Minecraft Live has come and gone once again for 2023 with a number of exciting new announcements, including new DLC reveals as well as free updates coming to vanilla Minecraft next year.
If you missed the show live, you can see all of the major announcements below. But before we get to that, one big reveal that wasn’t part of the show itself is the news that Minecraft has officially sold over 300 million copies.
In a press release, Helen Chiang, CVP of the Minecraft Franchise and Head of Mojang Studios said, “As we approach the 15th anniversary, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 300 million copies sold, a milestone no one could have dreamed of when we were all placing our first blocks. Our incredible community has built Minecraft into what it is today and what it will become in the future. We can’t wait to share new Minecraft content and experiences in the years ahead.”
Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC
Minecraft is getting another Star Wars experience with the Path of the Jedi DLC on November 7th. Players can look forward to advancing from Padawan to Jedi knight with everything you could want from a Star Wars experience including lightsabers and Force powers. Iconic Star Wars characters and locations will appear. Check out a trailer below:
Planet Earth III DLC
To celebrate the launch of the new Planet Earth III TV series Minecraft Education has revealed a new Planet Earth III DLC, which is headed to Minecraft Education and Minecraft Marketplace next year. Like the Planet Earth II DLC it’ll allow players to enjoy the wonders of the natural world while furthering a conservationist message.
Minecraft Legends Updates.
The Legends team recapped what’s been introduced to the game since it launched earlier in the year including being able to pet animals, custom campaign and PVP modes, UI updates and improved AI path finding. Also announced were new Lost Legends content including Creeper Clash coming on October 19 and Snow vs Snout in December. Also coming in an update in December will be frogs, a new Piglin unit and structure and new witch allies.
A 15th Anniversary Celebration Is Coming In 2024
Mojang also announced 2024 as the year of Minecraft’s 15th Anniversary Celebration, stopping short of revealing exactly what fans can expect but teasing big plans to come..
Kayleen Walters, Head of Franchise Development at Mojang Studios, said of the upcoming festivities in a press release, “As we mark our 15th year, we at Minecraft want to express our gratitude to our passionate Minecraft community. It is our community’s creativity and dedication that has helped shape this world into something extraordinary. As we kick off this milestone year, we eagerly look forward to honoring and celebrating your contributions, stories and adventures. Thank you for 15 amazing years of crafting, building and exploring together. Stay tuned for more updates and surprises in 2024! “
Winner of the 2023 Mob Vote
The Minecraft community was given a choice between the armadillo, penguin and crab to be the latest mob added to Minecraft in its 2024 update, and the winner was… the armadillo!
Minecraft Vanilla Update 1.21
A number of new features coming to Minecraft in mid-2024 were also announced:
- The Crafter: Automated crafting is coming to Minecraft, with Mojang saying redstone engineers will be particularly interested and that it’ll offer a “unique, intuitive UI” to help newcomers to redstone understand its features.
- Trial Chamber: The trial chamber is procedurally generated using new block sets and will give players unique challenges – along with a new hostile mob – to overcome.
- Copper Bulbs: One of the new blocks introduced in the Trial Chamber, Copper Bulbs are light-emitting blocks made from copper and can oxidise over time like other Copper blocks with the level of light emitted depending on the oxidisation stage.
- Trial Spawner: A new type of spawner that won’t spawn additional mobs for an extended period after it has spawned a specified target count of mobs, and rewards players by ejecting its loot. The mobs it spawns can be dynamic based on how many players approach it.
- The Breeze: As the hostile mob being introduced to the game, the Breeze is found in the Trial Chamber and moves by jumping while shooting projectiles of wind energy that explode on impact, as well as exploding immediately on contact with players or other entities.
