First revealed during Sony's State of Play, many assumed the game was a console exclusive. That's largely because PlayStation doesn't show competitor logos during its showcases, a practice that remains a contentious topic among Xbox fans.

Not long ago, Matt Booty revealed that Xbox plans to show competitor logos during its own showcases. Personally, I'm not convinced that's the right move, especially if Xbox wants to become the number one gaming platform by 2030.

Anyway, enough of me ranting; let's talk about RuneScape.

For those unfamiliar, RuneScape began life as a browser-based point-and-click MMORPG back in 2001. Over the years, it evolved into two separate games, RuneScape 3 and OldSchool RuneScape. Yes, there are effectively two versions of RuneScape that coexist today, with OldSchool RuneScape generally being the more popular of the two.

Expanding beyond those games, Jagex released RuneScape: Dragonwilds into early access last year on Steam. However, it's quite different from what you'd typically expect from RuneScape. Rather than a traditional MMORPG, Dragonwilds is much closer to a survival game like Valheim, and that's certainly not a bad thing.

Fortunately for Xbox players, RuneScape: Dragonwilds launches on September 15, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S. Even better, it will support Xbox Play Anywhere, a feature that has genuinely influenced whether I buy certain games or not.

As a quick refresher, Xbox Play Anywhere means that if you buy the game on Xbox, you'll also own it on PC. Your progress carries across both platforms, and achievements are shared between them too.

Now, I don't expect anyone to know this about me, and if anything, it'd be weird if they did, but I grew up playing RuneScape; in fact, my account is around two decades old. It's still one of my favorite games of all time, sitting right alongside Halo, so I'm definitely eager to finally give Dragonwilds a go.

But what about you? Has RuneScape: Dragonwilds caught your eye, or is it not really your thing? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

GSC Game World's 2024 open-world survival shooter STALKER 2 is set to have quite a big 2026, as its first of two planned DLC expansions, Cost of Hope, is scheduled to launch in summer later this year. Officially revealed during the Xbox Partner Preview in late March, the DLC will feature a reignited conflict between two of The Zone's biggest and most well-known factions: Duty and Freedom.

Ahead of the expansion's arrival and at some point in April, however, the devs at GSC are releasing a free content update for the atmospheric FPS titled Sealed Truth — a patch that will expand one of the spookiest locations in the original 2007 STALKER game Shadow of Chernobyl, as well as in the early game of STALKER 2's main questline.

That location is the X-18 Lab, one of the STALKER series' infamously unsettling underground laboratories where The Zone's supernatural phenomena were studied in secret long before the events of the games. These labs typically feature dangerous clusters of anomalies as well as several predatory mutant enemies, making them some of the scariest levels in the franchise.

GSC announced the Sealed Truth update on Monday morning with a teaser image of a previously locked door swung open, noting that "you will be able to open the door to X-18 Lab" and cryptically implying that something is "hiding there in the darkness." Bring a good shotgun and plenty of buckshot, fellow stalkers.

In regards to what we'll find in the unexplored depths of X-18 specifically, it's impossible to say without more information. At the very least, though, I'm expecting several of STALKER 2's deadlier mutants like bloodsuckers, burers, and poltergeists, and potentially even a pseudogiant (one was present in the lab in Shadow of Chernobyl, after all).

Of course, it's also entirely possible we'll encounter a brand new threat of some sort, likely one with relevance to whatever narrative reason we'll have to go deeper into the lab. Sealed Truth's additions may also even tie into the Cost of Hope DLC in some way, though again, we can't say anything for sure right now.

It's also not clear if the expanded X-18 area will be explorable earlier in STALKER 2 or if it's something you'll have to come back to way later after you've progressed far into The Zone and have high-quality gear. If I had to guess, though, I'd say the former is more likely since the rest of X-18 is engaged with in the early game.

I wish we knew more about Sealed Truth's specific release date, but regardless, it's great that we're getting a free content update before Cost of Hope's release later this year. Note that STALKER 2 is also set to get a patch that upgrades its engine to Unreal Engine 5.5.4 before the DLC launches that will improve its performance significantly.

With these updates and an expansion on the way, as well as with the recent addition of Xbox Play Anywhere support, there's never been a better time to return to The Zone or take your first steps inside for the first time. Sadly it's no longer on Xbox Game Pass, but it is nearly 50% off right now with this deal that brings the $59.99 game down to $30.79 at Loaded.

🗨️ Will you return to STALKER 2?

With STALKER 2 recently getting Xbox Play Anywhere support, the announcement of the first of two DLCs releasing this summer, and now this new free content update slated to drop in just a few weeks (or less), there's never been a better time to come back to the game or start playing it for the first time.

Will you come back to STALKER 2, or make the decision to pick it up? Share why or why not in the comments, and be sure to vote in our poll:

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Nearly six years after the game was originally announced in Summer 2020, fans will soon finally have the chance to get their hands on the highly anticipated Xbox and PC survival horror shooter State of Decay 3 for the first time. The sequel to Undead Labs' 2018 release State of Decay 2 has been kept almost entirely under wraps, but that's finally changing.

Next month, Xbox and Undead Labs are hosting an alpha playtest for the game, with plans for further and expanded playtests later this year. Series co-creator Brant Fitzgerald announced this news in a new video, while also explaining that State of Decay 3 has been built around the feedback received about the second game.

"We've been keeping a close eye on what you liked about State of Decay 2, and what you didn't. We've read your feedback on Discord. We've watched your gameplay clips and livestreams on YouTube," he said. "And through it all, we've seen how powerful and tight-knit this community is."

"It became clear that community is survival, and that we need your help," Fitzgerald continued. "And if you've made it this far, great. Because starting next month, we'll be hosting a series of alpha playtests with the community. Listen, I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you. But I can say it will feature 4-player co-op, some new base building and resource strategies, and a whole lot of combat."

Sign-ups for the State of Decay 3 alpha are live now over at playtest.stateofdecay.com, so if you're interested in playing the game early ahead of its unannounced release date (it doesn't even have a release window at the moment), make sure you register. When the playtest arrives in May, you'll likely know if you got in or not based on whether or not you receive an email with instructions for how to play.

If you don't get into the initial test, don't worry; Fitzgerald says Undead Labs will "keep your name on the list, and have plenty of opportunities for you throughout the year." Presumably, each new playtest will broaden in scope and include more gameplay elements and features for fans to test out.

The wait for this game has been a long one for State of Decay fans, especially since we've gotten next to no news for nearly six years and State of Decay 2 stopped getting updates in late 2024. With that in mind, it's great that players will finally have a chance to actually play it, even if the full release still seems like it's quite a ways away.

We have no clue when we'll be getting a release date for State of Decay 3, though we do know it's "coming on really well," so hopefully one comes during this year's Xbox Games Showcase in the summer. Whenever the game does come out, it'll be available to play on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, as well as on Xbox Game Pass.

🗨️ Excited for State of Decay 3?

After a painfully long wait of nearly six years, gamers on Xbox and PC will finally soon have an opportunity to get their hands on Undead Labs' upcoming State of Decay 3. Even if you don't manage to get into the first playtest, it's very likely you'll get into one of the later ones as the developers expand the alpha's availability.

Are you excited to finally play State of Decay 3, or were you never really interested to begin with? Let me know in the comments, and vote in our poll.

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I thought we might've been nearing the end of the legal battle going on between the executive leadership of Subnautica 2 dev Unknown Worlds and its publisher Krafton earlier this week when a decisive ruling came down in favor of the franchise's founders, but as it turns out, there's an entirely new fight brewing.

So, what's going on? First, a quick recap: last year, Subnautica's founders sued Krafton for firing them, replacing Unknown Worlds' CEO, and delaying the underwater survival-horror sequel into 2026 even though they believed it was ready for its Early Access release on Xbox, PC, and Xbox Game Pass, with speculation that this was done to dodge having to pay the developers a $250 million bonus for hitting certain performance targets by the end of 2025.

Krafton argued the game needed the delay and that Unknown Worlds' leadership was negligent in their development duties, but a judge ultimately ruled in favor of the series' creators on Monday. Krafton was ordered to extend the bonus' deadline to September 15, 2026, reinstate Ted Gill as CEO, and give him full control of Subnautica 2's Early Access release.

There's still a "phase two" to assess potential financial compensation for the fired executives, but overall, things seemed to mostly be over. But then IGN reported the exiting Krafton-backed CEO Steve Papoutsis wrote an internal memo stating that Subnautica 2 "is ready for Early Access release in May," which Gill's lawyers took issue with in a letter sent to judge Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will.

As reported by Stephen Totilo of Game File, they argue that "Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community," and that the memo was "intentionally leaked." Gill was supposed to announce Subnautica 2's release date — his lawyers say these reveals are "carefully designed to maximize excitement for the game" — so the release of this memo is "further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community."

Krafton's lawyers shot back in defense of the company and Papoutsis with their own letter, stating that the latter was "simply celebrating the UW employees’ efforts toward a past event: Krafton’s pre-Opinion determination that Subnautica 2 was ready for Early Access release." They argue "There was nothing improper about conveying the results of the milestone review or thanking the development team for their dedication and talent."

They also went on to comment that "nothing in Papoutsis’s message alters Gill’s authority or discretion," and that he's been given full control of the game's release in compliance with the original court order.

Now, Gill's legal team has filed a motion to see Krafton penalized for what it believes was disobeying a court order, stating that "Krafton’s actions have undermined the relief sought in this expedited phase of the litigation," and that the May release date was decided before Gill could review the state of Subnautica 2.

Krafton's, meanwhile, is arguing that Will's order was not in effect when it was announced on Monday morning, and shouldn't be considered active until a formal "implementing order" is completed.

There have been no rulings about these new disputes yet, but a few things are clear: there's a strong chance Subnautica 2 isn't coming out in May after all, and the battle between Unknown Worlds' leaders and Krafton isn't ending any time soon.

🗨️ Who's in the right?

Honestly, what a headache. The fight between Unknown Worlds' executives and Krafton remains ongoing, this time over a leaked internal memo that suggested the publisher picked a release date for the game before Ted Gill could make the call himself.

I asked earlier this week, and I'll ask again: who do you believe is in the right, here? Let me know what you think in the comments, and vote in our poll:

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Minecraft developer Mojang Studios first brought the highly anticipated Vibrant Visuals update to the Bedrock Edition (Xbox, PC, PS5, Switch) of its sandbox survival game last summer, and now it's focused on releasing it for the PC-specific, modding-friendly Minecraft: Java Edition. As part of that process, the studio has announced it's switching Java over to a new graphics API.

Put simply, graphics APIs form a bridge between your system's GPU and your games, allowing the former to render the latter on your screen. Currently, Minecraft: Java Edition uses OpenGL, an aging program first developed in the 1990s. It's stopped receiving updates and soon won't work on macOS anymore, though, so Mojang is moving to Vulkan instead.

Vulkan is a newer, frequently updated API that's supported on all of Minecraft's PC platforms (Windows, Linux, and macOS with a "translation layer"), and is currently used for the Nintendo Switch version of Bedrock. Mojang says the move to Vulkan will make Java Edition much easier to update, and will also bring "eventual performance gains and increased capabilities."

Those will be valuable to have to support Vibrant Visuals — an optional graphical overhaul that significantly improves the game's lighting, adds dynamic shadows, brings reflective and emissive layers to textures, and introduces biome-specific color grading and visual effects. Basically, it's the officially implemented equivalent of modded shaders and texture packs, and is designed to elevate Minecraft's vanilla aesthetic.

The developers say they're planning to start testing Vulkan in Java Edition with public pre-release "snapshot" builds this summer, with players able to swap between Vulkan and OpenGL during the testing period. It's committed to staying in testing "until we’re confident that the Vulkan implementation is stable, performant and ready," at which point OpenGL will be sunset.

Notably, Mojang promises that players will be notified of the full move to Vulkan before it comes, and says that Minecraft's minimum PC requirements will be updated as needed to reflect the use of the new API.

Considering that even GPUs that are now a full 10-years old support Vulkan, the vast, vast majority of Minecraft players should have no issues playing the game once it switches to the new API. However, if the graphics card in your rig is older than that, you may need to make an upgrade.

All in all, I expect the shift to Vulkan will end up being a huge boon for Minecraft players that prefer using Java Edition to Bedrock. Java's open-ended architecture makes it the favored version for modding, and it also features more advanced redstone logic and more nuanced combat. It's always had worse performance than Bedrock, though, which is unfortunate.

