MineCon Earth is over and it’ll be a full year before Mojang’s (recently decentralized) gathering of the Minecraft community returns. Thankfully, there’s quite a bit of new content on the horizon, including the long-awaited Switch version of the game’s Better Together update. But we’ll have to wait until 2018 for some of the most exciting revelations from MineCon Earth.
Let’s start with the good news. Over the weekend, Microsoft and Mojang announced The Update Aquatic, an incoming patch meant to bolster the game’s underwhelming underwater content. The update will inject some much needed life into Minecraft ’s deeper waters, adding everything coral, kelp and several new types of fish. There will be new threats to deal with and even a new trident to help players protect themselves from underwater adversaries. The Update Aquatic also introduces dolphins and explorable shipwrecks. It’s the biggest influx of aquatic content since Minecraft debuted in 2009.
MineCon Earth also gave fans an opportunity to vote on a new mob for the world’s most popular sandbox game. Four choices were outlined last week, including the irritating but mostly passive Great Hunger, and the Minecraft community made its voice heard in a series of Twitter votes on Saturday. And once the dust had settled, we learned the Monster of the Night Skies -- a flying, manta ray-like creature that feeds on insomnia -- will soar into Minecraft next year.
It wasn’t all good news from MineCon, though. Saturday brought word that Minecraft’ s Super Duper Graphics pack, an update that will improve lighting and other visual systems, is going to take longer than originally expected. The add-on was announced back in June as part of Microsoft’s E3 presser, but it sounds like Minecraft ’s updated look won’t be ready until next year.
Last, but certainly not least, Mojang confirmed that work is still underway on the Switch version of Minecraft ’s Better Together patch. The new build remains disappointing for many fans, who are accustomed to the base game’s larger feature set, but there are undoubtedly thousands (maybe millions) of Switch owners who’d love a chance to play Minecraft with friends who own a PC or Xbox One. Better Together is even compatible with the game’s VR port.
Minecraft is currently available on PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, the New 3DS, PC and a smorgasbord of smart devices.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraft news in 2017 and however long Mojang supports Minecraft in the years ahead.
