The "Experimental Gameplay" toggle must be enabled before creating a world in order to receive the new Caves & Cliffs content.

This beta was released alongside a new snapshot on Java Edition.

Minecraft 21w16a Adds Stalagmite Growth to Java

2021-04-21T22:18:00Z

This week's development snapshot for the upcoming Minecraft 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update: Part One has been released by developer Mojang.

Snapshot 21w16a adds a few new features, changing stalagnates and azalea bushes.

A stalagmite that have a stalagtite above it dripping water down onto will now very slowly grow taller. This process is extremely slow, taking many in-game days, mimicking the slow growth of stalagmites in real life.

Another new feature in this snapshot is the ability to grow azalea bushes into trees using the bone meal fertaliser.

This snapshot also includes a few tweaks, such as the texture of raw mineral blocks and items being changed.

Caves & Cliffs: Part One is set to be released in the middle of this year, with Part Two coming near the end of 2021.

The first Bedrock Edition beta version for 1.17 was released alongside this snapshot.

For a visual guide to the changes in this snapshot, watch the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgYXvLqWsjk

Minecraft 1.16.230.56 Beta Revamps Cave Generation for Bedrock

2021-04-16T06:09:00Z

A new beta version for the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft is now out, introducing new cave generation.

Beta 1.16.230.56 releases just a day after developer Mojang announced that the cave generation changes that were already implemented on the Java Edition were being reverted and postponed until part two of the Caves & Cliffs update, which is set to release at the end of the year.

Nevertheless, beta 1.16.230.56 has been released on Bedrock, revamping cave and ore generation.

This beta adds a new type of cave known as noise caves that are much larger and more varied than the existing caves (now known as carvers), and introducing varied cave water levels to create flooded areas.

It also updates ore generation to match the new world height, which now goes 64 blocks deeper down than before.

In addition to the underground changes, this beta fixes a few bugs including several crashes.

Although a beta for bug-fix update 1.16.230, its beta versions include Caves & Cliffs features for early testing. These features are behind an in-game toggle and will be removed for the full release of the version.

Minecraft Caves & Cliffs Update Split in Two

2021-04-15T05:57:00Z

Mojang has made a major announcement regarding the Caves & Cliffs update today: there will now be two of them.

Mojang says in an announcement that they have decided to split Caves & Cliffs into two parts, as the ambition level of this update and the current state of the world has made it difficult to deliver on this promise while sticking to [the] original timeline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YgKUZnUyak

The first part of the update will be releasing in mid-2021 while the second part will be releasing at the end of the year (summer and around the holiday season, respectively).

The first stage is now what is in development, focusing on mobs, cool items, and new blocks. The second part will add the world generation changes.

The Caves & Cliffs update was first announced during Mojang's annual Minecraft Live stream last October and was originally set to fully release in mid-2021.

Because the world generation revamp is now being pushed back to the second stage of the update, development snapshot 21w15a has been released to revert the cave overhaul added in previous snapshots.

This change reverts the world height to 256 blocks in height (down from 384) and removes all of the new cave types. Worlds made in previous snapshot are no longer openable in the new version.

21w15a also adds block forms of the raw iron, gold and copper items added last week and adds a new data storage medium for map makers called the marker.

For a guide to the changes in snapshot 21w15a, watch the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9PjDdYJv6o

Minecraft 21w14a Adds Raw Metals to Java

2021-04-07T23:18:00Z

A small development snapshot for Minecraft (Java Edition)'s 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update has been released, adding one new feature: raw metals.

Snapshot 21w14a includes three new raw metals: raw iron, raw copper, and raw gold.

Each of these three raw metals drops from their respective ore block. In previous versions of the game, the ores dropped only themselves.

Raw metals act no different to their respective ores, apart from the fact they can't be placed down. Raw metals still must be refined by being smelted down into ingots, for use in crafting recipes.

The reason these items have been added is to syncronise the collection of all ores, making it so all ores in the game now drop items.

This change allows all ores to be effected by the Fortune enchantment, which allows you to gain extra minerals from a single ore block.

To get an ore block to drop itself instead of a raw metal item now, the Silk Touch enchantment must be used on the tool you are using.

Other changes in this snapshot include oxidized copper now being able to be waxed and several bugs being fixed.

The Caves & Cliffs update is set to release for all active editions in just a few months, and some of its major features are still awaiting addition.

For a visual guide to the changes in this snapshot, watch the video below:

https://youtu.be/lcb6glaXZuw

Mojang Releases Official Minecraft Screensavers

2021-04-01T22:17:00Z

For April Fool's this year, Mojang have released official Minecraft screensavers for you to use, called Minecraft Plus!.

Available on plus.minecraft.net, Minecraft Plus! is a screensaver application which can be used in the browser or can be downloaded and used as a proper Windows (7+) screensaver on your computer.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1377637191292174336

There are many different screensavers available, including one with the new glow squids swimming across the screen, and one with a camera moving over a grid of all textures in-game.

To install the Minecraft Plus! screensaver onto your computer, simply download the ZIP file and extract it in folder C:/Windows/System32. Then go to Windows Settings, click 'Personalisation', go to 'Lock screen', and open 'Screen saver settings'. Select Minecraft Plus! and apply your changes.

Minecraft Plus! is based off of the old Microsoft Plus! product for Windows XP, which includes screensavers and themes. This is reflected in the similar box art used on the Minecraft Plus! website.

If you're wanting a real update to the game this week, goats were added to Java Edition and axolotls were added to Bedrock Edition a day ago.

Minecraft 1.16.230.52 Beta Adds Axolotls to Bedrock

2021-04-01T04:56:00Z

Despite the date being 1 April, a new Minecraft (Bedrock Edition) beta version has been released by Mojang today, in conjunction with a Java snapshot.

Beta 1.16.230.52 adds the colorful axolotl mob, which has been in Java Edition for several months.

Axolotls spawn in flooded caves underground and come in five different varieties, including the super rare blue axolotl.

You can pick up an axolotl using a bucket. When damaged, an axolotl will 'play dead' while it regenerates.

Additionally, deepslate has been added, which generates at the bottom of the world, replacing stone.

Deepslate comes in a cobbled variant, dropped when it is mined. Cobbled deepslate can then be polished, chiseled, or turned into bricks or tiles.

All ores now come in deepslate variants, which can be found embedded within deepslate. These ores take longer to mine but otherwise act exactly the same as regular ores.

Copper can now be waxed with an axe by a player. This applies to but oxidised copper and cut oxidised copper.

This beta is available for Android, Xbox, and Windows 10 for users in the beta program.

Minecraft 21w13a Adds Goats to Java

2021-04-01T04:42:00Z

Despite the date being 1 April, a new Minecraft (Java Edition) snapshot has been released by Mojang today, in conjunction with a Bedrock beta.