Vulkan, though, should help with that substantially — though one caveat is that all OpenGL-based Minecraft mods will need to be overhauled to be compatible with the game's future on Vulkan. Mojang acknowledges this, and asks that players afford mod authors patience and kindness while they work to do this.

Minecraft: Java Edition is included in the $29.99 PC bundle that provides access to both Java and Bedrock, which is notably just $17.89 at Loaded right now thanks to a sweet deal. Alternatively, it's also playable through PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Are you looking forward to Minecraft: Java Edition switching over to the Vulkan graphics API? Which version of the game do you prefer, Java or Bedrock? Let me know in the comments.

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Update Feb 11, 4.30 p.m ET: Microsoft has now rescinded the DMCA strike against Allumeria, and the game's Steam page has been reinstated. It does, indeed, seem to have been an automated strike, and the game's developer has confirmed that no counterclaim was necessary, and no further action is required on their part. Original story follows.

Allumeria is an upcoming voxel-based game, and it appears to have drawn attention from Microsoft over alleged infringement of its own voxel giant, Minecraft.

Take a look at Allumeria, and the similarities are easy to spot. That said, it raises a bigger question: can you copyright a style of game? Especially since one existed before Minecraft, called Infiniminer, which actually predates it.

So, is there more to this situation, or is Minecraft overstepping? Let’s take a closer look.

How closely does Allumeria resemble Minecraft?

In Allumeria, you will find what you would probably expect from a Minecraft-inspired title. It features voxel-based graphics, sprawling landscapes, and block-based terrain with grass, dirt, and trees.

The game is played in first person and centers around survival and exploration. At a glance, you could easily think I am describing Hytale, Minecraft, or almost any other voxel-based sandbox.

That overlap is part of the debate. According to the developers, Microsoft has filed a DMCA claim, and the Steam demo is currently no longer available.

A DMCA strike, short for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is issued when a copyright holder claims its protected work has been used without permission. In simple terms, it is a formal notice alleging unauthorized use of copyrighted material. In this situation, Microsoft is asserting that its work has been used without approval.

There are clear resemblances, but Minecraft does not own the voxel style itself. It is a widely used visual approach within the genre, with Hytale being one of the most notable recent examples.

From what is visible, there are no textures in Allumeria that appear to be directly lifted from Minecraft. It is clearly heavily inspired, featuring similar mobs and its own version of a Nether-like area, though similar comparisons could also be made to Terraria in certain respects.

This is not the first time a voxel-styled game has faced scrutiny over similarities, as Microsoft has filed a DMCA for another voxel-based game before. The genre itself often overlaps visually, which can make distinctions harder at a glance.

In that instance, and this one, it appears to have been an automatic AI system that filed the DMCA strike, if users on Reddit are to be believed (regardless, damn you AI!).

The developers have the option to challenge it through the appropriate channels, and it is possible the claim is taken back after a real person investigates. However, for now, the demo remains unavailable on Steam while the situation unfolds.

If you want to support the developers, make sure you check out their itch.io page and/or join their Discord.

What do you think, do the similarities warrant a DMCA strike or are Microsoft over taking things too far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Five years ago, at the height of the pandemic that had everyone staying inside and tons of folks playing video games, one of the biggest hits in PC gaming was Valheim — Iron Gate Studios' open-world survival adventure game that launched into Early Access with full support for co-op multiplayer and player-run server hosting.

Set in a mythological Norse purgatory world in which players must conquer the map and its challenges to earn a place in Valhalla, the game's premise — along with its engaging gameplay loops, robust base-building mechanics, and beautiful audiovisual presentation — drew in a peak of over 500,000 concurrent Steam players, with millions of copies sold in just a couple weeks.

The popularity of the viking-themed survival title gradually waned, though it's maintained a healthy community of players to this day, eventually came to Xbox and Xbox Game Pass, and has received steady (albeit slow) content updates from Iron Gate that've added new biomes, additional types of gear and building pieces, and more. And now, on Valheim's fifth anniversary, it's gotten another big update, this one a surprise.

Patch 0.221.10 celebrates five years of Valheim with fresh emotes, hairstyles, and a new hat, decorative flower and fey light garlands you can hang around your bases, a Frosted Sweetbread consumable, and a new amusingly named weapon class called Early Axes (a play on "Early Access"). These dual-wielded axes seem perfect for those who enjoy a berserker-like playstyle, and are crafted with new axe head items.

Additionally, the update brings a Unity engine upgrade and a handful of different bugfixes and performance optimizations to Valheim, with Steam Deck users in particular benefitting the most; the game now reaches 60FPS when played with its Performance Mode preset, and all of its preset options have been optimized for battery life.

"Today marks the five year anniversary since Valheim was first released into Early Access — and what an incredible five years it’s been," wrote the team at Iron Gate in the update's dedicated blog post.

"We want to thank everyone who has been a part of our journey and our community since then, whether you started playing on day one or have just been carried by the valkyrie for the first time," the studio continued. "We greatly appreciate every single one of you, and we’re so glad to have you walk this path with us."

Notably, the developers are currently working on the game's Deep North update, which is the release that will fully flesh out Valheim's last biome and bring it out of Early Access into a 1.0 state. Iron Gate didn't give any progress updates for Deep North, but did tease that this will be a big year for the title.

"As you all know, we’re working on Deep North, which will be the final biome update that brings the game into 1.0. While we can’t give an update on that today, we can share that 2026 is going to be a great year for Valheim," it said.

Deep North has been widely expected to come out this year, and these comments from the devs give reason to believe that will be the case. Valheim is also scheduled to get its long-awaited PS5 release in 2026, complete with full crossplay support with players on Xbox and Windows PC (including both the Xbox PC app and Steam).

I haven't played Valheim for years, though lately my friends and I have been replaying to check out all the content that's been added over time. With Deep North on the horizon, now is also the perfect time to explore the tenth realm if you're a new player; note that right now, the $20 game is 50% off on Steam, but only for the next 24 hours or so. Snag it cheap while you can!

Are you a fan of Valheim, or have you not played it yet? What do you think of all the additions and improvements that came in this update? Are you excited for the arrival of the Deep North update and the full launch of version 1.0? Let me know in the comments.

Earlier this week, Amazon Game Studios announced its intent to shut down its struggling MMO New World, with the developer now scheduled to take its servers offline at the end of next January. New World: Aeternum was also delisted from all console and PC storefronts immediately, and is no longer available to purchase.

New World nearly hit 1 million concurrent Steam users at launch, but its performance rapidly and sharply plummeted due to its lackluster quests and endgame, and it ultimately never recovered. Now, the game is dying — but the dev leading the studio that made one of the most popular survival games of all time is offering to save it.

Alistair McFarlane, COO and director of Rust developer Facepunch Studios, has put forward a "final offer" of $25 million to Amazon to buy New World from the company's game dev division, adding that "games should never die" in a follow-up post.

Given the nature of the thread the offer was posted in — another Rust dev joked she couldn't get McFarlane to buy New World for her — there's a solid chance it was made entirely in jest, and that McFarlane isn't actually being serious here. But hey, maybe he'd actually go through with it if Amazon expressed interest in taking him up on it. Who knows?

Regardless of the offer being legit or not, McFarlane does have a suggestion for New World's developers to consider: "As with everything we do at Facepunch, empower the community. Give them control, make servers publicly hostable. A game will live forever in the hands of a dedicated community."

Notably, a few other devs commented on McFarlane's proposal. Palworld communications director Bucky jokingly vowed "I’ll go halfs with you if we release the original NW alpha as a separate game mode," to which McFarlane replied with an enthusiastic "heck yeah."

Simon Collins-Laflamme — the creator of the long-awaited, Minecraft-inspired sandbox RPG Hytale that just came out in Early Access and is currently blowing up — extended some support of his own. "If you need tips about buying cancelled games, lmk," he wrote.

Indeed, Collins-Laflamme has experience with that process; his team Hypixel Studios was acquired by Riot Games in 2020, with the League of Legends creator aiming to support the developer as it made Hytale. Riot canceled it and then shuttered Hypixel last year, however, but Collins-Laflamme saved the project by buying it back and releasing it in Early Access shortly afterwards.

Ultimately, only time will tell if McFarlane's $25m bid actually results in anything, but it sure would be cool if it did. New World's problems are numerous, but a sizable community did enjoy the game, and there were good things to say about it, too. It looked great, felt good to play, had some nifty combat mechanics, and featured awesome large-scale 50v50 PvP.

Sadly, the only thing McFarlane has heard from Amazon thus far is an update on his snack delivery. "I have good news! I have received a update from Amazon, following my offer to buy New World," he cheekily posted on Friday morning. "They're delivering my order of beef jerky tomorrow."

Are you hoping to see New World saved from its upcoming shutdown? Do you think McFarlane's offer is purely a joke, or do you believe he'd actually go through with buying the MMO if Amazon accepted his proposal? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Minecraft had one heck of a year in 2025, and it shows no signs of slowing down as we progress deeper into the new year. Mojang Studios wasted no time revealing details on the first game drop of 2026 for Minecraft, and it's looking adorable.

There's no name or release date, but we do know that Minecraft's debut update of the year will bring cute new redesigns of many baby mobs, including wolves, cats, cows, pigs, and more. It goes deeper than just the visuals, too.

I'm admittedly a little late to covering this, as I was extremely busy while in Las Vegas for CES 2026, but I want to spread the word and make sure everyone sees just how lovable the new baby mobs are. Oh, and let committed Minecraft players know they can go try out the new features right now via snapshots or previews.

Another Spring update that matches the season

You can watch the developer diary above for a succinct summary of the features confirmed for this update, but I'll give you the quick, written breakdown right here.

• New baby mobs. The headline for this update, at least right now, is the revisit to Minecraft's baby mobs. Mojang Studios has created custom models and textures for baby wolves, cats, chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, rabbits, and ocelots. Yes, that includes all the regional variants for these mobs!
• New sounds and animations. For some of these mobs, the update goes deeper than just a visual refresh for babies. Wolf pups and kittens get all-new sounds, with unique yips, barks, mews, and yowls. Adult rabbits have also been redesigned, and they and their kits benefit from adorable new animations.
• Craftable name tags. Finally, the name tag has joined the saddle by becoming craftable in Minecraft. With a single gold nugget and a scrap of paper, you will now be able to craft name tags. That'll make it a lot easier to name all the pets you won't stop collecting.

If you remember, Minecraft started 2025 with the Spring to Life update, which felt very similar to this upcoming game drop in that it focused on diversity and detail in the Overworld. Mojang's Game Director, Agnes Larsson, also made the same comparison in the developer diary linked above.

As much as I absolutely adore these new baby mobs, I am hopeful that more is planned for this update before it actually rolls out to players, possibly in March of this year.

My favorite part? I'm already seeing the Minecraft community come together with some excellent suggestions for this upcoming update. It's still early days for Minecraft's first update of the year, too, so we have no idea what Mojang is already cooking up (and how it may respond to player feedback).

For example, what if there were a way to permanently preserve baby mobs? Perhaps by adding a "Lil" prefix or "Jr." suffix to name tags, or by feeding a baby mob something like a glistering melon (just to name a couple ideas from comments). New fox variants could also be awesome, especially if they were accompanied by redesigned, fluffier baby foxes.

I've also seen people wish they could properly tame and befriend rabbits like you can cats and dogs, and I fully understand the sentiment. There are plentiful neutral mobs like rabbits that can be bred by players, but bunnies are fairly popular (and very friendly) pets in real life, so why can't the same be said of Minecraft rabbits?

There's still a lot we don't know about this update, of course, so all we can do is keep letting Mojang know what we want and wait for fresh betas and news. While I'm on that topic, you can absolutely go test out the first new features I broke down above in the latest Minecraft: Java Edition snapshots and Minecraft: Bedrock Edition previews.

What do you think about Minecraft's first update of the year? Is there anything you want to see Mojang Studios add to Minecraft in 2026? Let us know in the comments below!

Minecraft has been around for over 15 years now, but it's still showing no signs of slowing down. As 2025 properly ends and we usher in a new year, we're looking back at another year of Minecraft filled with fun, plenty of new updates, and some awfully big numbers that only this community can pull off.

Mojang Studios is joining in on the retrospective with some of those crazy stats, and is also giving away a free Inflatable Chicken Suit Character Creator item to anyone who logs into the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition dressing room right now.

Next year promises to be another big one for one of the world's most successful video games, but that doesn't mean we can't take a look back first. Let's get started.

