For a brief period, the stars were aligned and the PC and Console Editions of Minecraft reached near parity. The Minecraft 1.8.8 update for consoles rolled out a huge list of changes and updates, bringing Minecraft on consoles closer than it had ever been to the PC version. At that point, us console players really had everything we could want, besides persistent servers and unlimited worlds and those sorts of things. It was good times. It still is good times—the new update is fantastic and really breathes new life into the game. But at the same time, the PC version has soldiered on, getting even better and more exciting than before. With the official release of Minecraft 1.9 on PC, available now, the original version of the game has lots of new and exciting stuff we don’t have. This is no complaint… it’s just new stuff for us to look forward to in future Minecraft updates.

Combat Update For Console Edition?

Technically, that brief period of alignment between Minecraft PC and Console just ended. Until the release of the Combat Update, the latest release of Minecraft on PC was very similar to the current console release, minus a few bells and whistles. However, the newest major PC update is finally available. Lots of people are playing it already. Minecraft 1.9, the so-called Combat Update, is a major revamp. It changes the basic combat dynamic, adds a left hand, shields, new types of arrows, and all kinds of things to make combat more challenging and exciting.

But that’s not the juicy stuff. The Combat update also adds some new gameplay features to explore. First off, igloos. There are igloos now! Pretty cool as far as structures go. More notably, the Combat Update revamps the PC version of the Ender Dragon fight to be more like the one in the console version, but it also adds an endgame following that fight (which can now be repeated).

After the Ender Dragon, the PC player can now explore something truly new—the outer islands of the End, which are home to End cities and the new types of monsters that inhabit them. There are beautiful chorus trees, awesome new purple blocks, major structures hovering over the Void. And there are End ships, filled with danger and treasure and a truly rare artifact, the Elytra, that lets players fly—after a fashion. It’s a huge expansion to the end-game content in Minecraft, at least as exciting as the Ocean Monuments. And someday it will surely come to Minecraft on consoles.

When will the Combat Update come to Minecraft on PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and everything else? It’s going to be a long while. Remember, the Update just came out on PC on Feb. 29. Now that it’s locked and loaded, the countdown for the update on the Console Editions starts. And even after that, it’ll be a long wait. 4J Studios takes its time with the updates, although the last one (which took a year!) was a bit of an exception because of its sheer breadth and size.

Don’t expect the Combat Update anytime soon.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t start getting excited for it.