Snapshot 21w13a (released in the 13th week of 2021, hence the name) is the latest development version for the 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update.

This snapshot adds the quirky goat mob to Java Edition, after it was added to Bedrock last year.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1377306515384758276

Goats spawn on top of mountains, and can be milked with a bucket and bred using wheat. Holding wheat will make them follow you.

Unlike their Bedrock equivalent, goats will not attack you. This will most likely change before the full release of 1.17.

Another new feature is the light block, which allows you to specify exactly what light level a certain space in the world will emit. There are fifteen different light levels available, which can be cycled through by right-clicking the block.

Light blocks are only available using a command as they are not a Survival gameplay feature.

Additionally, glow squids and axolotls will now spawn underground, inside flooded aquifer caves.

Other minor changes include horse armor protecting horses when inside powdered snow; the textures of axolotls have been tweaked; and large caves are slightly more common.

This snapshot also fixes over a hundred bugs, many of which regard rendering issues. Unused textures have also been purged.

For a visual overview of the major features in this snapshot, see the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5TW-ZqTKE

Minecraft 1.16.220.52 Beta Increases the World Height on Bedrock

2021-03-19T19:26:00Z

A new beta version has been released for [Minecraft] Bedrock edition, adding features for the upcoming Caves & Cliffs update.

This beta, 1.16.220.52, is the third development version for a revision of 1.16, 1.16.200. This revision will mainly contain bug fixes, and all the added Caves & Cliffs features will be disabled in the full release of this version as they are for the future 1.17 update, and are only available in this version's betas for early testing.

Beta 1.16.220.52 adds some new features from this week's snapshot on Java Edition, and several others from earlier snapshots.

Major news this week – the world height limit has been increased! The world can now generate down 64 more blocks, giving 384 total blocks to work with as the height limit was increased to 320 a few betas ago.

Worlds loaded from older versions will have the bottom of chunks filled entirely with bedrock blocks, contrasting with Java's method of just leaving that 64-block area as void.

https://twitter.com/Mega_Spud/status/1372575941734596616

The azalea plant block has been added, along with the azalea leaves. This block grows on the new moss, which comes with a carpet form as well.

Caves vines with harvestable glow berries have been added, which grow down from the ceiling of caves. Glow berries can be eaten to restore a full hunger point.

Also on the top of caves are hanging roots and spore blossoms which send particles down.

The dripleaf block is now available, which tilts when a player or other mob is standing on top of it. It comes in two types: big and small, where its size determines where it can be placed and how it can be broken.

This week the Mojang team have coordinated their additions, with the new changes on Java Edition being added to Bedrock in this version.

Copper blocks can now be waxed with honeycombs and unwaxed with an axe, and lightning strikes deoxidise nearby copper blocks.

Additionally, lightning rods can now be placed in water and glow when struck.

This beta version is only available on Android, Windows 10, and Xbox One, for users who have entered the beta programme. The Caves & Cliffs features are only enabled when the "Experimental Gameplay" toggle is enabled.

Minecraft 21w11a Makes Changes to Copper on Java

2021-03-18T04:17:00Z

The newest snapshot for Minecraft's upcoming Caves & Cliffs update has been released by developer Mojang.

This snapshot focuses on various quality-of-life changes and on fixing bugs.

The main changes in this development version regard the copper block and its weathered variants.

Copper blocks can now be waxed using honeycombs and unwaxed using an axe. Coloured particle effects will appear when you do so.

Lightning strikes will now deoxidise nearby copper blocks, returning them to a less weathered state. Blocks directly under the strike revert straight back to unoxidised copper while those around it just become slightly less worn.

Lightning rods, used to divert lightning strikes, now flash white when hit, and can now be submerged in water.

Moss was added a few snapshots ago, and since there is a block in the game called "mossy cobblestone" a clearer crafting recipe for it has been added by combining moss and cobblestone.

In addition, various textures have been tweaked, fixing a few pixels here and there on blocks like pumpkins, smokers and snowy grass.

Like any other snapshot, this one comes with bug fixes, this time with over a hundred, including a couple really old bugs from the early 2010s.

For a visual guide to the changes in this snapshot, see my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQi8E0bgTCI

Minecraft 21w10a Adds Lush Caves to Java

2021-03-11T04:32:00Z

The latest development version for the Java Edition of Minecraft, 21w10a, has been released by developer Mojang.

21w10a is the latest snapshot for the upcoming 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update and adds the lush caves biome.

https://twitter.com/adrian_ivl/status/1369677537685757952

This biome, found underground, is filled with various flora, such as moss, azalea bushes, grass, cave vines, and dripleaves.

You will be able to point out places in the world that contain lush caves underground by the azalea trees that generate above them, which contain flowery leaves.

Note that the lush caves does not currently generate in default worlds; the "Single Biome" world type must be selected with this biome to generate it.

The textures of all ores have been updates, and the missing deepslate variants of ores – redstone, emerald, and copper – have been added. Deepslate generates at the bottom half of the underground.

Three new blocks have been added: deepslate infested with silverfish, and cracked versions of deepslate bricks and tiles.

For the third week in a row, ore distribution has been tweaked, making emerald and lapis more common and copper, iron, gold and redstone less common.

Additionally, the game now uses OpenGL version 3.2 for rendering, enabling much-needed graphical overhauls.

These graphical changes necessitate updating the game's minimum specifications, which are listed on a support page.

For a visual guide to the changes in this snapshot, see my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pthmSKRhl-s

Minecraft Bedrock Receives Cliffs Overhaul

2021-03-04T20:49:00Z

Features for the Caves & Cliffs update continue to be added to the Bedrock edition of Minecraft. This week, it is the cliffs part of the update name that has received an overhaul.

This new beta version, 1.16.220.50, is out now on Xbox, Android and Windows 10.

If you open the new version and enable the "Experimental Features" toggle, you might see some completely new world generation when you open the world.

The mountains of the world have been revamped and split into several new mountainous biomes. These biomes are the Lofty Peaks, Snow Capped Peaks, Snowy Slopes, Mountain Grove, and Mountain Meadow.

To account for the new generation, the world height has been raised 64 blocks to 320 to match Java Edition. The new mountains only generate up to the old world height limit if 256, however.

New mountain biomes means mobs that currently spawn in those biomes must be switched around. Goats now spawn in the Snowy Slopes while rabbits can be found in the Mountain Grove.

The glow squid, which was previously removed in a recent beta due to an issue where they crashed the game, have been re-added in all their glory, along with all their related glowing items.

As usual, the new beta comes with a plethora of bug fixes, including a whole changelog section dedicated to listing fixed issues with dripstone stalagnate blocks.