Keeping track of Minecraft player shenanigans

First, Mojang shared this image at X.com (formerly Twitter), sharing some random stats from the community throughout 2025. Sorry for those of you who love updates on the number of copies Minecraft has sold, how many monthly active players Minecraft has, and other bigger statistics — this end-of-year breakdown doesn't take itself too seriously.

For one, the Minecraft community clearly loved the new copper golem mob added earlier this year, as we've already spawned nearly a billion of the helpful little guys. We're also clearly having a lot of fun with all the new mounts, because we tamed over 270 million of them and traveled over 335 billion combined blocks.

I guess most of us are still finding the saddles we need in treasure chests, though, because we only took advantage of our newfound ability to craft them 16 million times this year.

I would have also enjoyed some stats on how much we modded Minecraft: Java Edition or took advantage of the Minecraft Marketplace, but no such luck on those fronts.

A busy year filled with Minecraft updates

If I tried to recap everything major that happened with Minecraft in 2025, this article would end up looking more like a Wikipedia page than anything you'd actually want to sit and read.

I do want to take a few moments to hit Minecraft's biggest points of the year, though, starting with one of two Minecraft Live events Mojang hosted in 2025. I covered Minecraft Live (Mar. 2025), and it was filled with announcements on the game's first three updates of the year, A Minecraft Movie, and more.

Yes, Minecraft hit the silver screen in 2025, and it broke some records while doing it. I actually spoke with some of the team behind the Minecraft movie as it hit streaming services earlier this year, and Mojang also teased the Minecraft movie sequel coming in 2027.

Back to Minecraft, though, and we started the year with the Spring to Life update, which aimed to make the Overworld feel more diverse (while also adding plenty of quality-of-life improvements). Then, we got two updates in one with Vibrant Visuals and Chase the Skies, with the former finally upgrading Minecraft's iconic graphics and the latter letting us fly with our friends on happy ghasts.

Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025) arrived with a fresh wave of announcements, including all the details on what I consider to be Minecraft's best update of 2025, The Copper Age. Finally, we got a lot of new mobs and a brand-new weapon with Minecraft's final update of the year, Mounts of Mayhem.

That's not everything, of course. Mojang Studios announced a collaboration with Candy Crush's King to develop Minecraft Blast, an upcoming mobile game. Minecraft in 2026 will also look a little different, thanks to the removal of code obfuscation for modders and a change in how version numbers work.

I could say even more, but I'll leave it at this: Minecraft had quite the year. I'm excited to see what 2026 has in store, too. As a quick reminder right here at the end, Minecraft is also discounted across all platforms through the first week of 2026, too.

Minecraft had a big year filled with updates, events, and milestones — and 2026 isn't about to slow things down. What do you think of the state of Minecraft at the end of the year, and are you excited for what's coming next? Let us know in the comments below!

There's not a month that goes by that Minecraft isn't one of the best-selling video games across platforms, and it has been that way for a very long time. Minecraft doesn't need massive sales to be at the top, so it's not very often that we see a real deal for this legendary game.

Well, now is one of those times. Mojang Studios has discounted Minecraft on all platforms by 25% or more, making this Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition PC bundle just $21.99 at Amazon.com. The sale is only lasting until Jan. 8, 2026, though, so take advantage of this holiday discount.

I don't think I have to sell Minecraft to you — it has been around since 2009, and it certainly didn't need my help to become a global cultural phenomenon. This blocky survival-crafting game continues to be one of the top-selling video games of all time, spanning multiple generations of gamers.

Minecraft is available practically everywhere, including Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and even other devices running Android, iOS, Linux, and macOS. Minecraft connects players across all of those devices, and absolutely thrives thanks to its bustling community of builders, miners, creators, and modders.

Of course, Mojang Studios also regularly updates Minecraft with new content and features. In fact, the Mounts of Mayhem game drop just recently rolled out as Minecraft's final update of the year, adding more mobs, a brand-new weapon, and more.

Minecraft is much more than just a video game at this point, but gaming is still the core of this franchise. Part of that success can be attributed to its modest price tag, too, hence why we rarely see every version of Minecraft go on sale. If you don't own Minecraft on a specific platform or want to buy it for someone else, this is the time to do it.

The Minecraft: Java Edition and Bedrock Edition bundle is only $21.99 at Amazon.com, right now, and the deluxe collection on Xbox is also just $21.99 at Amazon.com. Wherever you can play Minecraft, there's a good chance it's on sale (but exact discounts and end times may change depending on your region or platform). You can find all of those details at Minecraft.net.

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2025 was a big year for Minecraft, with two Minecraft Live events and four sizeable content updates. Yes, four — the holidays are here and the end of the year is looming, and Minecraft is enjoying its last 2025 game drop with Mounts of Mayhem (and the last update before Mojang changes how Minecraft version numbers work).

Announced during Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025), the Mounts of Mayhem content drop brings an all-new tiered weapon, several new mobs, and a lot of mounted combat. It's the perfect, chaotic way to cap off a varied year for the world's biggest survival game.

The Mounts of Mayhem update is now rolling out across Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and Minecraft: Java Edition platforms. Keep reading for the full dive into what this update brings, including some insights from my conversation with Mojang Studios' Senior Product Manager, Anna Lundgren.

Lots of chaos, lots of mobs

"It's nice to end the year with some mayhem," Lundgren told me toward the end of our brief conversation. True to its name, the Mounts of Mayhem update is a bit wilder than the previous three Minecraft game drops. Here's a breakdown of the new content it brings to the table.

• The spear: For the first time in many years, Mojang Studios has added a new tiered weapon to Minecraft, joining the sword and axe.
  • The spear is a melee weapon with extended minimum and maximum reach, and can be crafted with wood, stone, copper, iron, gold, diamond, or netherite.
  • The spear has jab and charge attacks, with the former dealing low damage and knockback, and the latter scaling damage and knockback based on material, angle, and velocity.
  • The spear is designed with mounted combat in mind, and can be used by players, zombies, husks, and piglins.
  • The spear also has the exclusive lunge enchantment, which changes the quick jab to a horizontal lunge, at the cost of durability and hunger.
• The nautilus: Mojang Studios has added a brand-new mount specifically for underwater adventures.
  • The nautilus spawns in all ocean biomes, with the incredibly rare coral nautilus sometimes spawning in the warm ocean biome.
  • The nautilus is a neutral mob, but can be tamed (and bred) with pufferfish.
  • The nautilus can be equipped with a saddle and new nautilus armor (functionally similar to horse armor).
  • When riding a nautilus, players get the "Breath of the Nautilus" effect, which halts loss of oxygen when underwater.
  • The nautilus also has a dash, similar to the camel (but underwater).
• Undead mounts: Players aren't the only ones to enjoy mounted combat — three new undead mounts are also being added.
  • The zombie horse now spawns naturally in Survival mode with spear-wielding zombie riders, and can wear horse armor for protection from the sun.
  • The camel husk can spawn in deserts with spear-wielding husks and parched riders, and is immune to the sun.
  • The zombie nautilus can spawn underwater with trident-wielding drowned riders.
  • All three undead mobs are hostile when ridden by a hostile mob, but are neutral and can be tamed (but not bred) when the hostile rider is killed.
• The parched: Mojang Studios also added a new hostile mob to Minecraft with the parched.
  • The parched is the skeleton archer counterpart to the husk, spawning in deserts with sun immunity.
  • The parched fires arrows of weakness, but shoots slower than normal skeletons.
  • The parched can also spawn with a husk riding a camel husk.
• Other changes: We've covered the big additions, but here are some other miscellaneous updates included in this game drop.
  • Horses, donkeys, camels, and other mounts no longer sink in water when riding them.
  • You can now upgrade diamond horse armor to netherite horse armor with a smithing table.
  • Minecraft: Java Edition now has new graphics presets and options.

"It has been a varied year," Lundgren said. "We had some very nice, lovable things for builders and explorers with Spring to Life. Chasing Skies gave us the happy ghast to go flying in the sky with your friends. We had a Copper Age with all the new copper things."

RELATED: Minecraft's Copper Age update | Minecraft's Chase the Skies and Vibrant Visuals updates

Now, we're closing the year with Mounts of Mayhem, which comes with some surprises, like the legendary zombie horse finally making it out of Creative mode.

"Unfortunately, the reason why the zombie horse never made it into Survival outside of using commands... That's a story that has been lost with time," Lundgren told me when I asked about it.

We also got more in this update than what we saw during Minecraft Live. "[Camel husks and parched] were part of the plan, but they weren't ready in development to show at Minecraft Live," Lundgren said.

Mojang has changed how it approaches updates and announcements, releasing smaller (but more frequent) updates and only showing off features when they're nearly ready to be released to Minecraft insiders for testing.

Lundgren listed horses being able to swim and the spear being her favorite features from the Mounts of Mayhem update, and teased that 2026 will be another big year for Minecraft.

If you want to see every change and addition included in Mounts of Mayhem, you can now check out the Minecraft: Java Edition 1.21.11 changelog and the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.21.130 changelog.

Since day one, Minecraft has marked each major update with an incremental version number increase, but we've been stuck on version 1.21 since the release of the Tricky Trials update in Jun. 2024. Why? Because Mojang Studios changed how it updates Minecraft, focusing more on smaller, more frequent drops than massive annual releases.

Now, Minecraft version numbers are changing to match, and making them clearer and easier to understand in the process.

For many of us, this isn't world-shaking news, but it's still an important change for Minecraft as a whole — and especially for Minecraft creators and modders.

Previously, Minecraft releases were notated by a 1.x.x version number, with each major release getting a .1 increment — and patches for that update ticking up by .x.1. We've been stuck on 1.21.x for a while, though, with the most recent "The Copper Age" game drop being 1.21.9 for Java Edition and 1.21.110 for Bedrock Edition.

Under this new system, Minecraft's version number will simply be the year an update is released, followed by additional numbers counting the updates. So, The Copper Age would've been 25.3 for Java Edition and 25.50 for Bedrock Edition (Bedrock Edition's number being higher because that version is simply updated more frequently).

For patches and hotfixes, Java Edition will get an additional .x increment, and Bedrock Edition will count up from the "0" at the end; for example, 25.3.1 and 25.51, respectively.

This won't impact the game itself or the player experience at all, but it does streamline matters for developers and creators. It also makes snapshots and previews easier to understand, as they'll now fall under this new version numbering system — instead of something like "25w41a," (the first snapshot for the upcoming Mounts of Mayhem game drop), it'd instead be 25.4-snapshot-1.

These changes will begin taking effect next year (but previews are adopting these changes as soon as next week), so "Minecraft 1.x.x" is officially being retired. The Mounts of Mayhem update is releasing on Dec. 9, and the first update after (in the new year) will be Minecraft 26.1. You can read more about the change at Minecraft.net.

This is the second important (but admittedly boring, for most people) change to Minecraft's development Mojang Studios has announced recently, with the developer also committing to removing code obfuscation from Minecraft: Java Edition moving forward — a move that will massively improve how easy it is to mod the game.

As the holidays progress toward the inevitable conclusion of 2025, Mojang Studios is preparing to release one more update for Minecraft. Now, we know exactly when the Mounts of Mayhem game drop is coming to Minecraft players around the world.

We don't have long to wait, either, as Minecraft's final update of the year is officially set to release on Dec. 9, 2025, just under two weeks away. In fact, Mojang Studios has already begun testing near-final, pre-release snapshots and previews with Minecraft insiders.

Here's a quick recap of what you need to know about the Mounts of Mayhem update for Minecraft, to prepare yourself before its imminent arrival.

Lots of mounts and lots of mayhem are almost here

There's a fair bit of content included in the Mounts of Mayhem game drop, mostly revolving around, well, mounts. The headliner is the nautilus, a new tameable mob that lives underwater. When mounted, the nautilus preserves your oxygen, making underwater adventures easier.

Hostile mobs are also getting a variety of new mounting options, with the zombie nautilus for drowned, the zombie horse for zombies, and the new camel husk for husks and Minecraft's latest hostile mob, the sun-bleached parched skeleton.

To make mounts even more interesting, Mojang is also introducing a brand-new weapon: the spear. The spear can be used to jab, lunge, and joust, with damage that scales depending on your speed. Unlike the uncommon mace, too, the spear is easily crafted with the same materials as other tools and weapons.

It'll be interesting to see just how popular the spear and mounted combat become when Mounts of Mayhem arrives on Dec. 9 for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and Minecraft: Java Edition.

