Gaming News

Earlier this year, we launched an early access version of Minecraft: Education Edition. It went pretty well! Some 15,000 students and teachers got involved, helping to make our Minecraft-based smartification tools even smarter than they already were.Now, we’re happy to announce that the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition will be available to buy from November 1. If you want to check it out before purchase, the early access version will still be freely available until then.Based on the feedback we got from the early access version, we’re rolling out even more hot stuff in the November release build:Classroom mode: a companion app that allows teachers to view the world as a map, list all the present students, teleport...

Go, go, go! Today we’re launching special MINECON 2016 skins for FREE! But hurry - you have only until 3rd October to claim yours. You even get Alex and Steve skins wearing swishy and spooky Enderman capes, too! The skins will roll out across Pocket and Windows 10 platforms today, with Console Editions following tomorrow.This year’s time-limited celebratory skin pack features four biome-themed adventurers: prowl through the treeline as the furtive Forest Fighter; brave blizzards as the intrepid Ice Pioneer; craft the incredible as the meticulous Mesa Artisan; or plumb the depths as the outlandish Ocean Engineer. He’s totally subnautical!Not only do you get all this in honour of MINECON 2016 - you get all of last year’s...

If you’re going to MINECON you may be interested to know that toy-wizards Mattel are offering a supercool skin-printing service, so you can slap your game-face (and game-body, game-legs and game-arms) onto a nifty figurine!It’s seriously cool. You craft the look of your unique figure by using an actual skin from the game. Mattel creates and prints a custom label based on your in-game skin (or one of the exclusive soon-to-be-revealed MINECON 2016 designs!), and then you stick it onto the figure. Just come to the Mattel booth at MINECON, purchase your Survival Mode Player One Figure ($15.00 + tax), print your label at the booth and you’ll have your very own mini-minecrafter, ready to create, explore and survive the sprawling landscape...

It’s snapshot time again!This snapshot gives you a lot of bug fixes and also a new gamerule! If you are longing for new features - don’t worry, since MINECON is very close now! And during MINECON we will give you info about several new exciting 1.11 features!And this snapshot includes…Notable changes:The poor squids shouldn’t spawn in lava anymore. At least I would not enjoy spawning in lava We have a new gamerule: maxEntityCramming Mooshrooms now really appreciates to walk on mycelium. Probably it feels soft and cosy on their hoovesBugs fixed in 16w38a:[Bug MC-3841] - Attacking an unsaddled pig while holding a saddle saddles the pig [Bug MC-36927] - Durability of Golden Swords occasionally dropped by Zombie Pigmen is...

Here we are again! Though we last spoke mere days ago, as promised, the release cycle of new Realms maps on PC has changed. That means that instead of a recap post, the maps you’ll see below are brand new to Realms, and are available right… now!Read on, brave adventurer!Makers Wars by Minemakers TeamThe Minemakers team is at it again, this time showing off their take on the skywars PvP minigame genre. Choose your team, your map, and your starting items, then fight across islands in the sky; the last team standing wins!Chicken’s Courage by MitheyIf you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be a chicken (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), Chicken’s Courage has you covered. In this adventure, you’ll need to get to the bottom...

The furnaces have been burning late into the night over at the great Binary Tree that is home to the Pocket Edition coding elves, the hungry blue flames dancing ever higher with each shovelful of untempered C++ ore that is thrust within. Soon, using words and signs unthinkable to mortal kind, these arch digi-wizards will conjure update 0.16 from the shadowy beta realm, fixing it into its final form! But even though they labour so, in a feat of true Tolkien-esque heroism and/or caffeination, they have managed to bend spacetime to summon the 0.15.8 update into existence, bringing with it support for the Fantasy texture pack.Look at them go! Well done, elves.The Fantasy texture pack transforms Minecraft into a world of medievalism and...

The calendar event of the year approaches! Don’t worry if you haven’t got a ticket - you can join in the festivities remotely using the power of internet streaming video. Watch the event live from our MINECON site on the 24th and 25th September.If you’re one of the lucky 12,000 attendees, don’t forget to hone those crafting skills: our chums at Hypixel are putting on a tournament for you to compete in, featuring community-favourite minigames: Sky Wars, Walls, Build Battle and Parkour. Or, if you’re a dab hand with a thread and needle, you might like to take part in the costume competition.Of course there are loads of panels and other activities, too - you can keep track of the times by checking the schedule on our MINECON site, or...