If you want to play with the new features, do note that beta builds can be unstable and are not representative of final version quality, and that it is not recommended to open an old world in this new beta as the new terrain generation will not meld cleanly with the old.

Minecraft 21w08a Adds New Ore Variants

2021-02-25T04:21:00Z

The latest development snapshot on Minecraft: Java Edition for the upcoming 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update was released by Mojang this morning.

Snapshot 21w08a (released in the eighth week of 2021, hence the name) adds a couple new features, including new variants of existing ores and tweaked cave generation.

https://twitter.com/kingbdogz/status/1364634220329582593

The new grimstone block, added in last week's snapshot, has now been renamed to "deepslate", and a new cobbled variant has been added which is obtained from mining deepslate with a pickaxe.

A new variation of ores, deepslate ores, have been added to blend in properly with the deepslate caves. Not all ores have deepslate variants, as not all ores generate this far down in the world.

A new type of ravine has been added, called the crack carver. These generate as narrow, long, deep holes in the ground.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1364638952121110539

The tuff block has been removed from the casing of the amethyst geode structures and can now be found in amongst deepslate deep underground, replacing andesite.

Textures continue to be tweaked in these snapshots, with all of the regular ores getting a makeover as well as the blackstone block found in the Nether.

World generation also continues to be tweaked, with massive caves making their return, albeit slightly less common than before. Ore distribution has also been changed again.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1364635258260455425

There is an issue with this snapshot, however: iron is quite rare. A follow-up snapshot is expected within the next day.

https://twitter.com/slicedlime/status/1364635769617461253

For a visual overview of this snapshot, see my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02EsKrCcFJg

Minecraft 21w07a Revamps Ore Generation for Java

2021-02-18T05:07:00Z

The latest development version for the upcoming 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update on the Java Edition of Minecraft has been released by Mojang.

This snapshot, 21w07a (the first one released in the seventh week of 2021, hence the name), focuses on two main features.

The first is the addition of grimstone, a variant of stone that generates at the very bottom of the world for the last 64 blocks.

Grimstone comes in over a dozen different variants, including slabs, stairs, tiles, bricks, walls, and more.

The block is slightly harder than regular stone, making it take twice as long to mine.

The second main change in 21w07a is revamped ore distribution. With the increased world height, the placement of ores in the world has been tweaked to balance out the game.

Diamond now generates much more prevalently at the very bottom of the world, alongside redstone, with streaks of gold found there as well.

Lapis lazuli now generates nearly everywhere underground, and emeralds are now very common on the tops of mountains in that biome.

See the image below for a detailed diagram of the new ore distribution.

Cave generation has also been tweaked, reducing the number of caves and prevalence of flooding.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1362096196970512385

This snapshot was meant to include new grimstone ores, but these textures have been left out.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1362095363314876418

Other changes in this snapshot include a reordering of the inventory tab for redstone, moving commonly-used blocks and items to the top, and the addition of chains to hold up mineshaft passageways.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1362095297221062664

For a visual overview of this snapshot, see my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96hvQFLRZXQ

Minecraft 21w06a Increases World Height Limit for Java

2021-02-10T21:00:00Z

A long-awaited change has finally come to the Java Edition of Minecraft: the world height limit has been increased by half.

As the changelog post for snapshot 21w06a (a development update for 1.17) says, Mojang is now introducing the cave part of Caves & Cliffs.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1359563286296035330

This snapshot moves the maximum build height coordinate from 256 blocks to 320, an increase of 64, and moves the minimum height coordinate down from 0 to −64. This makes the Minecraft world a total of 384 blocks in height, up from 256.

The height limit has been 256 blocks for the vast majority of Minecraft's history, being added in version 1.2 back in 2012, so an increased build height has been a long time coming.

Ground level remains at around 64 blocks, so the world is now made up of 128 blocks of underground and 256 blocks of aboveground.

To fill the expanse created by this world height expansion underground, some new kinds of cave have been added.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1359564082110746625

Noise caves are a new type of cave generation, providing more natural variety. They come in two forms: cheese caves and spaghetti caves. Tasty.

Cheese caves form caverns of different sizes, while spaghetti caves create long, narrow tunnels.

The old cave generation, now known as carver caves, will still generate.

Another new type of cave is the aquifer, which fills up with water, sometimes leading to the creation of large underground lakes. This generation replaces the old underwater carver cave generation.

These cave changes will eventually be coming to the Bedrock edition of the game.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1359564711717724163

As well as the cave changes, this snapshot also includes a few other tweaks.

Dripleaves, the tilting plants added in last week's snapshot, will now tilt even if you sneak or jump on top of them. When powered by redstone, they will not tilt.

You are currently unable to load a world from previous versions in this new snapshot as the new word generation is incompatible with the old. This is expected to change in later snapshots.

https://twitter.com/henrikkniberg/status/1359586163493896193

The full release of 1.17, the Caves & Cliffs update, is expected to come around the middle of this year, so stay tuned for more snapshots.

For a visual guide to this update, check out my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUrmPp5knDc

Minecraft 21w05a Brings Cave Plants to Java

2021-02-04T20:14:00Z

Development for the Caves & Cliffs update has continued for the Java Edition of Minecraft, this week adding a variety of plants for caves.

21w05a (the first snapshot in the fifth week of 2021) was released yesterday and adds various cave plants, but do note that they do not yet generate naturally as the new cave biomes are still to be properly implemented.

A new leaf type, azalea, has been added, along with a small azalea bush block, both of which also come in a flowery variant.

The azalea bush grows from a moss block, which when fertilised spreads to nearby blocks and creates plants around it.

The moss block can be crafted into a moss carpet, a thin variant of moss used to cover the ground.

In watery areas, the dripleaf plant may be found. This block cannot support your weight, and will slowly tilt if you stand on it, eventually dropping you to the ground.

In caves, there is a new vine, which grows glow berries, which give off light, obviously. These berries can be harvested and eaten, especiallyby foxes.

Also growing from the ceiling of caves will be the large spore blossom flower, as well as hanging roots that grow from rooted dirt.

That's it for the new blocks, but there are also some other changes in this update.

Skeletons that fall into powdered snow will now slowly turn into the snowy stray variant.

The names of copper blocks have been changed, as they were previously very long. Waxed Lightly Weathered Cut Copper Stairs was a doozy; it is now Waxed Exposed Cut Copper Stairs – slightly better.

Various new events now trigger a sculk sensor (the vibration detection block), such as block entities like paintings being placed, shulker boxes opening, bells ringing, or a mob being interacted with.

For a summary of changes in this snapshot in a visual form, see my update video below:

https://youtu.be/F_JP640yX0M

Minecraft Java Account Migration Dates Leaked

2021-01-30T00:29:00Z

Dates for the migration of Minecraft accounts have apparently been leaked in a hidden file on Mojang's assets website.

