Minecraft’s update & new feature schedule is changing

Developer Mojang Studios has outlined how work on future updates and features for Minecraft will change. These changes will result in more regular updates of varying sizes and a renewed focus on keeping in touch with the community through Minecraft Live.

In the past, Mojang has held one Minecraft Live per year and released a big update for Minecraft each summer. Each one is usually sizeable and brings with it dozens of new interactions and possibilities for every player’s world. That’s now changing so players get more updates each year and two Minecraft Lives so they can keep up to date with what the development team is working on and see more of the behind-the-scenes work.

More Minecraft

As stated by Mojang in its recent blog post, the biggest change to how Minecraft‘s updates will work is that there will be more of them. Instead, there will now be a few free updates each year, but they’ll vary in size compared to the enormous updates we’ve grown used to. I think this will ultimately feel better for both players and the development team, with each update being more focused and delivering specific activities, items, animals, and whatever else Mojang is cooking up.

There will now also be two Minecraft Live showcases each year instead of just one. This will keep players informed about what’s on the way in future updates and give Mojang a chance to connect with the community more and see feedback for each planned update.

I believe this will help refine each new feature more efficiently because feedback for one part of a much larger update slows everyone down, whereas feedback for a small update slows only those working on that specific update down.

While the Minecraft Movie is not mentioned in the blog post, the team is working hard to release a native version of Minecraft for PS5. I don’t know how much better it’ll look on PS5 Pro, but having a native version for the platform will allow more fans to play together where they want to. I’m also excited about the new set of trophies to chase.

I’ve watched Minecraft grow from a Java game that you needed to be a member of a forum to access into the fantastic open-world sandbox for survival, crafting, modding, and having fun with your friends it is today. It has felt like the growth it once knew had stagnated in recent years, though. Hopefully, this renewed vision for updates brings back that exciting sense of momentum.