Hey there mining and crafting enthusiasts! It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to show off what awesome, new content has appeared on Realms lately. Since we last checked in, fourteen new pieces of content have been added for you to explore!Makers Spleef by MineMakers TeamMakers Spleef is simply one of the best spleef maps we’ve played. The clean design makes gameplay easy to understand, and the different game modes keep it interesting as you replay over and over.Blocked In Combat by PingiPuck, pandymit, EpicMelon, DarkPiepMany Minecrafters have found themselves in a battle with other players at some point; it’s the basis for many of the most popular minigames! Blocked In Combat offers a neat twist on this genre, encasing you...

Time for a new 1.11 snapshot!The main focus for this snapshot is bug fixes, but Minecon is getting closer and closer. Actually, it’s only two weeks left! Yay! And during Minecon, we will show you all the new exciting features for 1.11!And this snapshot includes…Notable changes:Multiple bug reports are now in prime state to be reopened again!Bugs fixed in 16w36a:[Bug MC-29544] - Particles from falling/landing/sprinting on leaves do not use foliage color [Bug MC-41270] - Resourcepack’s glyph_sizes.bin and some unicode_pages are only loaded on startup [Bug MC-83905] - Compass animates incorrectly [Bug MC-95460] - Compass needle spins only in lower half randomly in the End and Nether [Bug MC-96463] - UV mapping in cross.json...

Are you sitting down? I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that Story Mode Episode 8 is almost here! It’s due to roll out on September 13th for PC, Mac and consoles. Hooray! The bad news is that this thrilling caper represents the very final instalment of the three-part DLC adventure. I know, I know. Do you need to be held? I’ve heard that breathing into a paper bag helps.But if Jesse and the gang’s tale is coming to a conclusion, then it’s certainly not going out quietly. Having survived supernatural storms, maniacs in mansions, malevolent intelligence and more, Jesse’s crew have one last and potentially lethal trial before they can find their way back through the Portal Corridor. In their haste to obtain the Atlas, our...

Hello!We’ve recently released Map pack 3 for Battle - our free, combat-focused mini-game - on all console editions of Minecraft. It includes three new locations for you to take on your friends and enemies and costs a cool $2.99 or equivalent.First, there’s Castle that will have you jumping off ramparts, climbing ladders, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat on huge banqueting tables majestic halls.Invasion is a modern city that’s been destroyed by an unknown presence. The crashed UFOs hint that aliens might be involved, but who knows? Maybe that Herobrine chap had something to do with it.And, finally, Shipyard - a city build around an airship suspended miles above the ground. A truly epic location and a great place to prove your...

Hello, everyone!It’s exactly as the title says. Our privacy policy was looking a little dog-eared and a refresh was due! So, in order to bring things up to date, we’ve now adopted the privacy policy of our owner, Microsoft.It’s pretty normal for a company of Microsoft’s size to have a single privacy policy for all of its different bits as it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain multiple policies and translate them into different languages for our users all around the world. By joining the Microsoft Privacy Statement , we can spend less time maintaining all these separate policies and more time making our games even more awesome. This is the same policy used by Skype, Outlook and our fellow devs over at 343 Industries - so...

Another week, another snapshot. And another opportunity for me to use that exact same phrase to introduce it.We are still focused on fixing bugs in the 1.11 snapshots, but Minecon is getting closer and we have some new features to show there.We made text change to bring the Snooper Data description into line with the updated privacy policy. This refers to the fact that we collect a hashed identifier for your Minecraft account, so we can get an idea of the size of our active userbase. Remember you can always opt out!Notable changes:Some bugs have been asked to bother another game Most bugs agreed to move onBugs fixed in 16w35a:[Bug MC-2298] - Placing trapdoors / fence gates right beside a redstone source will not update...

We may have just released the Android beta for 0.16, but rest assured we aren’t getting too far ahead of ourselves: our devs have been working on packaging up all manner of bug-fixes and tweaks for the less experimental 0.15.7 Pocket / Windows Edition release! It’ll be rolling out today.Much of the effort has gone into resolving issues with the Oculus Rift features on Windows 10, but we also added support for the Natural texture pack, so you can enjoy higher-res textures and more realistic sheep faces - that’s 108 extra pixels for every inscrutable ruminant stare. Wow!If you find any bugs, be sure to report them here! Click here to go to the official feedback site and tell us what you like, don’t like, or just upvote a suggestion...

The South by Southwest Conference, aka SXSW, is an amazing celebration of the convergence of interactive, film and music industries. It’s held in Austin, Texas each year, and is the height of all that is hip and cool. You know who else is hip and cool? We are. (You can tell by the way we use hip and cool phrases like “hip and cool”.)We’d really like to go along to SXSW and tell people about our charity work with Block By Block, and our educational efforts with Minecraft: Education Edition. We’ve proposed a bunch of panels to present - and these are now up for a public vote. That means you can help us!If you fancy giving us a hand, head over to the SXSW community voting page, sign up, and give us a thumbs up on these two panels...