Update (April): The date given by this file has since passed without any migration announcements being made, so account migration is still yet to come.

This migration involves moving users from their original Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts. These accounts are used for logging in to the game's launcher to be able to play the full version of Minecraft.

The reasoning behind the account move is so that people can use the same account for all editions of the game, to allow for parental controls to be synced across platforms, and to add better login security measures.

New users who purchased Minecraft Java Edition recently have had their accounts automatically created as Microsoft accounts, so this migration is just for moving older users onto the new account system.

The new details about the account migration come from an interesting source. A file titled accountMigration.json posted to Mojang's launcher assets site apparently reveals important dates in the account migration process.

Three dates are listed on the file: the start date for the account migration and the start and end dates for when migrating your account will be forced on you.

Account migration for Java Edition users begins on 12 April of this year, according to this file. Starting from that date you will be able to transfer your Mojang account over to a Microsoft account.

From this date, users will have a just over a year to migrate their accounts in their own time, before they will be forced to.

Forced migration over to Microsoft accounts, according to this file, will begin on 12 May 2022 and complete on 5 July 2022.

When the voluntary migration period ends, says Mojang, you’ll need to move your account or risk having it closed.

Note that Mojang has not yet made an official announcement about the exact details of the account migration process, so these dates may be subject to change.

Copper Added to Minecraft Bedrock

2021-01-29T02:24:00Z

The latest beta version for the Bedrock edition of Minecraft is out, adding a new material: copper.

This update, beta 1.16.210.57, is the seventh beta version for a future patch to 1.16, but also contains features for the upcoming Caves & Cliffs update, hidden behind a toggle.

As described in an article on Minecraft.net, this beta adds a variety of copper blocks to the game.

Copper is obtained from copper ore, which can be smelted into copper ingots. These ingots can then be used to craft copper blocks, which can then be polished or cut. All of these crafted varieties can be turned into their respective slab and stair variants.

As well as these decorative blocks, another block that can be crafted from copper ingots is the lightning rod, used to control where lightning will hit, useful for diverting it away from flammable blocks.

Copper ingots may also be obtained from killing drowned zombies, which previously dropped iron ingots instead.

Copper originally game to the Java Edition late last year in the first snapshot for the Caves & Cliffs update.

As usual, this beta comes with more than a few bug fixes, including fixes to the screen reader and structure block usage.

Minecraft Drops Support for Windows XP and Vista

2021-01-27T20:21:00Z

The old ways of playing Minecraft (Java Edition) will soon no longer work, with support for old versions and support the game's old launcher coming to an end later this year.

This news was announced by Mojang in a Tumblr post. Tumblr was used as the main update feed for the old launcher for Minecraft, which was replaced by the current one in 2016.

Upon loading the old launcher, users will be greeted with an explanation as to why their method of playing the game will soon no longer work.

In the second quarter of this year, Mojang will be discontinuing this old launcher, forcing players to use the new, updated one. In addition, they will also drop support for Windows XP and Vista, meaning that players on these operating systems will no longer be able to play newer versions of Minecraft.

The reasoning for this, says Mojang, is the approaching transition from Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts set to occur this year. This account migration brings Java Edition accounts in line with accounts on the Bedrock editions which have used Microsoft accounts for a while now.

If you are still using the old launcher, you will have to download the new launcher if you want to be sure you will be able to log in and play the game.

Minecraft 21w03a Adds Glow Squids to Java

2021-01-20T19:54:00Z

The first development snapshot of 2021 for Minecraft: Java Edition, 21w03a, has been released, adding a feature voted by players last year.

The glow squid was one of three Minecraft Earth mobs in the Minecraft Live mob vote last year. In two rounds of voting, the glow squid came out victorious, and has now been added to the game.

The glow squid does not yet spawn naturally in your world, so you will have to go into Creative mode and use a glow squid spawn egg to get one. They behave like regular squids, except, as the name suggests, they are brightly lit up in contrast to the darkness of the deep water.

The axolotl, added in the last snapshot in December, will attack any glow squid it sees, so be sure to keep them separate if you want to keep a glow squid.

When killed, glow squids drop special glowing ink sac items. These can be used to make item frames or signs glow in the dark.

Following the glowing theme, there is a new type of cave flora to be found in your world, the glow lichen. These spawn rarely in caves and light up the area around them.

Glowing things weren't the only features added in this snapshot, as it includes a few other changes, such as a new death message for when you fall to your death onto a stalagmite, "player was impaled on a stalagmite", to broadcast your demise to all players online.

As always, there have been a couple dozen bugs fixed in this snapshot, many relating to the dripstone caves biome and the shulker mobs.

For a visual overview of the changes in this snapshot, watch my short video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFVIrloOCc8

Minecraft 1.16.5 Released for Java

2021-01-15T19:46:00Z

Two days after its release candidate came out, version 1.16.5 of Minecraft: Java Edition was released this morning by Mojang.

https://twitter.com/adrian_ivl/status/1350074947834695681

1.16.5 is a very small release that fixes only two issues. However, these issues are so major that Mojang has hidden the information about them from public view.

The patch notes for this update only mention that two critical stability issues were fixed, not going into any further details.

These issues are both related to exploits that allow players to crash a server using very simple mechanisms. I will not detail these exploits here, but, for example, one of them relates to using an item on a single block to crash a server.

The exact details about these exploits are hidden from public view on the official bug tracker because it may take some time for all servers to update to 1.16.5, and Mojang does not want to implicitly encourage the use of these exploits on servers still running 1.16.4.

Servers do not need to update immediately, however, as 1.16.5 clients are compatable with 1.16.4 servers, meaning you can connect instantly to servers that haven't yet updated even if you are playing on the new version.

https://twitter.com/slicedlime/status/1350075304056905731

If you were expecting a new snapshot for the upcoming 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update this week, Mojang aims to release one next week, so stay tuned for some cool new features to be added soon.

Minecraft 1.16.5 Releasing Soon on Java

2021-01-14T04:05:00Z

The first pre-release for version 1.16.5 of Minecraft (Java Edition) was released this morning, and the first release candidate for 1.16.5 came out an hour later. But hang on, there's only one version! What happened?

First up, it's important to mention that this is a development version for 1.16.5, a patch to 1.16 (the Nether Update), not 1.17 (the Caves & Cliffs update), even though development of 1.17 is already underway.

This is because a couple of critical issues were found (mentioned later in the article) which necessitated a full release for servers running 1.16.4.

To get into the update, what was meant to be the first (and only) release candidate for 1.16.5 was initially released by Mojang under the incorrect title "1.16.5 Pre-release 1". Mojang soon replaced the download with a corrected version, titled "1.16.5 Release Candidate 1".