This is the last update of the year, but we do already know some of Mojang's plans for Minecraft in the new year, including the removal of code obfuscation from Java Edition for modding. We also know Mojang and King are working together on Minecraft Blast, a new mobile spin-off game.

More Black Friday 2025 — quick links

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It has been an incredibly busy year for Xbox Game Pass, and it can be awfully difficult to choose which included game you should play next. So, I'm back with another spotlight for one of the smaller gems on Game Pass that I wholeheartedly recommend.

This is Winter Burrow, a short, cozy survival game following the adventures of a young mouse as they return to their old familial home and learn to survive the harsh, endless winter of the forest.

If you're looking for a relaxing journey to usher in the winter months, this adorable indie game is a great place to start. It's less than ten hours in length, supports Xbox Play Anywhere across the entire Xbox ecosystem, and shows once again why ID@Xbox is so important for giving us more awesome games.

Finding friends hidden in the snow

You're a mouse, and you were raised in the forest by your parents and aunt. You loved the wilderness and were slowly learning to fend for yourself when the winters began to grow longer and harsher. Desperate to keep you safe, your parents fled with you to the city, leaving their burrow behind.

Poor living conditions and dangerous jobs whittled your parents down to nothing in the following years, however, and in the end, you were alone, left with nothing but a burning desire to return to the winter-enclosed forest of your childhood and the aunt who never departed it.

That's the basic premise behind Winter Burrow, an ambling survival adventure that tasks you with restoring your familial home while reconnecting with your aunt, learning to survive, and making some new friends along the way.

Gameplay-wise, Winter Burrow is straightforward. There are multiple semi-open areas to explore, each with unique resources, secrets, and creatures to scavenge, discover, and battle. You can use everything you collect or find to repair structures, build furniture, craft tools and items, and cook recipes.

You need to keep a close eye on your health, hunger, stamina, and especially your warmth — just being outside becomes dangerous over time, and the time of day, weather effects, and areas can affect how quickly you succumb to the cold. That constant threat puts a persistent timer on every adventure, but Winter Burrow is hardly an unforgivingly challenging survival game.

The greatest challenge comes not from the cold or various creatures you may have to battle, but from simply learning how to progress. There are no maps or objective markers; you need to become familiar with each area, especially as you discover other animals living in the forest that need your help. Simply paying attention to the footprints you left behind during previous adventures can be a massive help.

It's easy to become uncertain at times about how you're supposed to find something specific, be it resources, secrets, or even missing friends and family. I actually enjoyed this approach to game design, though, especially when Winter Burrow's scavenging, crafting, and combat mechanics are incredibly simple to understand.

A little too short, but still a Game Pass gem

As temperatures decline and reasons to go outside dwindle, Winter Burrow has offered me a handful of hours of peace and relaxation while wrapped in a cocoon of fuzzy blankets. It really embodies the "cozy survival" description, but the journey is rather short-lived.

Rebuilding your burrow, reuniting with your family, making new friends, and assisting everyone you've met while upgrading your gear and decorating your home doesn't take quite as long as I would've liked. I 100% the game and all its achievements in less than 10 hours, highlighting Winter Burrow's general lack of depth.

You're given lots of recipes for furniture, but little reason to actually go out of your way to craft any of it. You can technically customize your mouse, but really just by going up to one of the next three tiers of clothing. Most of your "reason" to play Winter Burrow is simply to explore and progress through each supporting character's unique questline (giving you five stories in total).

Winter Burrow ends quite abruptly, too, launching into the credits immediately following an anticlimactic conversation with your aunt. Honestly, I just wanted a little more from Winter Burrow — mostly, more depth to the gameplay that would make me want to keep revisiting even after the story is over.

Still, I really enjoyed my time with Winter Burrow. Developer Pine Creek Games truly nailed this aesthetic, and the narrative is sweet and often sorrowful — but ultimately heartwarming. If you're interested, Winter Burrow is now available across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and gaming handhelds, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and (of course) Xbox Game Pass.

Minecraft is scarcely the same game as what broke ground in 2009, and how could it be after over 15 years of constant updates and expansions? The way Minecraft is updated has changed a lot over time, too, and the latest behind-the-scenes video from Mojang Studios discusses exactly that.

The new video stars Jens Bergensten, Chief Creative Officer at Mojang, and Cory Scheviak, a Creative Lead. It's a short video with plenty of jokes and a lot of lessons about Mojang's current design philosophy for Minecraft, with new features balancing risk and reward.

When it comes to older features that don't fit the bill, Bergensten brought up the legendary Creeper, Minecraft's most explosive hostile mob. According to the Mojang veteran, the team likely wouldn't add the Creeper to Minecraft today — and I completely understand why.

When bad things happen, you should only have yourself to blame

I won't break down the entire video (it's on the shorter side and it's an enjoyable watch), but I can summarize. Minecraft is always in the process of evolving, and Mojang Studios carefully considers every new feature, including how players will use it, how it may affect the game long term, and how it interacts with other parts of the game.

When it comes to destruction and challenge, it's all about giving players a way to opt-in. "Bad things happen, but they're technically the player's fault," Bergensten said earlier in the video. Basically, Mojang wants challenge to be sought after in Minecraft — if you encounter trouble beyond your means, it's either because you actively chose not to avoid it or you failed to properly prepare yourself for it.

You choose to enter the End and challenge the Ender Dragon. You choose to summon the powerful Wither. You choose to begin Pillager Raids or seek out challenging Trial Chambers. You can also protect your homes from lightning strikes with the lightning rod, create Iron Golems to ward against hostile mobs, equip yourself with armor and powerful enchantments, and a million other ways to keep yourself safe.

Sometimes, "emergent changes," or unexpected interactions with new features, break this philosophy. The Enderman used to be able to pick up any block, which resulted in player builds and machines being destroyed. Iron Golems used to attack Creepers, which resulted in unnecessary and unpreventable destruction. Mojang made changes to these features, but what about the Creeper itself?

"If you would follow the rules that we have today," Bergensten said in the video, "we would probably not add the Creeper." The Creeper may be Minecraft's most iconic mob, but the community has a love-hate relationship with this silent bomber, which has annihilated countless player builds over the years.

"It would actually be so controversial to have a monster that would show up and just destroy what you've built," Bergensten continued, and I wholeheartedly agree. The Creeper is inseparable from Minecraft now, but if it was a new feature being added in 2025 there would be mass uproar from the community.

It's honestly not surprising to hear the Minecraft team take this stance. Minecraft is designed with a lot of different kinds of players in mind, and indiscriminate destruction would only be "fun" for the players that already actively seek out challenges.

That doesn't mean the Creeper is going anywhere, though, or that it's even changing — it's just indicative of how Mojang has to be smarter and more cautious when updating what has become the best-selling video game of all time, because players of all shapes, sizes, ages, skill levels, and play styles enjoy it.

If you want to hear more from Jens Bergensten, I actually interviewed him about 'A Minecraft Movie.' Speaking of, Mojang just teased the second Minecraft movie and gave a release date, too.

Minecraft is slated to receive one more update this year, and we're already seeing the first features hit early testing for interested players. A bit of time has passed since Mounts of Mayhem was announced, and now you can go hands-on with a decent chunk of it.

All the Mounts of Mayhem features shown during Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025) are present in the latest Minecraft: Java Edition snapshot, and Mojang Studios has already confirmed the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition preview will be able to join in on the fun soon.

There's one surprise here that wasn't included in all the best Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025) announcements, though, and it makes the Mounts of Mayhem update even more exciting. Here's what you need to know.

The first Mounts of Mayhem features... and one big surprise

Just to recap, the Mounts of Mayhem update is the fourth game drop of 2025 for the long-running survival-crafting game. As the name suggests, this update is all about rideable mounts... with a few extras on top.

This first preview includes all the features first revealed for the update, including the spear. This is a brand-new, tiered melee weapon for Minecraft, joining the sword and axe as your blade of choice. The spear is excellent for jabbing at your opponents from a safe distance, but it can also be used to charge — the faster you move, the more damage it deals. The spear even has an exclusive "Lunge" enchantment that surges you forward.

All that makes it ideal for mounted combat, as it can be used with the horse, camel, or anything else you can ride and control. That includes the nautilus, a new tamable mob joining the Minecraft ecosystem with Mounts of Mayhem. The nautilus is an underwater creature that can freeze your oxygen levels, keeping you safe from the dangers of drowning.

Mojang also announced zombie nautiluses and revealed that the zombie horse is hitting survival, but originally positioned those two as hostile mounts for drowned and spear-wielding zombies, respectively.

In this first preview, though, you're actually able to tame zombie mounts, too! The prerequisite is that you skillfully dispatch their angry riders, of course, but you can absolutely tend to a herd of undead equines or bond with a rotting cephalopod. I think this is awesome, so hopefully the feature sticks around (the wording of Mojang's announcement post suggests it's not completely set in stone).

I'm positive we'll see the Mounts of Mayhem update get other new features and changes before it arrives across all platforms during the holidays later this year. For now, Java Edition players can go test these first features right now (and Bedrock players won't have to wait long)!

In case you missed it, Mojang also recently teased the second Minecraft movie, and we already know it's release date, too.

I began my time with Windows Central writing about Minecraft, and I'm still called up to bat every time Xbox and Mojang Studios drop some fresh news. I've covered every Minecraft Live show since its inception, bringing all the latest announcements straight to you.

This time, however, I had to travel across the country for some super-secret work (which you'll learn about in due time), and was unable to tune into Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025). My colleagues were fortunately here to make up for my absence, but I can't allow myself to fall behind on all things Minecraft.

For myself and anyone else who missed this Minecraft Live, here are all the announcements you need to know from the event — and how I feel about them as a big Minecraft fan.

Minecraft's last update of 2025 gives us new ways to move

Minecraft has already enjoyed multiple updates this year with Spring to Life, which added a ton of diversity to the Overworld, Happy Ghasts, which added a new flying mount alongside Vibrant Visuals, and The Copper Age... which actually comes out tomorrow, but I'll talk more on that in a moment.

Turns out, we're getting a fourth "game drop" just in time for the holidays, and Mojang has already given us the name: Mounts of Mayhem. No, not "mounts" like "mountain," this update is about getting around Minecraft in style. I guess the new Happy Ghast can't claim all the glory this year.

There will inevitably be other new features added to Minecraft through the Mounts of Mayhem update when it drops later this year, but for now, you can effectively split this update into two parts: mounts and combat.

On the first front, Mojang is adding a new underwater mob called the Nautilus, and this helpful cephalopod can be tamed with pufferfish, equipped with a saddle (and even new Nautilus armor that you can find in treasure chests), and used to traverse the depths of the oceans in style.

The Nautilus is freely controlled, possesses a "dash" ability like the Camel, and even grants a "Breath of the Nautilus" effect that pauses your breath meter when riding it — letting you explore, build, and fight without worrying about drowning. You can also tame multiple Nautilus, and breed them together to get the most adorable little tentacle monster you ever saw.

Hostile mobs are also benefitting from this update, however. Undead Zombie Nautilus can also spawn with an angry Drowned on their back, pursuing you at high speeds while hurling tridents. Up on land, the Zombie Horse makes its Survival Mode debut as the mount of choice for elite Zombies, and those opponents will be equipped with the second part of the Mounts of Mayhem update.

The Spear is the latest weapon to join the Minecraft armory, and it's not like the Mace that was added in the Tricky Trials update — the Spear is a tiered weapon just like the Sword, and can be easily crafted by any player with two sticks and your best material.

A basic "stab" attack still provides more range than Minecraft's other close-quarters weapons, but where the Spear really shines is with charging. Lowering the spear will deal damage to any that meets its point, and that damage scales depending on how fast you're moving.

Finally, we have a viable option for defending ourselves while mounted on a Horse, Camel, Nautilus, Happy Ghast, or any other mount... but mounted Zombies will carry the same weapon, so we'll have to be wary of those high-speed attacks.

I think the Spear looks great and I'm excited to see what enchantments can be applied to it, but I'll be even more excited if this update brings full combat parity across Minecraft versions. The Java Edition still has the more interesting and dynamic combat mechanics.

We're one day away from a copper revolution in Minecraft

Next up, we have an update I've already covered extensively. The Copper Age isn't a mystery to many Minecraft players at this point, but what we did learn during this Minecraft Live is when The Copper Age is rolling out to everyone.