Break blocks and bring your foes low! Tumble is the second mini game we’ve released for Console Edition - a frantic competitive clash in which players destroy the very floor beneath their enemies’ feet, sending them plummeting to their doom.Sound familiar? It’s inspired by community favourite: Spleef! We wanted to bring that experience to console and, as with Battle, streamline the experience so players don’t have to worry about re-setting maps between matches or even keeping score.Oh, and it’s available as a free update today! Freeeeeeeeeeee!There are two variants of the game to choose from: one which lets players launch snowballs, the other equipping combatants with shovels. Each bout consists of a best of three, on a series...

The adventurous among you will know there’s nothing quite like taking down a ferocious boss to prove your gaming might. Until now, that’s been a tricky thing for Pocket Edition/Windows 10 crafters to do.Thanks to update 0.16 that’s about to change. Soon Pocket Edition/Windows 10 players will have access to some of the most ferocious mobs we’ve ever devised. But we’re not stopping there - the update will also include ocean monuments and the trinkets to explore them, a bunch of new blocks, beacons, and Slash commands. We’re calling it The Boss Update because it includes bosses, is “boss” in nature, and is in charge of hiring and firing all the other updates released so far.So yes, the big baddies. First, there’s the Elder Guardian who...

Hey there everyone!As you may have heard, we’ve been making a few changes to the way redstone works in Pocket / Windows 10 Edition - just part of our ongoing mission to give minecrafters as many cool tools as possible. Most recently, we’ve been trying to simplify the peculiarities of redstone without compromising on the power.Talking of power, right now a block can:give off power (often referred to as a strong signal or directly powered signal) be powered (often referred to as giving off a weak, or indirectly powered signal) be unpoweredIn the image below you can see this in action. The redstone block on the left gives off a strong signal, lighting up the adjacent lamp. But the lamp diagonal to the redstone block and the one...

Earlier this week we put out an update enabling a massive suite of VR-specific features that let you play Minecraft Windows 10 Edition on the Oculus Rift. Since then, we’ve worked doubletime to put out fixes for some of the issues you were encountering. Details below!If you’re still having issues with your Magic Minecraft Goggles, scroll down and have a look through the FAQ we’ve prepared. As always, if you run into any bugs, please report them on Jira! We want to know what you think about our Oculus Rift integration. Click here to give us feedback!ChangelogNew Features:Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta now has Oculus Rift support! Wow!Tweaks:Better keyboard and mouse support when Oculus Rift is enabled. Tweaked Windows...

Oh happy day it’s Snapshot Time! We are releasing a new snapshot with several bug fixes, internal changes and probably also some new bugs. It would be amazing if you want to report any non-reported bugs you find in our bug tracker! Many thanks!While we plan to keep larger new features as a surprise to reveal at Minecon, some of the smaller changes will make it into snapshots in the following next weeks. And this snapshot has…Notable changes:Shields will now keep enchantment level and durability when crafted with banners Added an infinite loop Added some more subtitles More things will burn in the furnace (we don’t recommend wool as your main fuel though, and don’t even want to mention carpets…) We have not lowered the range for...

How’s your face? Is it ready? Is it ready to have Minecraft right up in it? It’d better be: today we’re releasing a FREE update to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta which will enable you to play Minecraft on Oculus Rift. Win 10 players just need to download the bespoke launcher from the Oculus store to get the full stereoscopic experience!Back in April, we released Minecraft VR edition for Gear VR. It was the product of many, many months of hard work, reshaping the game you know and love to precisely fit the new medium of virtual reality. After such an achievement, you’d think we’d pat our beleaguered VR team on the back and send them on holiday, but, instead, we tricked them back into the Coding Pits by saying we’d spotted a Mewtwo...

After the launch of the devious, the devilish, the downright dastardly Villains Skin Pack a week and a bit ago, our devs were inspired to build a special map in which those aspiring scoundrels could demonstrate just how demented they are. And tomorrow at 4.30pm CEST, we’ll be live-streaming a playthrough by our most murderous Mojangstas!Check this page again then and you’ll be able to watch an embed below AND download the map for yourself!The idea behind the map is that you and several so-called friends cooperate to complete a series of puzzles and challenges. This may not sound villainous, but here’s the twist: there can be only one survivor! Though you must collaborate early on, keep a beady eye on your companions. Those...

Snapshot time! What you all have been waiting for is finally happening. We are releasing a new snapshot with all the latest internal changes, improvements, bug fixes and some new bugs.Some of the internal changes are quite complex. If you encounter any problems that don’t have a bug report on our bug tracker already, please make sure to report them and help us improve the game in the next snapshots.While we plan to keep larger new features as a surprise to reveal at Minecon, some of the smaller changes will make it into snapshots in the following next weeks. And this snapshot has…Notable changes:Some mobs are now more afraid to get wet in the water There are now more spawn eggs for many different mobs and this time they are...