This means that there were actually two versions released today, but both of them are exactly the same (apart from the title).

https://twitter.com/adrian_ivl/status/1349373216712765441

Putting the messed-up release out of the way, the changes in this development version are minimal. This is because only major issues with the game necessitate a full release to be sent out, as other minor bugs are just fixed during development for 1.17.

There two major issues fixed in this version, both of which have an impact that necessitates the issue tracker items of each to be hidden from public view. In their news post, Mojang just state that they fixed two critical stability issues.

So what are these issues, and why are their details hidden on the bug tracker?

Both bugs pertain to methods of crashing a server using very simple mechanisms. Obviously Mojang does not want people using these methods before servers can update to 1.16.5, so the bug tracker items will be hidden indefinitely.

The full release of 1.16.5 will be out on Friday, unless further critical issues are found, so don't expect any more release candidates for it, as these two issues are the only ones important enough to fix promptly in a full version.

https://twitter.com/adrian_ivl/status/1349013183332294658

Snapshots for 1.17 are set to continue once 1.16.5 is released, so there may be a new snapshot in a week or two: be prepared for more Caves & Cliffs content this month.

First Minecraft Bedrock Beta of 2021 Released

2021-01-07T20:13:00Z

The first Minecraft (Bedrock edition) beta version of the year has been released, mainly to fix bugs.

This version, beta 1.16.210.54, is the fourth development version for 1.16.210. The "210" in the third segment of this version means that this is the first minor supplementary release after the second major supplementary release of 1.16. If the third digit was incremented, that would represent a bug-fix supplementary release.

So, 1.16.210 is to be a minor supplementary update to 1.16, and this is represented in the features added in this new beta, of which there are only three.

The three new features in this beta are as follows: a new text-to-speech option has been added to the audio settings menu to control the volume of speech output; the /camerashake command now has the ability to stop the current shaking action; and the /structure command now has the ability to delete saved structure lists.

Nothing major among that changelog, however, of course, the features are never the only part of this beta.

Notable changes due to bugs being fixed in 1.16.210.54 are that ink sacs obtained from wandering traders can now be used in crafting, screen reader support for the emote wheel on mobile, and the saving of split-screen players' characters when they rejoin the world.

This release is still a supplementary one for finalising the 1.16 Nether Update, hence the version number, but development of the new Cave & Cliffs update should be starting relatively soon for Bedrock edition – be on the lookout for the 1.17 betas.

Minecraft Earth is Shutting Down

2021-01-06T00:20:00Z

Mojang just announced today that their mobile AR game Minecraft Earth has just received its final update, and will be discontinued later this year.

In a post on Minecraft.net, Mojang state that because Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play, both of which are no longer possible due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to [...] end support for Minecraft Earth in June 2021.

Mojang continues by explaining exactly how this discontinuation will be done. All content and service support for the game will conclude on 30 June. This means that Mojang will stop all development, and after that date, you will be unable to download or play Minecraft Earth anymore.

To be clear, then: starting from July 2021, you will not be able to play Minecraft Earth at all, even if you keep the app installed on your phone. If you do try to, you will just get a server connection error, and the game will not load.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1346502225720467457

If you have previously spent real money on in-app purchases and do not own the base game, Mojang will give a free copy of the Bedrock edition of Minecraft to the Microsoft account you used to purchase the items.

Any rubies you purchased in Minecraft Earth will be transferred to Minecoins for Minecraft Bedrock edition, able to be spent on DLC from the Minecraft Marketplace.

Alongside this post, the final version of Minecraft Earth, 0.33.0, was released, dumping the remainder of the development team's unreleased content. This update adds many new mob variants and removes real costs from in-app purchases, preparing the game for its discontinuation.

Minecraft Earth is an alternate-reality (AR) mobile game where players explore the real world to collect blocks and go on adventures.

First released in closed beta in July 2019, the game entered early access in October and gradually rolled out worldwide over the rest of the year.

Since the worldwide release of Minecraft Earth, regular updates have been released every two weeks, adding new features each time.

One of the recurring new features added in each update are exclusive mob variants not present in the base Minecraft game, the most well-known of which is the moobloom. One of these exclusives, the glow squid, is set to be added to the base game soon, after being voted by players at last year's Minecraft Live event.

Download Minecraft Earth from the App or Play stores while you still can – you still have six months to play it.

What To Expect From Minecraft in 2021

2021-01-01T04:30:00Z

After a fantastic year for Minecraft with the release of the much anticipated Nether Update as well as the addition of Nvidia raytracing, Mojang is looking set to add further massive improvements to the game moving into the new year.

Caves & Cliffs

The long awaited and Cave & Cliffs update, long seen as just a pipe dream for fans, entered development a few months ago, with the most recent development version adding axolotls.

Mojang is still yet to implement their huge cave generation overhaul, adding expansive caverns bigger than anything seen before and more varied underground areas, but that should be coming soon to the game over the next month or two, as they would want to take players' feedback for months leading up to the full release of the update.

There are also many other features yet to be added, such as the spooky Deep Dark inhabited by the blind but acutely sensitive to sound warden, the fertile azalea cave biome, goats, and archeology dig sites. Expect all of these to be added soon.

The full release of 1.17 Caves & Cliffs is set for "summer 2021" (northern hemisphere), so the update will be out anywhere between June and September of this year. Expect it to be released quite late in that window, however, as there are many, many additions, changes and tweaks Mojang needs to perform before the full release.

After the release of 1.17, Mojang will of course spend the rest of the year releasing smaller or bug fix updates to optimise the recently added features. Expect one or two of these minor releases every two or so months after release for Java Edition and constant bug fixes for Bedrock.

Account migration

One major back-end change to the Java Edition of the game coming this year is the Microsoft account migration, where all players will have to transfer their old Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts. As a reward, you will get a free cape!

Mojang lists that this migration will allow for two-factor authentication (where you can use a separate device to verify your login), having players' Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons games be under the same account for easy access, and being able blocking the chat messages of disruptive players in multiplayer servers from being shown to you.

No set date has been set for the account migration, but expect to receive news from Mojang over the coming months about how the process will work – and how you can get your cape.

Other

As usual, the annual Minecon livestream (which changes its name every year) will be held around the last week of September, and will most likely announce the next major update after Caves & Cliffs, 1.18, which will probably be slated for mid 2022.

While originally postponed into 2021 back in March due to obvious reasons, the revival of the in-person Minecon event, Minecraft Festival, is instead now set be held sometime in 2022, although even that is not set in stone.

2020 saw the release of a new, fully-fledged RPG game by Mojang, Minecraft Dungeons, and the year before saw the release of mobile AR game Minecraft Earth.

Don't expect 2021 to bring any new surprise games, however. Mojang probably won't make any more games for a while now.