It's sooner than you might expect, too. The Copper Age is the latest Minecraft game drop, arriving across Bedrock and Java Editions on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. Indeed, that's tomorrow, if you're reading this article on the day it went live.

You can refer to my earlier coverage to get a more in-depth breakdown of everything The Copper Age entails, but I'll provide a quick summary here.

As the name suggests, The Copper Age update is all about making copper a more useful and impactful ore in Minecraft. I actually briefly spoke to Anna Lundgren, Senior Product Manager at Mojang Studios, about this game drop and how important community feedback was to shaping it.

Players can expect a new, friendly mob in the form of the Copper Golem, which you don't tame but build, just like the Iron Golem. The Copper Golem interacts with Copper Chests for automatic item sorting, oxidizes over time like other copper blocks, can freeze into Copper Golem Statues that give off redstone signals depending on their pose, and can even receive beautiful flowers from their Iron Golem friends (a feature that was actually added later on because of the Minecraft players).

We're getting a lot more room to be creative with copper thanks to multiple new decorative blocks, and the gap between stone and iron gear will no longer be quite so daunting thanks to a full suite of copper armor, weapons, tools, and even mount armor. One of the best new features, though, is the shelf, which allows you to quickly swap out your hotbar inventory with displayed items and stacks.

The Copper Age honestly looks like a fantastic update with an extremely consistent theme. I don't think we'll see anyone else complaining about the usefulness of copper after this game drop arrives tomorrow.

Minecraft collaborations keep getting better

Mojang Studios announced two new collaborations for Minecraft during the event, and while the upcoming Dragon Ball Z DLC definitely stole headlines, it's actually the other that is personally more interesting to me.

Minecraft has teamed up with Conservation International, a non-profit organization committed to protecting the earth we all share to create the Friendly Fishing Add-On, a fishing adventure that adds over 100 new aquatic mobs, new structures and buildings, unique armor and villager types, and more.

The best part? Microsoft has donated $100,000 to Conservation International, and for the next three months 100% of net proceeds from sales of the add-on will also go toward the organization's conservation efforts. You can buy the Friendly Fishing Add-On right now for 990 Minecoins at the Minecraft Marketplace.

In other news, Mojang also did tease an official Dragon Ball Z Add-On for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, too. While we don't know a ton about the add-on itself, other than that it'll transport us to one of anime's most iconic universes, players can get onboard the hype train right now.

Until Nov. 4, 2025, all Minecraft players can go collect their free Super Saiyan Hair Character Creator item for free from the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Marketplace. The Dragon Ball Z DLC may still be stuck in the future, but we can all go Super Saiyan right now.

We've seen Minecraft team up with some of the biggest franchises across video games and movies in the last few years, so I can't say I'm shocked we're finally seeing Dragon Ball Z.

A good Minecraft Live that I'm sad I missed

I've already spilled a lot of words on what happened during Minecraft Live (Sept. 2025), so I'll make my conclusion short. This event was short (less than thirty minutes if you don't count the pre- and after-shows), but we still got quite a lot.

The Copper Age is shaping up to be my favorite Minecraft update of the year so far, and I'm already really excited to see what Mojang adds to the Mounts of Mayhem game drop that wasn't revealed during the initial announcement.

Maybe, with a Nautilus companion and a spear in my hand, I'll finally, properly explore Minecraft's oceans. I'll be honestly, I could never really be bothered to set up gear for breathing, mining, and surviving in those murky depths.

Minecraft is so big, one event a year to announce upcoming updates and developments apparently isn't enough. Minecraft Live now comes around twice a year, and the second round for 2025 was just announced.

Mojang Studios has released the teaser trailer for a new show, where we expect to see all the features of "The Copper Age" update, brand-new upcoming game drops, behind-the-scenes looks, and... possibly more?

I'll share everything you need to know and add some speculation of my own, but the headlining news: Minecraft Live airs on Sept. 27, 2025. Let's get deeper into the weeds, now.

What you need to know about the next Minecraft Live

You can check out the new cinematic trailer for Minecraft Live above. Like usual, it's colorful and fun and silly, but doesn't really tell us all that much about the show itself. So, here's the quick rundown of how to watch Minecraft Live, and when you'll be able to tune in.

• Minecraft Live airs on Sept. 27, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. CEST.
• Minecraft Live will be streamed in the below places, in addition to TikTok and Instagram.
  • Minecraft.net/live
  • YouTube.com/Minecraft
  • Twitch.tv/Minecraft
• Closer to the date, we expect more specific links, including for audio description, sign language, and other alternative streams.
• Officially, this Minecraft Live will feature upcoming game drops, new information from the developers, and a "Dig Deep After Show" where developers and guests will go hands-on with new features.

What am I expecting to see at this Minecraft Live?

Now that Mojang Studios has moved to smaller (but more frequent) "game drops," individual updates tend to be less exciting. That being said, the last Minecraft Live event was packed from end-to-end, so the second event of the year has some big shoes to fill.

Mojang will likely lead with "The Copper Age," the next Minecraft update that brings the Copper Golem back from the mob graveyard and adds a plethora of new copper-focused features. It's an interesting update that recently earned its name — but not a release date.

It's reasonable to assume Mojang will announce a release date for The Copper Age game drop during this Minecraft Live, but I honestly expect Mojang to shadow drop the new update during the event. Only three days separated the last Minecraft Live from the following Minecraft update, after all.

Either way, Minecraft team members will probably show off all the new features included in The Copper Age that weren't a part of the initial announcement, including shelves, new copper decorative blocks, and more.

The Copper Age will be the third game drop of the year, and we're practically guaranteed to get a fourth for the winter season. During this upcoming Minecraft Live, Mojang Studios will announce at least one game drop to arrive after The Copper Age, but it's anyone's guess what that update will actually bring to players.

I hope that what could be the final Minecraft update of 2025 sends the year off with a bang, and I'd love to see a properly new hostile mob, too (while we're at it, the Bedrock Edition still needs the combat improvements that Java has had for ages). Whatever it ends up being, hardcore players likely won't have to wait long after the event for the first features to begin hitting snapshots and previews.

Mojang is keeping its cards close to its chest right now, though, so I unfortunately can't speculate much more than that. What I do know is that we will not see the return of the Minecraft Live Mob Vote — that's still very much dead, and good riddance.

The next Minecraft update is rarely a secret, thanks to how Mojang Studios works with the community to develop new features and improvements, but that doesn't make it any less exciting.

Today, a couple of months of development are nearing a close with the long-awaited announcement of a name. "The Copper Age" is the next official Minecraft update (and the third of the year), and it's bringing a ton of interesting new content to the legendary survival game.

When the third Minecraft Game Drop of 2025 was first announced, it was pretty clear what the theme was going to be. A long line of new snapshots and previews testing new features only confirmed the theme, and now there is not even a shadow of a doubt.

The Copper Age update is all about copper, the much-maligned ore that Mojang added to the game years ago to nearly no fanfare — mainly because there was very little you could actually do with copper.

That's finally changing, and dropping the name means Minecraft's next update is imminent. We don't have an exact date yet, but you can bet Mojang is intending to close out the summer with a coppery bang.

What can we expect from The Copper Age update?

Mojang's new update strategy for Minecraft means more frequent but ultimately more modest updates, and The Copper Age update mostly falls into that category. There's still quite a lot here, though, so I'll summarize what we know so far.

• Copper Golem & chests. The headlining feature for this update is the Copper Golem, a friendly mob that sadly lost a past Minecraft Live Mob Vote. Thankfully, Mojang is reviving our metallic friend.
  • A single block of copper and a carved pumpkin is all you need to make a Copper Golem, which will seek out nearby copper chests (also new) and take items out of them.
  • Copper Golems will then seek out nearby regular chests with the same items, and deposit what they're holding (in the case no matching chest can be found, they'll seek out an empty chest).
  • Yes, that means automatic chest sorting, and it's with cute friends!
  • Like other copper items, Copper Golems will oxidize over time and change in color. You can still halt or reverse that process with wax or an axe.
• Copper armor, weapons, & tools. A first in a while, Mojang also added a brand-new set of armor, weapons, and tools. As you probably already guessed, it's all copper.
  • Copper armor, weapons, and tools sit somewhere in between stone and iron in terms of durability and effectiveness.
  • There's also new copper horse armor, which has a chance of appearing in the same loot chests as other horse armor.
  • It likely won't be used for long, but copper should help bridge the gap between stone and iron gear.
• Decorative copper blocks. You could already make a ton of building blocks out of copper, but the ore just got a whole lot more interesting.
  • Mojang is also adding copper torches and lanterns, which also oxidize over time. Oh, and you can change the color of the copper torches. Yeah, you heard what I said.
  • There's also the new copper bars and chains, giving a nice alternative to the iron variants (with, once again, varying hues due to oxidization). Bees just became a lot more important with this update, too.
  • Oh, Copper Golems will turn into decorative statues if they become completely oxidized, too!
  • You can change their oxidization level like other copper blocks, and hitting a completely clean Copper Golem will revive it.
• Shelves & more. One of the most interesting features of the new update, for me at least, are shelves.
  • Shelves can display up to three item stacks at a time, and interacting with those items will swap whatever you're holding with that stack.
  • You can connect up to three shelves in a row to display nine items in a line.
  • Power those shelves with redstone, and interacting with the shelves will immediately swap your hotbar with those item blocks.
  • Yes, Minecraft effectively has loadouts now, letting you create hot-swappable loadouts for mining, exploring, farming, or anything else you want to do.
  • As a random side note, Mojang also gave each dye color a unique look. Cool.

Okay, Mojang, I think you added enough features to make copper a worthwhile addition to the game. It only took around four years, but who's counting? Jokes aside, I think The Copper Age looks like a great update, and is arguably the most exciting of the year (so far, we may get one more holiday update).

There's a good mix of content for all kinds of players, although I am curious when we'll next get a truly new hostile mob for the more adventurous types. How long has it been since Mojang added a boss-style mob to the game?

I'm happy with what we're getting this time around, though. It took humanity thousands of years to reach the Copper Age; it only took Minecraft a little over 16. Next stop: space travel?

Minecraft has already enjoyed a few pretty substantial updates in 2025, but there's at least one more slated for launch before the end of the year — and it's all about everyone's least favorite metallic ore, copper.

Well, the point of this Game Drop is to make copper less hated by making it more useful, and we already have a good idea of the new mechanics and features this update will include. As of the latest Minecraft Preview build, we now know one more feature coming in this as-yet-unnamed release.

I usually may not dedicate an entire article to one relatively modest feature entering testing with the Minecraft community, but I just rolled the credits on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and after over 100 hours poured into this classic RPG, it makes sense that Minecraft adding new horse armor would amuse me a little.

So, let's go over what Mojang Studios has begun testing today, and I'll recap what we know of this upcoming Game Drop while we're at it.

Yay, horse armor!

Minecraft has had horses (and horse armor) for years now, but your options have been limited — and I feel like most people don't bother with horses anyway. This addition... isn't going to change anyone's mind, actually.

Keeping in theme with the rest of the upcoming Game Drop, Mojang Studios is adding copper horse armor to the game. You still can't craft it (boo, but at least we got craftable saddles in the last update), but it'll have the same chance of appearing in lootable chests as iron horse armor, and it has a protective value of 4.

It's so unexciting to me that it's funny, and I find it especially amusing that the screenshot Mojang Studios provided to highlight the new feature addition puts the armor-adorned horse in the background — because it's the rest of the update that actually matters.

Copper Golems, copper chests, copper tools, copper—

Likely to arrive either at the end of Summer or the beginning of Autumn, the next Minecraft update definitely has a consistent theme. The headlining feature is absolutely the resurrection of the Copper Golem, one of the fated losers of a past Minecraft Live Mob Vote.

Copper Golems are adorable, friendly little guys, but they also have some unique mechanics. For one, Copper Golems provide a way to sort your storage, as they'll take items automatically and stacks out of the new copper chests and move them to nearby standard chests that already contain those items (or put them in an empty chest if there's no better option).

They also oxidize like other copper blocks and can even be turned into decorative statues (don't worry, you can always bring them back to life).

Speaking of copper, Mojang Studios is also adding a new complete set of armor, weapons, and tools, which sits somewhere between stone and iron as a nice middle ground for the early game.

Finally, we're getting new shelves. These shelves can display up to three item stacks (like a much more advanced item frame), but also have a redstone interaction — power up to three shelves, and you can swap your hotbar with those items and vice versa in a moment's time. Yeah, it's effectively a way to build different loadouts.

