Minecraft Live 2023: The Recap!

Minecraft Live usually has a few secrets up its sleeves, and this year was no exception! Game director Agnes Larsson and a few Minecraft developers unveiled some of the key features heading to Minecraft as part of next year’s update. And wow did they have an adventure uncovering them! While next year’s update doesn’t have a name yet, I’m going to call it “1.21” for now, even though it’ll be coming midway through 2024. Yay, numbers!

Agnes and level designer Matthew “Moesh” Dryden stepped into one of the new structures being developed: the trial chamber! The trial chamber is a sprawling structure of corridors and rooms that are packed with traps, trial spawners, mobs, loot, and more. The trial chamber is procedurally generated, which means you’ll face a new challenge each time you enter! And thanks to the trial spawner, a cunning device which spews out mobs, the challenge level will adjust based on the number of adventurers in your party.

Agnes, game designer Cory Scheviak, and game developer Magnus Puig De La Bellacasa also met a playful (but dangerous) new mob! The breeze is a hostile mob that likes to leap dizzying circles around its opponent, and attack using the power of wind. Agnes and game artist Sarah Boeving also showed us some of the new decorative tuff and copper blocks, as well as copper bulbs, which can be toggled on and off using redstone pulses. We also saw crafters, which use redstone for automated crafting! Because can you ever have too many hanging signs? 

Minecraft Legends gets another update!

Minecraft Legends has let us fight alongside creepers, save the Overworld, and (most importantly to many) pet llamas! But the tale is not over quite yet. Principal design director Craig Leigh joined us at Minecraft Live to discuss how far Minecraft Legends has come as well as what’s coming up next.

In the first major update, released in August, we made some important changes and additions to the game, like custom campaigns and PvP, world waypoints, enhanced Banner View, improved pathfinding, and (my personal favorite – yes, you’re noticing a trend) petting animals. Heroes have also had the chance to test their skills in the Lost Legends, free challenges we’ve released every month, ranging from defeating waves of piglins to playing as a llama.

Craig also revealed some exciting new features that are coming in Minecraft Legends’ second major update, its biggest one yet. In a ribbiting twist, heroes will now be able to hop into battle on the fearless frog, a brave mount that can swim faster and jump higher than any other steed. Plus, heroes will gain a new ally in battle: the mysterious witches, who are ready to use their potions against the piglins! And speaking of, the pesky piglets also have some surprises in store: the clanger, a very loud and unnervingly long piglin, alongside the air chopper, a very... slicy piglin structure that will push your units back with strong gusts of spore-filled air. Yes, it’s as fun (and gross) as it sounds!

Keep an eye out for the upcoming Lost Legends in mid-November and early December, and the new update later this year! 

Star Wars returns to Minecraft!

During Minecraft Live, we also kicked off the new Block & Brick Challenge with LEGO! Minecraft Creator @hannahxxrose and LEGO Master Model Builder Tristan Cain were tasked with building their ultimate Minecraft hideaway from the same prompts – in digital blocks and physical LEGO bricks. A whopping 80 hours, 30,340 LEGO bricks, and countless clever Minecraft tricks later, the seasonal builds were complete! Check out the video to see what they came up with and how similar (or different!) their hideouts turned out. 

Create your own The Block & Brick challenges with your friends and continue building IRL with the LEGO Minecraft Pumpkin Farm. If you are in New York City, you can also see Tristain Cain’s full four-foot LEGO structure IRL from October 16 – 31 at the LEGO® Store Fifth Avenue.

Planet Earth III DLC

Congratulations to the armadillo, for receiving the most community votes, and being the next mob to join Minecraft forever!

The armadillo lives in the savannah biome. If you startle the armadillo, it will curl up into a blocky ball! The armadillo also drops a scute that you can use to craft a new type of armor, wolf armor! Which will give your pet wolf some extra protection.

While the mob vote has closed, the event server* is open for the next 24 hours! This means you have another day to play mob-tastic mini-games, meet the hosts of Minecraft Live, indulge in a spot of parkour, and finish that scavenger hunt!

Minecraft is turning 15!

It might feel like Minecraft’s blocky biomes have been around since the beginning of time, but Minecraft Live reminded us all that Minecraft is turning 15 next year! Together we’ve been crafting pickaxes (15 million of them!) discovering diamonds (6.7 million!), and slaying 15 million skeletons.** Just recently we also crossed 300 million copies sold, a milestone no-one could have dreamed of when we were all building our first dirt houses! I hope there’ll be cake to celebrate our wonderful community, and our soon-to-be fifteen years mining, crafting, and respawning together. Perhaps it'll even be a creeper cake? Best check back here at Minecraft.net to find out!

*Requires the latest version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (sold separately); event runs from 10/13/23 17:00 UTC to 10/16/23 19:00 UTC. Internet connection is required. Some consoles may require a separate subscription to play online

**Data is based on a 30-day average of Minecraft activity from September 2023 – October 2023.