Conclusion

To wrap up, most exciting part of 2021 for Minecraft is obviously going to be the impressive revamp of the underground they have been undertaking for the past few months, but there are also these few other events you should be aware of. Happy new year.

Minecraft 20w51a Adds Axolotls to Java

2020-12-16T21:22:30Z

The final development update for 2020 of Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update, 20w51a, has just been released by Mojang Studios for Java Edition, adding two much-anticipated new features.

The first is a feature players have been excited for ever since the showcase of Caves & Cliffs at the live Minecon event back in October: the axolotl.

These fun little critters look cute on the surface, but place one in water and it will soon become a bloodbath. Axolotls will seek out and kill any fish or squid they come across, leaving rivers and other bodies of water full of dead fish and squid ink.

When given a tropical fish to eat, axolotls will be motivated to also kill drowned zombies and the guardians found in the large ocean monuments.

If you taking a liking to them, you can collect them simply by picking them up with a water bucket, and have your own little fish-killing army.

This update also adds the long-wanted feature of being able to control how many players need to sleep in a bed in order to pass the night.

By default, all players on a server must sleep for night to be passed, like before. However, this can be changed using a game rule when cheats are enabled.

Game rule playersSleepingPercentage can be set to any positive integer, which sets the minimum percentage of sleeping players needed before night is skipped.

When set to 0, night is skipped immediately, and when set to a number above 100 night can never be skipped. Any number in between requires that percentage or higher of players asleep before night is skipped.

This update also makes minor changes to the sculk sensors added in the previous update. These blocks detect any vibrations, including sound, within an eight-block range. These changes include the removal of beginning to eat as a vibration type and having water silence a sensor.

As usual, this update fixes a couple of bugs added in previous updates, such as duplication of candles on cakes and game stalling issues.

Watch a showcase of this update in video form below:

Minecraft 1.16.200 Adds Raytracing to Bedrock

2020-12-08T21:02:37Z

A minor update for the Bedrock editions of Minecraft, 1.16.200, has just been released, adding a few small features – but there's some interesting features lurking beneath that facade.

One minor feature added in this update is a few new unique death messages for being killed by various mobs. These messages include "player was sniped by Shulker", "player was fireballed by Blaze" (or Ghast), "player was impaled to death by killer" (for trident kills), and "player was spitballed by Llama". This allows you to know exactly how your friends died in-game, and subsequently laugh at them for being killed by a llama.

The other minor additions are a message that appears on the game's loading screen alerting you if you have outdated graphics drivers (be sure to update them if you see this) and more sound options in the menu.

A big feature in this update many players have been waiting for is RTX raytracing for Windows 10 users, which has had public beta tests since April.

https://twitter.com/NVIDIAGeForce/status/1336356021002854401

Raytracing allows for realistic beams of light to interact naturally with the Minecraft world, producing amazing-looking gameplay. It is only available on computers with RTX graphics cards due to the huge computing power needing to produce these real-time effects.

However, lurking underneath this update is a couple of features from the upcoming 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update – goats and powder snow.

These features were announced at this years' Minecraft Live event (the replacement to Minecon) and have been available for Bedrock users to play in the betas for 1.16.200.

Goats are fun little creatures that enjoy ramming into other mobs. If they accidentally run into a tree, they drop one of the horns, which the player can pick up and use. When blown, the horn makes the sound heard by illagers during a raid on a village – an interesting expansion to the game's lore.

Powder snow is half solid, half liquid – it allows mobs to walk over it if they are wearing leather boots, but fall in through it otherwise. When inside powder snow, mobs will slowly freeze to death, so get out while you still can.

Note that these features have been hidden in the full release of this version, so you won't be able to explore Caves & Cliffs until 1.17 betas begin for Bedrock.

View the full 1.16.200 changelog at the Minecraft Feedback website. For more information about using raytracing in this version, see the Minecraft.net article.

Minecraft 1.16 Nether Update Nears Release

2020-06-05T03:27:52Z

The first pre-release for the upcoming Minecraft Nether Update has been released for the Java Edition of the game, getting closer to the full release of the update.

1.16 Pre-release 1 came out this morning and adds a few new features. Notably, this version adds two new game rules that control whether mobs stay angry at players who have died and whether mobs will go into a raging frenzy when attacked, respectively, and allows custom dimensions to be added to a world using player-created data packs.

https://twitter.com/adrian_ivl/status/1268611993365172225

More important than the actual additions in this version is what it represents: the Nether Update, version number 1.16 on all available platforms, will be releasing soon.

The Nether Update was first announced during the MINECON livestream last September, and public development versions started being released in February (initially under version 1.15.0 for the Bedrock editions; the parent version was later bumped to 1.16.0 without 1.15 actually being released).

The update, as the name suggests, completely revamps the Nether dimension of the game with four new biomes, each with unique terrain and blocks, and a new Nether structure called thebastion remnant. New mobs in the update include piglins, hoglins, zoglins, and striders; piglins can be bartered with using gold, and striders can be used as lava boats. A couple dozen new blocks are added as well, including many variants of blackstone and a variety of Nether flora.

Additionally, this update adds support for custom dimensions to be added via JSON file importing or data packs, allowing many different terrain features and aspects of world generation to be tweaked and changed in any way. Custom dimensions were tested a few months ago in this year's April Fools' update, 20w14∞.

Major versions have in the past been released anywhere between 1 and 6 weeks after their first pre-release, so the Nether Update could release anytime before August. Simultaneous releases for both the Java and Bedrock editions is expected.

See the major changes in this update in the short video below:

Minecraft Dungeons Releases Today

2020-05-26T03:23:55Z

Mojang Studios is branching out further with the release of Minecraft Dungeons today at 8 am UTC.

Dungeons is a spin-off of the base Minecraft game, an isometric dungeon crawler though randomly-generated terrain. It is Mojang's second time expanding on the base game after their mobile AR game Minecraft Earth, which entered early access last year.

Contrary to the name "Minecraft", Dungeons features no mining or crafting – instead, you will find useful upgrades to your items throughout the dungeons' loot chests. Notably, the game features no character classes, and abilities are based on what equipment you are wearing.

The game can be played alone or with up to four players in co-op mode, with each player having to complete challenges and quests to progress through the game's levels. When playing co-op, the difficulty level, enemy count, and loot will adapt to the number of players in the session.

Dungeons contains many exclusive features not seen in the base game, including the elusive mysterious Key Golem. The main antagonist in the game is called the Arch-Illager, and is central to advancing the plot.

The game was first announced at Mojang's live Minecon Earth show in 2018, and entered closed beta for select players on 25 March, originally slated for a release date in April. The closed beta allowed players to explore demo levels of the game.

At the end of March, its release was postponed until 26 May due to COVID-19. The closed beta ended on 24 April.

