Happy Holidays

What a year it’s been, eh? Minecraft turned ten years old, and like all ten-year-olds, we couldn’t seem to stop it from screaming random announcements no matter how much we begged it to stop. We announced the Nether Update, Buzzy Bees, Minecraft Earth, our first board game, Minecraft Festival, multiple YouTube series, Bedrock on PS4, Nvidia Ray Tracing, Minecraft Realms, and even rereleased Minecraft classic! A game that really, er… redefines the word ‘classic!’

But for the tenth straight year in a row, it was you, the Minecraft players, that constantly made the game special. You bombarded us with so many great builds this year that our eyes can’t take much more and we’re seriously considering getting expensive eye-removal surgery (if any of my friends are reading this and aren’t sure what gift to get me for the holidays, hint hint!).

Here’s just a few of my favourite builds we featured this year:

I wonder what builds we’ll feature in 2020. In fact, I genuinely have no idea! Because...

Practically every day for the last three years, I’ve toiled away behind this keyboard, writing article after article for this website. I’ve heroically pressed down on individual letter keys, crafting sentences worthy of Shakespeare, for the pleasure of millions of readers. OK, thousands of readers. OK, a dozen readers. OK, one person who meant to press ‘Download Minecraft’ but clicked an article by mistake. But that person maybe thought it was OK.

Anyway, goodbye, one person! Because in a year of constant changes for Minecraft, things are changing for me too. I’ve decided to stop being editor of Minecraft.net and leave Mojang, mainly so I can finally find enough time to level up in Minecraft Earth. The lovely Per Landin will be taking my place in the editor’s chair! He’s going to be absolutely brilliant. I hope you’re ready for an editor of this website that actually likes Minecraft. Not the direction I would have gone in, but it’s just crazy enough to work. Good luck, Per!

Have a fantastic holiday season, a magnificent 2020, and keep your chin up, no matter how much life seems to want you to dig straight down. Tom out! Per in.