On October 16 we all had a live appointment with Mojang Studios to attend Minecraft Live, a event where Mojang shows us the near future of the Minecraft franchise, both the base game and Minecraft Dungeons, having become a key priority for the studio after their overwhelming success.
But, thanks to an invitation from Mojang, we were able to attend an advance talk live with some important figures in the development of Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons, and there they guided us through all the news that they wanted to show us and that, being totally honest , portend an excellent future for the franchise.
From what we can see, Minecraft does not stop growing
During the early talk we were able to be with several journalists from different media from the rest of the world, and there, several important figures within the Minecraft franchise (such as Måns Olson, the director of Minecraft Dungeons, or Agnes Larsson, the director of Minecraft). They made them aware of the updates that would arrive in the very near future, in addition to showing us the numbers that the franchise currently moves, and that left us with our mouths open.
Even with tremendous hits like Fortnite, Among Us or Fall Guys on the market, titles that have attracted a huge number of users, Minecraft is still unstoppable. According to official data that Mojang taught us, so far in 2021, more than a billion hours played have been registered in multiplayer alone, and they even had a peak of active players during this August, with more than 140 million users. Although it seems impossible, Minecraft is still one of the best-selling games in history, and is played in every one of the countries / territories of the world, including Antarctica and, crazy as it sounds, the Vatican City (hopefully and the Pope Francisco is among the active users).
The long-awaited second part of the big update: Caves & Cliffs
In early June we had the release of what Mojang says is the largest and most ambitious update MInecraft has ever received. Unfortunately, the update called “Caves & Cliffs” was split in two, and in June we received the first part, which added new creatures, new blocks and new minerals. But the great incentive of this update will come with the launch of the second part, which is scheduled for the end of this year.
This second part of the update will bring us, finally, mountains much larger in height, caves much deeper and much more cared for and alive (like the two new types of caves: lush caves and dripstone caves). In addition to the fact that the worlds will be much larger in height (both up and down) there will also be small additions such as candles, which together with the torches, will be able to illuminate the darkest recesses while we explore the new caves.
A little look at the next update called “The Wild Update”
They also told us what the next update that will come to Minecraft, with the name of “The Wild Update” will contain. With that name, it obviously makes us think that it will focus on wild biomes, like jungles, forests and so on, and it will. According to the information given by the study, the update will focus on making exploration, survival and interaction in wild environments much more varied, immersive and beautiful, in addition to that they will improve and put totally new mechanics.
This update will bring us two new biomes called “The Deep Dark” and “The Mangrove Swamp”, along with new mobs such as frogs or the Warden, a creature that we already saw in previous events and that will arrive with this update, leaving behind its planned departure in 2021. Those responsible for introducing us to this update made it very clear that it was still in a fairly early stage of production., since they are totally focused on releasing the second part of “Caves & Cliffs” and want to finish the big update sooner to be able to move on to this one, although they also taught some other conceptual art and, to be honest, you can’t paint the thing better.
Minecraft Dungeons will also receive new waves of content this year
Mojang made it very clear to us how important it is for the Minecraft Dungeons studio, the spin-off of the franchise that jumps to the ARPG genre in the purest Diablo style. After several updates and DLCs that expanded the story so much with more levels, the studio showed us what will come to the title in December. To start, We learned about the existence of the “Seasonal Adventures”, a kind of battle pass like the one in Fortnite or Destiny 2, for example, and that we will have to complete different weekly challenges to earn adventure points, which will serve to unlock different rewards (skins, capes, pets, items and a long etcetera).
The name of the first season will be “The Cloudy Climb”, and will introduce a new addition in the main menu called «The Tower», and it will arrive during this Christmas. According to Mojang, fans of the title will hallucinate with the next seasons that will be arriving during 2022.
And finally, a more than pleasant surprise for Game Pass PC users
Before ending the talk by Mojang, they saved another surprise, and one of great weight, since In November (specifically on day 2), users who are subscribed to the PC Game Pass service will be able to get both Minecraft (Bedrock) and Minecraft: Java Edition. As if that seemed little, it will be the first time that the two versions of Minecraft are together in a PC launcher. In addition, we were informed that the Bedrock version will have crossplay between PC, consoles and mobiles (it will not be implemented between the Java Edition and the Bedrock yet).
With all this enormous amount of information that they gave us in the talk, we can assure that Minecraft has a very promising future, with loads of content planned for late 2021 and 2022. Now it’s time to wait and see how Mojang Studios deals with all these promises and, we pray, do not delay at any time (yes, if the developers need more time, it is best to give it, to avoid crunch situations).