Developed by Mojang (and Double Eleven for consoles) in Unreal Engine 4 and published by Mojang's parent Xbox Game Studios, Minecraft Dungeons is now available on Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, and as part of the Xbox Game Pass. The base edition of the game costs US$20 while the Hero Edition costs US$30 and includes cosmetics and two DLC packs, as stated in the game's FAQ.

Note that there are two Windows versions of the game: the one titled "Windows 7 and Above" features its own launcher, similar to Minecraft: Java Edition, while the Windows 10–only version is delivered through the Microsoft Store instead of a standalone launcher.

Minecraft Sales Exceed 200 Million

2020-05-18T22:55:52Z

A day after Mojang announced a name change, the newly-renamed Mojang Studios has announced updated sales figures for Minecraft.

In a blog post on Xbox.com, the studio head of the game, Helen Chiang, spoke of what has occurred in Minecraft over the past year.

It’s been an incredible year for Minecraft, she says, listing the release of Minecraft Earth, the RTX beta, and becoming the most-viewed game on YouTube for 2019. Future events include the release of Minecraft Dungeons on 26 May – just a week away! – and the Minecraft Nether Update (1.16), releasing this summer (northern hemisphere).

We are humbled that there have now been more than 200 million copies of Minecraft sold to date, says Chiang – an increase of 24 million from the same time last year – and 126 million people are now playing Minecraft every month.

The figures exclude the free-to-play Chinese version, which has over 300 million players alone, bringing the total number of Minecraft players to over half a billion (!).

Mojang Announces New Name and Logo

2020-05-18T04:34:10Z

The developers of Minecraft have announced a name change for their company, along with a new logo.

Mojang AB has now become Mojang Studios, and their old tree-on-a-cliff (or something) logo has been dropped in favour of a wordmark, with the text "Mojang" having pieces of the letters removed.

Mojang announced the name change in a post on Minecraft.net earlier today for the 11th anniversary of the first public version of the game, unveiling a new logo animation to go along with it.

Their reasoning for the name change is just Well, why not? Mojang also states that aside from spinoff titles Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Dungeons, they are playing with ideas for brand new games.

This is the first time that Mojang's logo has been changed in quite a while, with the last time being a slight font change in 2013, and the first time since its incorporation a decade ago that Mojang has changed its name. Before that, they were known as Mojang Specifications, a name the game's creator Markus Persson had used since at least 2003 when developing Wurm Online.

Minecraft Dungeons Completes Closed Beta Before May Release

2020-04-25T02:30:49Z

Mojang's upcoming Minecraft spinoff, Minecraft Dungeons, has just completed its limited-time closed beta.

The game entered into its closed beta on 25 March (UTC) and was originally set to release around now, but its release was delayed for obvious reasons.

The closed beta was given to a select few who signed up last year, who have been able to play through an initial demo level of the game this past month.

Community manager Matt Gartzke gave [a] big thanks to everyone who participated in the Minecraft Dungeons closed beta, announcing that Mojang's feedback site and bug tracker would be ceasing submissions for Dungeons until its release on 26 May.

https://twitter.com/MattGartzke/status/1253811607173394432

The game is currently available for pre-order, coming in two different editions. The standard, base edition of the game costs US$20 while the Hero Edition will cost US$30 and includes two DLC packs and some cosmetics.

https://twitter.com/dungeonsgame/status/1245003489366900736

Nvidia Raytracing Arrives in Minecraft

2020-04-17T05:46:59Z

Raytracing using Nvidia's RTX graphics cards arrived in Minecraft earlier today, available for Bedrock edition on Windows 10.

https://twitter.com/NVIDIAGeForce/status/1250830923844562950

Minecraft with RTX brings fully path-traced rendering [and] physically-based materials" to the game, says Nvidia, and is capable of delivering bleeding-edge visual fidelity and realism.

Some of the featured raytracing offers include global illumination [that] realistically lights the world, [...] illuminated blocks and other light sources [that] cast pixel-perfect lighting; [and] reflections [that] are seen on all reflective surfaces and blocks, says Nvidia.

This feature is only available on the Bedrock version on Windows 10, not the Java Edition, and is accessed through the Xbox Insider program like normal beta development builds.

Nvidia has helped put together a set of six Minecraft worlds to showcase raytracing technology, and these worlds are available for download on the Bedrock edition Marketplace; watch the video below to get a sense of how raytracing can change your Minecraft worlds:

Minecraft Update Adds Infinite Dimensions

2020-04-01T23:43:38Z

Every year, Mojang does something interesting for April Fool's Day. Last year they turned Minecraft into a mid-90s DOOM-like game; this year, it's even better.

https://twitter.com/Minecraft/status/1245366688390021122

Minecraft snapshot 20w14∞ adds 40 octillion new dimensions. That's right, 40 octillion – a number with 28 zeroes.

Each dimension is randomly generated from a string of characters. Random books can be collected from the new Box of Infinite Books. Simply throw one of these random books through a nether portal and it will become a portal to a random dimension.

Alternatively, typing "/warp" followed by any string of characters in the chat will teleport you to a dimension of the same name.

Each dimension is completely random. All the blocks, world generation, structures, daylight cycles, sky and water colours – everything – is completely random.

There are a set of interesting hidden Easter egg dimensions you can access using the "/warp" command followed by the name of the dimension, e.g. "/warp ant".

https://twitter.com/0x00716F62/status/1245420291620327424

The "colors" dimension is divided into four quadrants of different colours.
A SkyBlock island is generated in the "content" dimension.
A world of darkness lies in the "darkness" dimension.
The "decay" dimension has an increasingly broken world as you move further away from the spawn area.
The world in the "isolation" dimension only consists of a house with a few dogs, signs and a chest in it.
Random musical notes play in the "notes" dimension.
A full SkyGrid world can be found in the "skygrid" dimension.
A DOS terminal can be found in the "terminal" dimension.

And there are many more to be found!

Other oddities in this update are a set of new biomes, including the "Shapes" biome which generates large 3D shapes of random blocks.

You can play in this update by enabling snapshots in your Minecraft launcher and selecting the "Latest snapshot" installation.

https://youtu.be/_dWMIPeyXT8

Minecraft Dungeons Release Delayed Until May

2020-04-01T00:31:54Z

Mojang's upcoming Minecraft spinoff Minecraft Dungeons, which was originally set to release later this month, has been delayed.

Today Mojang announced that Minecraft Dungeons will now be releasing until 26 May due to the impact of coronavirus on the developers.

The closed beta for the game started a week ago, with a certain few who signed up for the beta previously being given access.

Minecraft Dungeons was originally scheduled to exit its beta in late April. However, due to the current state of the world, this was no longer possible, says Mojang, as we wanted to guarantee the health and safety of our teams.