Now we can add horse armor to that list. I have a feeling we're not going to see any more features added to this update before its release, but I'd love to be surprised by another copper addition that plays into redstone engineering.

If you want to learn more about the latest Minecraft preview build, which includes all of these features in testing (including the copper horse armor), you can read more at Minecraft.net.

When Grounded 2 was announced, I was obviously really excited... but I was also in disbelief that we were already getting a Grounded sequel, since it felt like the first game had barely reached its full potential.

Sure, Grounded 2 continues the story Obsidian Entertainment started in the first game, expands on its survival game mechanics, and lets us explore an all-new map that's planned to be around three times the size of the first game.

That's all awesome, but it took actually playing the Grounded 2 early access debut to be fully convinced that this sequel needed to happen — and it's the buggies. Getting an ant companion of my own has immediately changed the way I play the game, and truly set it apart from the first Grounded.

One feature to completely change the way you play

I already knew buggies were at the center of Obsidian's plans for Grounded 2 when my colleague previewed the game even earlier, but I had to play Grounded 2 to fully appreciate how much of a difference this feature makes.

Buggies fundamentally change the Grounded gameplay loop, but Obsidian also needed an all-new game that left the last generation of consoles behind in order to make its vision a reality.

I believe it, too, because during my time with the Grounded 2 early access, buggies are the only feature that regularly causes frame rate drops. It's worth it, though... but I should probably explain why.

The familiar Grounded gameplay is still alive and well in the sequel, tasking you with surviving the perilous Brookhollow Community Park by collecting resources, crafting gear and weapons, battling creatures, building bases, and steadily improving your skills and capabilities.

You can play Grounded 2 exactly like the first game, but you won't want to. You get your first buggy, a Red Ant Soldier, early on through Grounded 2's story. You'll have to go through a lot to hatch your best friend, and my colleague and I discussed the "Great Egg Heist" in our Grounded 2 early access hands-on review.

Once you snatch a valuable egg from the dangerous depths of a nest and hatch it, you'll be able to summon your buggy wherever you are in the world.

Red Ant Soldier buggies move significantly faster than you ever could, can automatically gather loose resources, can attack and defend with bites and blocks, can recruit nearby Red Ant Workers to assist in battle, can quickly chop down grass and weeds, and can haul far more of those valuable building resources than you can.

Suddenly, the colossal map doesn't feel so endless, and building the base of your dreams no longer feels so tedious. Buggies instantly transform traversal and resource collection, and give you an advantage in difficult battles (although you're still more deadly with the right gear and skills).

I haven't even tried the Orb Weaver buggy, either, which is apparently far more combat oriented.

Yes, you can name them — meet Ant-Tony and Hoopkins

I can tell Obsidian has really thought about how to make buggies an integral part of Grounded 2, even though there are only two types in the game right now (we know more are coming, and I hope that includes a flying mount at some point).

For one, you can hatch multiple buggies for yourself, as long as you're brave enough to steal multiple eggs (seriously, every Red Ant on the planet will be after your head, and I don't even want to think about getting an Orb Weaver buggy). Those are also your buggies — each buggy imprints on the player who hatches them, so each player can have their own army.

Buggies also benefit from your perks and mutations, which can give them an edge in battle. For example, I have the "Perfect Parry" mutation that restores stamina when I pull off a perfect block, and now my Red Ant buggy does, too.

You can build nests (which can house multiple buggies from multiple players), so you can always send your buggies home in an instant if it's too dangerous to have them nearby. Nests let you rename your buggies, too, which is obviously extremely important.

My colleague, Samuel Tolbert, named his buggy Ant-Tony, so obviously I had to name mine Hoopkins. You know, like Anthony Hopkins? But they're ants? And one of us is playing as Hoops? Nevermind.

Oh, and don't worry — you can pet them, and the game even keeps track of the number of pets you've given your buggies. Grounded 2 is already game of the year 2025, confirmed.

Grounded 2 is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC and Steam, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Game Pass in early access.

It’s no secret that I loved the first Grounded game. That doesn’t change the simple fact that Grounded was despondently bare-bones when it first launched into early access.

The team at Obsidian Entertainment that made Grounded a reality was tiny, but it was passionate. Those developers took the idea they had nurtured and matured it with feedback from the community for over two years before the game was considered complete — and even then, Grounded continued to grow with post-launch updates.

Now that Grounded 2 has landed in early access just like its predecessor, I couldn’t help but wonder: would we be repeating the same journey again?

Fortunately, it’s clear that the growing team at Obsidian took every lesson it learned from its debut project and poured it into Grounded 2. This game isn’t a repeat of the first early access experiment, it’s a continuation, with the sequel already as big on day one as its predecessor was when finished.

From humble beginnings to a massive day one launch

If you look back at what Grounded was when it first entered early access, there was only the skeleton of a survival game there. Look even closer, and you could see the vision behind what Grounded could become — but only the studio’s commitment and the community’s passion made Grounded what it is today.

While Grounded gained an absurd amount of content over its two-year stint in early access, Obsidian also implemented countless points of feedback on quality-of-life and accessibility features, and massively enhanced the online co-op experience with the excellent "shared worlds."

Grounded's ceaseless evolution persisted even until its launch on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, as the Fully Yoked update added even more endgame content. From New Game+ to a full-blown level editor in the Make It or Break It update, Grounded became shockingly massive for a game confined to a single suburban backyard.

Grounded 2 may be the beginning of a new adventure, but we won't be following the same path. Right now, this game feels as big as the first Grounded did when I reviewed it in 2022.

Parks are bigger than backyards, who knew?

It was revealed when Grounded 2 was announced that the new map is set to be around three times larger than the Backyard from the first game. When my colleague previewed the game, he learned that even the very first iteration of Brookhollow Community Park will be as large as the first Grounded.

Now that I've played Grounded 2 for myself, yeah. This map is already massive, with diverse biomes, unique locations and landmarks, and plenty of secrets to discover.

It's a far cry from the sparse Backyard that kicked Grounded off in 2020, and Obsidian has already promised that Grounded 2's early access updates will be larger and fuller on average.

It's not just about size, either. Grounded 2 already feels packed with content. We have bustling ecosystems of creatures, countless options for building bases, a vast array of gear, plenty of character upgrade opportunities and unique loadout options, fleshed out accessibility features (including the return of Grounded's Arachnophobia Mode), and even online shared worlds to make playing with your friends even easier (Minecraft could learn from Grounded, actually).

That's without even discussing what sets this sequel apart from Grounded, being a continuation of the story and new gameplay mechanics like buggies (rideable creatures!).

Obviously, Grounded 2 is basically missing most of the narrative and its entire endgame, with its early access tenure being focused on fleshing out the foundation and layering those features on top. There's no "end," no level editor, no rogue's gallery of secret bosses to challenge your skills.

That just makes me more excited, though. I honestly wasn't going to spend too much time playing Grounded 2, because I prefer to wait until games are finished before diving in, but there's already so much here that I've almost forgotten Grounded 2 is in early access.

Well, apart from the bugs. Not the bugs, I mean the bugs — Grounded 2 is still really rough around the edges, so save often if you dive in.

Grounded 2 is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC and Steam, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Game Pass in early access.

Grounded 2 has finally arrived in early access, but I've already been playing it for hours on end. The follow-up to my favorite survival game of all time is bigger and more ambitious, and it makes some interesting changes to the standard formula.

Chief among those changes is the removal of your typical axe, hammer, shovel, and other tools for collecting resources. Replacing them all is the aptly named Omni-Tool, which dynamically changes to adapt to the task at hand.

Some hardcore survival game fans may decry this simplification, and others may claim it makes Grounded 2 "easy" (it doesn't), but my hours of play time have convinced me Obsidian Entertainment made the correct decision — and I can give you three reasons why.

Tying gameplay progression to story progression

In the original Grounded, you'd have to craft and manage multiple tools in order to collect all the resources you'd need to progress in the game. Now, the Omni-Tool combines all those functions into one, and you're provided one as part of Grounded 2's opening tutorial.

Grounded 2 already provides a significantly better onboarding experience with clearer guidance for new players, and the Omni-Tool helps to focus the game as a whole. With Grounded 2, your progression through the game is tied directly to your progression through the story.

You don't have to worry about crafting individual tools for each new resource type you encounter, but you do need to upgrade the Omni-Tool to rise to the latest challenge. That still means exploring the Park in search of rare and valuable resources to craft those upgrades, but the blueprints themselves are discovered by following the narrative.

It's a subtle but distinct difference in approach, and it'll undoubtedly become even more important as you move through Grounded 2 (given how much larger this game will end up being than its original).

Removing the tedium of managing countless tools

I can already hear the weird survival genre purists: "This makes the game too easy." No, it makes the game less tedious, but tedium has never (and will never) equaled difficulty. Grounded 2 still requires exploration, careful management of resources, and the skills required to tackle increasingly terrifying foes to collect new ingredients.

Now, though, you don't have to individually craft, manage, and upgrade individual tools for chopping, smashing, digging, repairing, and whatever else you need to do. You also don't need to take up a precious inventory slot with all of these tools (the Omni-Tool doesn't even appear in your inventory, it's always present exactly when you need it).

The Omni-Tool never breaks, either, so the upgrades you make are permanent (and there's no risk of losing a tool to durability deterioration and needing to embark on a tangent adventure to collect repair ingredients, which is only ever frustrating).

For those concerned about simplicity, upgrading the Omni-Tool through each tier (and unlocking new upgrades and functions) is no small feat, and it's a diverse tool with a lot of paths to progress through during your time in Grounded 2.

Creating more space for weapons and combat to shine

The biggest effect, though, is on combat. In Grounded, the line between tools and weapons was blurry, thanks to certain creatures in the Backyard being weak to specific damage types — caused by tools that were objectively weaker than dedicated weapons.

Ignoring these weaknesses wasn't viable in the game's most difficult confrontations, either, but tools rarely (if ever) neatly fit into complete builds. That's changed in Grounded 2, with a clear distinction between weapons and the Omni-Tool.

There are more weapon types (including the incredibly fun dual-wielding category) with unique damage types and specializations, and the synergy between weapons, armor, trinkets, mutations, and more is deeper and clearer.

Combat in Grounded 2 feels even more exciting as a result, even in the early game before more advanced status effects and damage types are introduced. I'm already excited by the possibilities, and not needing to also manage individual tools gives me more flexibility to engage with the game's combat mechanics.

If you've spent some time with Grounded 2, do you agree that the Omni-Tool is an upgrade over the original game? If you haven't played yet, Grounded 2 is now available in early access across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC and Steam, and Xbox Game Pass.

The reward for Most Valuable Player at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 can only go to a single developer, and it's none other than Obsidian Entertainment.

Obsidian already gave us Avowed earlier this year (which I reviewed and loved), and we already knew The Outer Worlds 2 was heading our ways in the second half of 2025. After all, it got half of the Xbox Games Showcase to itself.

What I did not expect was to see the follow-up to one of the most underrated first-party Xbox games, and one of my favorite survival games of all time. Yeah, Grounded 2 is officially happening, and I'm a tad shellshocked.

Enough time has passed, but Grounded still feels new

For the uninitiated, Grounded is a smaller, community-driven project from Obsidian Entertainment with a simple premise: you and your friends have been shrunk down to the size of insects, and now you have to survive the dangers of a perilous backyard twisted by strange science.

I reviewed Grounded's full release at the end of 2022, so it's not like enough time hasn't passed for Obsidian to begin cooking up a sequel, but Grounded also spent nearly two years enjoying regular post-launch updates before finally landing on PlayStation and Switch alongside some colossal content additions.

It has been just over a year since Grounded's multi-platform debut, and now we know that Grounded 2 isn't just happening, it's already around the corner. Grounded 2 is heading to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC and Steam, and Xbox Game Pass on Jul. 29, 2025 in Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access.

Yes, Grounded 2 will once again grow with feedback from its players, but this time Obsidian Entertainment is taking everything it learned from the first game to make the sequel better in every conceivable way.

We'll still be smol, but Grounded 2 will be bigger

Grounded 2 takes place two years after the events of the first game and features the same playable cast, but this time is set in a vast community park far larger and more hazardous than the backyard of the first game.

With lessons learned from the original Grounded, a mature approach to early access, and assistance from the legendary team at Eidos-Montréal, Grounded 2 is going to be significantly more ambitious than its predecessor.