Could you vanquish a zombie horde with a fishing rod? Or shut down a fortress assault with no more than a block of sand and a torch? The Survivors know how - they’re an elite group of players who’ve been around since the beta, living off their wits and in the shadows. Now they’ve stepped into the light to offer you their hard-won wisdom in The Survivors’ Book of Secrets.The UK was lucky enough to receive the Survivors’ genius in June, but, as of today, this mighty tome is available in the US. Hooray! Choose how to buy it here!Not only is it a rather useful book, but it’s a bit of a looker too - we were inspired by World War II era manuals, recreating the sort of hard-wearing, practical handbook that was given out to servicemen and...

Last Saturday, Mojang was delighted to take part in Stockholm’s annual Pride parade - an amazing trundling carnival that this year braved both the burning sun and torrential rain to raise awareness for LGBT+ issues and promote free gender expression, love and equality. It was very cool and we were honoured to be a part of it.The Mojang crew, along with some 300 square balloons, took our place between Hard Rock Against Racism and a formidable force of badass roller derby warriors. Somewhere behind us were Vikings for Equality and a flat bed truck containing maybe 80% of the world’s total mass of beards. In the distant beyond was another vehicle carrying seemingly tireless, spandex-clad dancers, who managed to throw shapes for the...

What’s this?! It seems that while I was all snoozed up in bed, our dogged dev teams toiled away to unleash the 0.15.4 update of Pocket and Windows 10 edition - which contains the all new and diabolical Villains Skin Pack.Truly, evil never sleeps.The changelog’s a bit of a whopper, and since all devices are now getting the changes from the 0.15.3 update (previously only available on Google Play) it’s even bigger than normal! Monstrous, you might even say.If you find any pesky new bugs, please fill out a report on http://bugs.mojang.comClick here to give us feedback about the new release on our official feedback.minecraft.net site- we want to know what you think!Please note: we are aware of a possible crash when you set your...

Happy OS-specific birthday to us! Today is the anniversary of Minecraft’s arrival on Windows 10. It’s been a busy year: 12,000 code check-ins, 6000 bugs squashed, 15 major updates and oodles of new features.We’ve bred bunnies of many colours, given squid a fear of mortality and set baby zombies astride squawking avian steeds. We unleashed the power of Redstone and found new ways for players to devise elaborate devices. We introduced our cross-platform Realms service, so players could own always-online worlds just for them and their friends, and play on them with minecrafters on mobile devices. We crafted special skinpacks - like the Villains pack we are releasing today! - and texture packs, too, allowing for even greater levels of...

Got an evil streak? Let your inner demons out with the latest skin pack to hit Pocket / Win 10 edition! It costs $1.99 - although, as with all our skin packs, you get a few for free! The evilest of all giveaways!The Villains Skin Pack will be rolling out across devices at some point today. Grab it and join forces with Minecraft’s most dastardly denizens: slink from the shadows as the sinister Stronghold Seer, unleash the fury as the ferocious Lava Fiend, or, er, sell silverfish as the monstrous Silverfish Monger. The evilest of all mongers!Then there’s the grotesque Patchkin, the enigmatic Endergaunt, the chilling Eyece, the Terror Spawner, Dungeon Spectre, Slymime and Cake Maniac. There’s evil of every flavour: 17 skins in total -...

Hello!I’m happy to announce that two pieces of DLC are landing on all console editions of Minecraft today! Grasp your digital wallet and prepare for purchase!First up, there’s Battle Map Pack 2. This competitive bundle includes three maps created exclusively for the Battle mini-game - Atlantis, Ruin and Siege. The pack costs $2.99 USD or equivalent, and comes with guaranteed good times. You can see some hot Battle action taking place in the screenshot below.In case you didn’t get the memo, Battle came to console versions a few months ago - it’s a free mini-game that tasks you with taking down friends and enemies in ferocious combat. You can play online or locally in split-screen with up to three victims.We’re also adding...

Having barely escaped the murderous mansion-dwelling maniac in Episode 6, new and even weirder hazards await Jesse and the gang as they explore the Portal Hallway. Doorways lead to a multitude of worlds - but each proves more dangerous than the last. How will the New Order of the Stone ever find their way back home?Perhaps the secrets of the Old Builders lie in a world of redstone riches. Surely such a place might conceal the incredible tech necessary to see our heroes home safely. But are such clever computing powers so easily contained?(No.)You can play this latest episode, titled “Access Denied”, next Tuesday July 26th.Episode 7 can be purchased as part of the $14.99 Adventure Pass - three extra DLC episodes that follow Jesse...