On release, the standard, base edition of the game will cost US$20, and the Hero Edition will cost US$30, which includes two DLC packs and some cosmetics.

The game is also now available for pre-order on PC for those subscribed to the Xbox Game Pass, and may be able to be pre-ordered soon on other platforms.

Minecraft Dungeons is a brand new, standalone game set within the Minecraft universe, says Mojang, and is an action-adventure dungeon crawler featuring many mobs and blocks from Minecraft as well as a set of new ones.

Minecraft Snapshot 20w13a Adds New Strider Mob

2020-03-25T21:00:59Z

Today's new development update for Minecraft adds an interesting new creature – the strider – as well as a replacement to compasses in the Nether.

Snapshots are, hence the name, snapshots of the development of a major update to Minecraft: Java Edition at a given time. Today's snapshot is called 20w13a – the first snapshot released in the 13th week of 2020 – and contains a few new features.

A long established fact in Minecraft is that compasses only work in the Overworld dimension, which is the dimension you spawn in when you first start the game. However, there is now a way to have direct navigation in other dimensions: a new block called lodestone has been added, crafted using chiselled stone bricks and a netherite ingot (netherite is a new ore added in earlier snapshots), and using a compass on lodestone will cause the compass to always point towards that specific lodestone, which will be very useful when exploring these dimensions.

The other new feature in this update is the strider. Striders inhabit the expansive lava lakes that make up much of the Nether. In fact, striders can walk on the lava! Striders can be saddled to create a very useful mode of travel over the lava lakes, although the new warped fungus on a stick must be used if you want to control the strider's movement.

In a sense, striders are basically Nether "boats", and that's exactly what they were made to be, says developer kingbdogz: Lava boats were the obvious [addition], and Striders ... are much more exciting!

https://twitter.com/kingbdogz/status/1242868359487721478

These features, as well as many more, will be available in the full release of version 1.16: the Nether Update, which features a complete overhaul of the once-barren Nether with new biomes, mobs and blocks, and is coming soon to all editions of Minecraft. You can test out the new features by enabling snapshots in the Minecraft launcher.

Minecraft Dungeons Enters Closed Beta

2020-03-25T20:07:54Z

Earlier today Mojang's newest game Minecraft Dungeons entered a limited closed beta, with invite links being emailed to a few select players.

As stated in the game's FAQ, this beta includes the first few levels of the game, but any progress made in this beta will not carry over into the full release. Multiplayer in the beta is done through Xbox Live. The beta will last around 2 or 3 weeks.

https://twitter.com/dungeonsgame/status/1242803715825979392

Dungeons is Mojang's RPG action-adventure twist on Minecraft, and is the company's second time expanding on the base game, after their mobile AR game Minecraft Earth which entered early access last year.

Minecraft Dungeons can be played with up to four other players who will complete challenges and quests in a procedurally-generated world as they proceed through the game, and features many new gameplay elements not seen in the base game. The main antagonist is called the Arch-Illager, and must be defeated by the players.

The game was announced at Mojang's live Minecon Earth stream back in September 2018, and will be releasing this April. If you signed up for the beta, make sure to check your email as you may have received an access token to the game.

Upon release, the standard edition of the game will cost US$20, with the Hero edition costing $30 and including some cosmetic items and two DLC packs. The game will also come to the Xbox Game Pass on PC and Xbox One. Even after release, the game will continue to receive free content updates.

Mojang Releases Educational Minecraft Worlds for Free

2020-03-25T02:41:11Z

To help educators produce material for digital lessons, Mojang has released a set of educational Minecraft worlds for players to download for free.

Due to the spread of coronavirus around the world, hundreds of millions of students are now taking online lessons. Mojang has decided to help teachers create material for their digital classes by releasing a set of ten downloadable worlds created by the Minecraft community.

These worlds are now available to be downloaded for free, and will remain so until the end of June.

The worlds include lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges, and tricky puzzles, says Mojang. Two examples given by Moajng of the types of maps available are a build of the International Space Station and a reconstruction of a human eye.

These maps are available for devices running on the Bedrock editions of the game, including phones, consoles and Windows 10 (but excluding the Java Edition).

Minecraft Now Offers Coronavirus Advice on its Title Screen

2020-03-19T04:48:37Z

Minecraft now displays advice relating to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on the game's main menu.

In an asset update released by Mojang 12 hours ago, the game's splash text – randomised pulsating text that appears on the main menu – was replaced with around a dozen phrases giving coronavirus advice.

The new splash texts are themed around hygiene, staying inside, and looking after vulnerable groups. Here are all the splash texts you could see in-game:

Wash your hands!
Soap and water!
Support local businesses!
Stay home and play games!
Stay safe!
Stay strong!
Cough or sneeze into your elbow!
Don’t touch your face!
Support elderly relatives and friends!
Prepare, but don’t hoard!
Gamers unite – separately in your own homes!
Save the world – stay inside!
Shop for your elders!
Hang out with your friends online!

This change affects versions 1.15 and 1.16 as well as their developmental snapshot versions. It is unknown how long these changes will last.

A couple of weeks ago the real-world Minecraft Festival convention was announced to be postponed a year due to fears surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, which has quickly spiraled out of control after becoming global back in January.

Minecraft Festival 2020 Cancelled Due to Coronavirus Fears

2020-03-07T03:56:23Z

On Thursday, Mojang announced that their real-world convention, Minecraft Festival, has been postponed until 2021.

Back in February, Minecraft Festival was announced to be a replacement to MINECON Live, a livestreamed show produced annually by Mojang featuring information about future updates about the game as well as a variety of skits related to Minecraft.

MINECON Live in turn replaced the original real-life MINECON convention, which ran anually from 2011 to 2016 in various locations around the world.

Minecraft Festival was scheduled to take place in Florida from 25–27 September, with tickets originally scheduled to become available earlier today. According to Mojang, the convention would have been a fully-fledged Minecraft experience with thousands of guests, featuring interactive exhibits, inclusive gameplay, fiercely competitive tournaments, intense live entertainment, exclusive merchandise, creativity-sparking panels and the opportunity to meet your favorite content creator or Mojang developer – a close resemblance to the original real-world MINECON event.

Minecraft Festival would have been the first real-world Minecraft convention in four years.

In a statement released by Mojang, they stated that September is still many months away, and we are not making any predictions about how long it will take to put the [coronavirus] outbreak behind us. ... Without knowing exactly when we can resume planning, we have decided to postpone.

While the real-world Minecraft Festival will no longer take place, MINECON Live – originally planned to be streamed alongside the main Festival – will still go ahead, taking centre stage in the announcement of new Minecraft content.

The first reported case of coronavirus in the United States was announced on 21 January in Washington state, with the disease quickly spreading across the country; the first coronavirus cases in Florida were reported on 1 March.