The map is larger, the biomes are more varied and numerous, the combat is far more advanced and dynamic, the ecosystem is even more diverse and reactive, and the stakes are higher than ever. We're getting brand-new creatures like terrifying scorpions, the ability to tame various creatures to use as mounts and transport, and so much more.

And that's all just the beginning. Obsidian is committing to releasing more substantial, beefier content updates on a regular basis, with a public roadmap from day one to inform players of what's coming next.

Everything I've seen of Grounded 2 and how Obsidian is approaching its development makes me extremely optimistic this game will easily be one of the best of the year when it reaches its 1.0 release.

Which makes it all the more surprising how much Grounded 2 will cost.

Better than ever, but not more expensive

The era of $80 standard Xbox games has officially arrived, with large AAA games taking more time and resources than ever before to get across the finish line.

Shockingly, one of the first Xbox Game Studios titles to carry that lofty price tag is another Obsidian Entertainment project. Yes, The Outer Worlds 2 will start at $80, and opinions on this development are expectantly divided.

Despite also being an Obsidian game, though, Grounded 2 won't even approach that exorbitant cost of entry. In fact, Grounded 2 will cost the same as its predecessor, which was already an incredible value considering the level of quality and amount of content.

When it arrives in Game Preview, Grounded 2 will only cost $29.99, a staggering $50 less than The Outer Worlds 2. Even when Grounded 2 is fully released, I expect its final pricing to be the same as the first game, or a $10 increase to $40.

Of course, Grounded 2 will also be a day one, permanent addition to Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming, making it even more accessible for players. When gaming is getting more expensive in general, from games to hardware, it's refreshing to see a major release take a more humble approach to pricing.

Grounded 2 officially arrives in early access on Jul. 29, 2025, and I personally can't wait to see how this ambitious sequel develops over time. Are you excited for Grounded 2?

What you need to know

• Mojang Studios has pivoted to smaller, more frequent updates for Minecraft, and the latest is just around the corner.
• "The Garden Awakens" adds a spooky new biome with a terrifying inhabitant.
• Players can brave The Pale Garden for a chance at securing new crafting and building materials, as well as a Creaking Heart for more nefarious purposes.
• Minecraft "The Garden Awakens" is dropping today, on Dec. 3, and should be rolling out to players on all platforms.

Minecraft is in something of a transitionary phase, moving into brand-new entertainment mediums and shifting the way game updates are approached. Mojang Studios has pivoted to "Game Drops," smaller and more frequent releases that regularly add new features to everyone's favorite survival-crafting game, and the latest has finally arrived.

"The Garden Awakens" is the newly revealed title of the newest major Minecraft content update, which brings with it a spooky new biome, an even spookier new hostile mob, and a handful of reasons to encourage players to brave the dreary forest known as "The Pale Garden." You can begin your exploration whenever you're ready, too, as "The Garden Awakens" is now rolling out to all Minecraft Players across Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Switch, and mobile devices as of today, Dec. 3, 2024.

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A horror theme and a modest list of additions

I'm not one to tiptoe around an issue, so I'll go out and say that "The Garden Awakens" isn't the most exciting Minecraft update that has ever come out of Mojang Studios. These new "Game Drops" are more modest by their nature, and this update is no different. The list of new content and additions is relatively short, but there's still plenty to entice players to return to Minecraft's Overworld.

"The Garden Awakens" centers entirely around The Pale Garden, a new rare forest biome that players can discover in Minecraft. The Pale Garden is devoid of color and cast in ominous overtones, with a pervasive silence that's only broken once night falls. That's because The Pale Garden is home to Minecraft's most terrifying entity: The Creaking. These tree-like monsters hunt the grounds of The Pale Garden once the sun, recedes, and they can be horrifying foes.

The Creaking only move when you can't see them, and stop the moment you lay eyes on them. This doesn't make them easier to deal with, though — The Creaking are effectively immortal, with only one way to deal with them. You have to track down their Creaking Heart, embedded in a nearby tree, and destroy The Creaking at their source. If you conspire to pick up a Creaking Heart rather than destroy it, then you can spawn your own legion of Creaking wherever you want.

Aside from The Creaking, The Pale Garden is also home to the Pale Oak trees and Pale Moss, both of which can be used to craft interesting and unique structures and creations. Aggravating The Creaking at night will also result in the production of resin, another new material that can be used to spice up your building. Finally, The Pale Garden is home to eyeblossoms, a unique new flower that only blooms at night and glows orange in the dark.

Minecraft's "The Garden Awakens" update officially drops on Dec. 3, 2024 for Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Switch, mobile devices, and Xbox Game Pass as a simultaneous update for both Java and Bedrock Editions. While a smaller update, it is certainly one of the spookiest releases Minecraft has ever enjoyed. There's no word yet on what comes next for Minecraft, but I'm sure we won't have to wait long to find out.

In case you missed it, I recently sat down to talk with the team behind Minecraft Experience, a new real-world attraction that lets you physically step into the world of Minecraft.

What you need to know

• Mojang Studios first showed off this feature over four years ago, and it's finally coming to Minecraft players today.
• Bundles are the primary new feature in the "Bundles of Bravery" update, letting players organize and consolidate their inventories like never before.
• Hardcore Mode has finally come to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition after being exclusive to the Java Edition for years.
• Finally, Minecraft now runs natively on PlayStation 5, offering improved performance for current-gen console owners.

It's a big day for Minecraft players! At least, that's what I'd like to say, but this will only be exciting to certain players. Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios have officially released the "Bundles of Bravery" update to Minecraft across all platforms, bringing with it one or two new features (depending on your perspective) and a better playing experience for one platform.

Yeah, it's not much, but today's update is setting the stage for larger (and more frequent updates) coming to Minecraft in the future, with one being unveiled during the recent Minecraft Live show. Today, players will have to content themselves with the long-awaited (and overdue) arrival of Hardcore Mode on Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, the long-awaited (and overdue) arrival of bundles on all versions of Minecraft, and the long-awaited (and overdue) arrival of Minecraft on PlayStation 5. There may be a trend here.

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Better late than never

Minecraft: Bundles of Bravery is officially releasing as of today, Oct. 22, 2024, across Xbox, PlayStation, Windows PC (Bedrock and Java), Switch, Android, and iOS platforms. Apart from the short trailer above and some social media engagement, there has been little fanfare for this update, and for understandable reason. There are exactly three additions in the Bundles of Bravery update, and each addition matters to a smaller group of players than the last.

First, all versions of Minecraft across all platforms finally have bundles! This feature was unveiled as a part of the Minecraft "Caves & Cliffs" Update, but was repeatedly delayed into oblivion, until no one was sure if we'd ever really see it. Bundles finally showed themselves in Minecraft snapshots and preview builds a while back, and now they're here for all players. Basically, players can craft bundles and use them as miniature, portable chests. Players can move items in and out of bundles from their inventories, and can gift bundles (and everything inside them) to other players. Bundles can also be dyed all 16 different colors for some added customization.

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players are also finally getting Hardcore Mode, which as been a fan-favorite staple in the legacy Java Edition for years. Hardcore Mode sets the game to its hardest difficulty and gives you exactly one life — if you die, the game is over and you permanently lose access to that world. That does mean that Java Edition players only have bundles to look forward to in this update, though.

The final addition in the Bundles of Bravery update is less of an addition and more of a change. Minecraft is now natively available on PlayStation 5. Previously, the PS4 version of Minecraft was running in emulation on PS5 consoles, but no more. What does this change? Not much, but PS5 players can expect improved performance, higher resolutions, and greater render distances than before.

And... That's it! Now, Mojang Studios is setting its sights on the next Minecraft content update, which will be larger and isn't too far away. You'll really have to be brave in that update, with The Pale Garden dropping in Minecraft as the spookiest biome yet.

What you need to know

• Recently, Mojang Studios hosted a new Minecraft Live show and unveiled the next two Minecraft content updates.
• "Bundles of Bravery" is coming soon and is a more minor release, but the more interesting update is coming later this year.
• The Pale Garden is a creepy new biome that's home to The Creaking, dangerous tree-like mobs that will strike only when you're not looking.
• It's the perfect update for the spooky season, so it's great that you don't have to wait for the full release — the first Minecraft: Java Edition snapshot for the update is here.

It has only been a few days since Mojang Studios revealed the next two Minecraft content updates, or "Game Drops," during the latest Minecraft Live show. There was definitely a theme for the new updates, with the second (and more major release) debuting an eerie new biome home to one of the most terrifying mobs ever added to Minecraft: The Creaking. You don't have to wait months — or even weeks — to play with the creepy new features, either.

Mojang Studios has announced that the first Minecraft: Java Edition snapshot for The Pale Garden biome and its tree-like inhabitants is now available for interested players to dive in and play, and Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on other platforms is coming in the near future. Here's what you need to know about the snapshot and what this upcoming Game Drop will bring to Minecraft later this year.

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Everyone can get killed by The Creaking later this year, but you can do it early

During Minecraft Live 2024, Mojang Studios announced the "Bundles of Bravery" Game Drop coming to all Minecraft players in the coming weeks — but that update only includes Hardcore Mode for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (it was already in the Java Edition) and the new portable and customizable bundles. The more interesting update is a few months out, and it doesn't quite have a name yet.

However, Minecraft: Java Edition Snapshot 24w40a is already here (with a full changelog on Minecraft.net) with the new features available for any interested player to test early. Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Previews and betas on Windows PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Android, and iOS will get the same features soon, but those players will have to wait a little longer. So, what does this terrifying new Game Drop include?

• The Pale Garden. The headlining feature for this upcoming update is The Pale Garden, a brand-new forest biome that looks entirely different from any other biome we've seen before.
  • The Pale Garden is eerily quiet and almost entirely devoid of color, and is very dense with trees and foliage that reduce visibility
  • The Pale Garden also has unique atmospheric sounds that grow steadily worse as night falls
• The Creaking. The Pale Garden is only home to one native mob, The Creaking. This hostile entity is one of Minecraft's only truly asymmetrical mobs and also features some unique mechanics.
  • The Creaking only spawns at night, and camouflages with The Pale Garden
  • This mob is entirely immune to damage, making it a dangerous foe
  • The Creaking only moves when players aren't looking at it, similar to the infamous "Weeping Angel"
  • Players wearing a pumpkin head can look at The Creaking without it stopping, though
• The Creaking Heart. The only way to defeat a Creaking is to track down its connected Creaking Heart and destroy it.
  • The Creaking Heart becomes active at night when it's surrounded by Pale Oak logs and spawns at least one Creaking mob to defend it
  • The Creaking Heart has its own ambient sounds to help players track it down, and hitting a connected Creaking will result in particle effects leading to the Creaking Heart's general area
  • Once players destroy a Creaking Heart, all connected Creaking mobs instantly die
  • Players can use a Silk Touch pickaxe on The Creaking Hearts to pick it up and place it somewhere else
• Pale Oak set. The Pale Garden is comprised almost entirely of Pale Oak trees and Pale Moss, resulting in a variety of new crafting materials and blocks.
  • Pale Oak logs can be used to craft stripped logs, planks, doors, fences, fence gates, signs, hanging signs, slabs, stairs, trapdoors, buttons, pressure plates, boats, and boats with chest
  • Pale Moss blocks spawn naturally in The Pale Garden, and when placed as Pale Moss Carpet can spread to adjacent blocks
  • Pale Hanging Moss grows from the foliage of Pale Oak trees, and has its own unique set of ambient sounds

You can go download the 24w40a snapshot in the Minecraft Launcher on Windows PC starting today and check out all of these new features. Honestly, I'm hoping that Mojang Studios gives us more reason to visit The Pale Garden in the first place, especially at night, as right now there doesn't seem to be any incentive. Perhaps we'll see unique rewards and treasures that you can only find in The Pale Garden, and right now Mojang is just focused on the foundational features.

Either way, this quick turnaround is great to see, and will hopefully help Mojang flesh out these features before they're fully released as part of the "Winter Drop" for Minecraft on all platforms later this year.

What you need to know

• Mojang Studios has kicked off its new Minecraft Live format, which gives a sneak peek at the near future of Minecraft.
• One of the biggest reveals during the show has been the next two major Minecraft content updates (or "Game Drops"), both possessing creepier themes for the spooky season
• The first is dubbed "Bundles of Bravery," and it brings new features like Hardcore Mode for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and bundles.
• The second coming in the next few months doesn't have a name yet, but brings even spookier features like a new hostile mob and biome.

It's the dawn of a new era for Minecraft. Mojang Studios recently revealed its plans to change how the Minecraft universe will evolve over time, including smaller and more frequent content updates, the permanent death of the controversial Minecraft Live Mob Vote, and more focused bi-annual Minecraft Live events. The first of the latter is already here, as Minecraft Live 2024 kicked off in earnest today.

The headliner for this Minecraft Live is, like usual, the next major content updates, or Game Drops, for Minecraft. Mojang Studios has taken the wraps off and revealed the first details for "Bundles of Bravery," a more minor update that's coming to Minecraft players everywhere just in time for the spooky season with more challenge and features.

Of course, that's far from all, as Mojang actually debuted a second Game Drop we'll see a little later down the road with a horror theme. It's the exact kind of connected, relevant update I love to see in live-service games like Minecraft, and it seems like a great continuation of the ongoing Minecraft 15th Anniversary celebration. Keep reading for everything you need to know from Minecraft Live 2024.

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Spooky Minecraft updates for the spooky season

The first Minecraft Game Drop coming to players soon is "Bundles of Bravery," which embraces the spooky season with new features and mechanics that we already knew Mojang Studios were working on alongside the community.

The "Bundles of Bravery" update is expected to arrive on all Minecraft platforms very soon. Here's what Mojang has confirmed for the upcoming Game Drop.

• Hardcore Mode in Bedrock Edition. A staple of Minecraft: Java Edition, Hardcore Mode challenges players to survive Minecraft at its most difficult with a single life. If you die, your game is over and you have to start over completely from the beginning. Now, Hardcore Mode finally debuts in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on modern platforms following years of community requests, providing a new level of challenge for the most skilled Minecraft players.
• Bundles. Bundles were originally supposed to be a part of the Minecraft "Caves & Cliffs" Update, but were delayed repeatedly as Mojang sought to improve the feature. Now, Bundles are finally coming in the "Bundles of Bravery" Game Drop.
  • Bundles are crafted with leather and web, and can be dyed with any color for customization
  • Bundles are accessed via the inventory, and allow players to carry significantly more by stashing items inside them, like portable chests

The next Game Drop continues the eerie theme, but it may not have an official name yet. What we do know is that it brings a new hostile mob and biome to Minecraft, and is expected to arrive within the next few months. Here's what Mojang has confirmed for this Game Drop.

• The Pale Garden. The latest new biome coming to the Minecraft Overworld, The Pale Garden is creepily calm. It's desaturated and almost entirely silent during the day. At night, new creepy ambient sounds debut and players may encounter the native hostile mob.
  • The Pale Garden is comprised of Pale Oak trees, Pale Hanging Moss, and Pale Moss Carpet, with high density offering low visibility to players
  • The Pale Oak trees can be harvested for the Pale Oak wood set, which is near-white
  • This biome is also home to The Creaking
• The Creaking. This new hostile mob only exists in The Pale Garden at night, and perfectly blends into the Pale Oak trees.
  • The Creaking attacks players on sight, but only moves when players look away from it
  • The Creaking cannot be killed by attacking it directly; instead, players must track down The Creaking Heart connected to it
  • The Creaking Heart block is hidden within a nearby Pale Oak tree, and when it's destroyed the connected Creaking dies with it
  • Players can mine The Creaking Heart with a Silk Touch pickaxe to pick it up and place it elsewhere, unleashing a creepy Creaking at will
• Pale Oak wood set. In addition to a new biome and horrifying new mob, this Game Drop will feature the Pale Oak wood set for players to build with.
  • Like other wood sets, this is a cosmetic addition that features a new white aesthetic for blocks, stairs, doors, slabs, fences, boats, and more
  • Players can also place Pale Hanging Moss and Pale Moss Carpet to complete the desaturated, creepy vibe

This Game Drop is a little further down the line, but Mojang Studios did confirm that The Pale Garden and The Creaking are going to drop in Minecraft: Java Edition Snapshots, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Betas, and Minecraft Preview in the near future. The features are expected to remain in testing for a few months while Mojang finalizes them before the official release later this year.

Minecraft Live 2024 is in full swing

The latest Minecraft Live aired on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. ET, and represented the first of Mojang Studios' newly formatted shows. Smaller, more focused, and looking to the immediate future of the Minecraft universe, Minecraft Live 2024 is a celebration of all things Minecraft, and you can tune in on YouTube above.

Of course, you can also discover how to watch Minecraft Live 2024 and everything else you could need to know, including where to find accessibility features, what you can expect from this show, and even how you can earn exclusive in-game rewards just for tuning in. It's not just about the latest Minecraft update, the show is also about the community, the developers behind the game, new Minecraft developments like the live action Minecraft movie, and more.

Minecraft Live isn't the only source of recent Minecraft news, though. Mojang Studios recently revealed when the native PlayStation 5 version of Minecraft is finally releasing, letting PS5 players enjoy better performance and draw distances in Minecraft (sorry, though, there's no ray tracing).

What you need to know

• Earlier this month, Mojang Studios announced a refresh for how it plans to approach development for the Minecraft franchise.
• Now, we have a date for the first Minecraft Live show under this new strategy, and it's only a few weeks away.
• The next Minecraft Live airs on Sept. 28 and will include brand new updates for Minecraft and other new announcements for the franchise.
• There will also be an after show during which Mojang developers will discuss Minecraft's development and play upcoming content.

It's a new dawn for Minecraft, or at least that's what its creators are promising. Earlier this month, Mojang Studios announced a new approach for Minecraft's development, including smaller and more frequent updates and new, focused bi-annual Minecraft Live shows to accompany them. Now, we know when the first of these new Minecraft Live events is airing.

Mojang has revealed that Minecraft Live is returning (in a new format) on Sept. 28, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET, and players can expect first looks at brand-new, never-before-seen Minecraft content.

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The first look at future Minecraft updates

Minecraft Live has been the biggest Minecraft-related event of the year for a long while now, but Mojang Studios is shaking things up. Now, the show will air twice a year and be shorter and more focused on the next six months of Minecraft. This includes a sneak peek at upcoming "game drops," which are basically smaller, themed content updates for Minecraft that are replacing the major, annual releases of the past.

With the new approach, Minecraft should be updated far more frequently with Mojang releasing new content as it's ready. Mojang has promised that this Minecraft Live will debut multiple Minecraft game drops, which likely includes the immediate future and then a tease for what comes next. The show may not just be about the original Minecraft game, though, as this is also the platform where Mojang will share new insights into the wider Minecraft universe.

So, new Minecraft content updates are guaranteed, and there's no hint what those updates will include right now apart from it still being Minecraft's fifteenth year of existence. However, we may also learn more about other parts of the franchise, such as the upcoming live-action Minecraft movie and its oh-so cursed first trailer.

Whatever we see during Minecraft Live, after the show Mojang developers will stick around to discuss Minecraft's development in more depth and go hands-on with some of the freshly announced content, which is exciting. Just don't expect massive announcements and earthshaking new features that will turn the world of Minecraft upside down. There also won't be a Minecraft Live Mob Vote this year, as Mojang has officially killed the controversial event.

The new Minecraft Live officially airs on Sept. 28, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET, and you'll be able to stream it on Minecraft.net, YouTube, and Twitch in English with English Audio Descriptions, American Sign Language (ASL), and British Sign Language (BSL). After the show concludes, Mojang Studios will release translated recordings with Arabic (MSA), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Filipino, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, LATAM Spanish (Mexican), Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese subtitles.

What you need to know

• Minecraft is one of the most well-known, popular, and best-selling video games of all time, and Mojang Studios wants to keep it that way.
• In a new community update, Mojang has teased its future plans for Minecraft, including a more frequent content update cycle.
• Minecraft Live is also becoming a bi-annual event, and will no longer feature the controversial Mob Vote.
• Finally, Mojang has confirmed a native PS5 version of Minecraft is coming, although you shouldn't get too excited about that.

Minecraft has evolved from humble beginnings into a cultural phenomenon of insurmountable proportion, and it's certainly not going to stop expanding now. Mojang Studios has provided a brief update to the community on what we can expect in Minecraft's future, and it's a quick list of franchise-wide changes that respond directly to community feedback.

Minecraft players often criticize Mojang Studios for releasing new content updates too slowly — that is changing. The annual Minecraft Live Mob Vote breeds unnecessary controversy and conflict within the community in a shameless reach for engagement — that is changing. PlayStation players are left with a version of Minecraft that isn't optimized for PS5 — that is changing.

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Three changes built with the help of the community

For a few years now, Minecraft has been steadily becoming a brand and multi-media franchise rather than simply a video game. Minecraft's official artwork was recently redesigned to reflect its modern ambitions, and there's even a live action Minecraft movie starring Jack Black and Jason Mamoa (it's a little cursed, though, judging by its first trailer) and an original Netflix animated Minecraft series in the works.

Some believe this franchise expansion has led to the original game that made it all possible losing priority, though, criticizing a ponderous update schedule that sees Minecraft enjoy only one major release a year, such as the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update. Mojang Studios is now adopting a different approach to Minecraft updates, however, committing to rolling out multiple feature updates to the game across the span of the year. These updates will vary in size and ambition, and will provide Minecraft players with more frequent injections of fresh content.

In fact, we've already seen Mojang test this approach with the Minecraft 'Armored Paws' update, which added armadillos, new wolf variants, and wolf armor to the game. Now, Minecraft will be updated more aggressively, with these smaller updates still being passed through intensive community testing before seeing a public release. Mojang also says that parts of the studio are working on long-term initiatives to help Minecraft grow years into the future, although most of that is being kept under wraps for now.

One initiative that's coming to fruition very soon, though, is the native PS5 version of Minecraft. We already knew this was happening, but it's worth reiterating what this means. Up until this point, PlayStation 5 players have had to play the PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft through backward compatibility, with Sony's implementation not being as dynamic as Xbox's. Now, that's finally being fixed.

A native PS5 version of Minecraft should mean better stability and overall performance, with the game better equipped to take advantage of the PS5's powerful and capable hardware. However, it'll basically mean parity with the Xbox version that scales across Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and that means no exciting new features like ray tracing. I'm sorry, Minecraft with ray tracing still isn't coming to console.

On all of the above, though, Mojang Studios has once again stated the importance of community feedback, highlighting how working with Minecraft players led to new features like the armadillo and wolf armor being significantly improved over their initial design, and even brought features like the Cherry Grove biome into being.

Finally, Mojang Studios is implementing some changes to how it interacts with the community. For one, Minecraft Live is changing its format to be more compact, and will now air twice a year to provide more frequent updates on the immediate future of Minecraft. I have no issue with this approach, especially since Minecraft should now be enjoying more regular content updates.

Another change I have zero issue with is the death of the Minecraft Live Mob Vote. For a few years now, Mojang has asked the community to vote for one of three new mobs to be added to Minecraft, which attracts a huge amount of attention... And a lot of it is bad. The Mob Vote is popular, for sure, but the community understandably strongly dislikes that every year two new mobs are announced and teased but will ultimately never be added to the game.

Last year, the Armadillo won the Minecraft Live Mob Vote, which was my personal choice, but that means the Penguin and the Crab were banished to the Minecraft mob vault, never to be seen again. I wrote about why I believe the Minecraft Live Mob Vote needs to go away, an opinion shared by many, and it's now a reality. Hopefully, this means Mojang simply plans to add more mobs more frequently to Minecraft, possibly revisiting the losers of previous Mob Votes.

What exactly will fill the gap left by the Mob Vote at the new bi-annual Minecraft Live shows remains to be seen, but all-in-all I'm feeling very positive about the development changes Mojang Studios has announced. You can read the original blog post from Mojang on Minecraft.net.

What you need to know

• Starbound is a popular 2016 open-world space exploration game in which you adventure through a procedurally generated universe with your spaceship.
• The indie was a huge hit on PC, and now — eight years after its original launch — Starbound is getting an Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One port soon.
• Developer Chucklefish hasn't yet announced a release date, but is currently holding a beta playtest for the game on Xbox that you'll have a chance to get access to by installing the Insider Hub app on your Xbox.
• The beta runs until next week on September 4, 2024, with the developers primarily looking for feedback on the console version's performance, UI, gamepad controls, and gameplay balancing.
• The PC version of Starbound is available on GOG, Steam, and the Microsoft Store for $14.99. Notably, it's playable on the latter platform through PC Game Pass (and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, by extension).

When games expand to platforms other than the ones they launched on, it's something that typically happens within a couple of years or so. In rare cases, though, popular titles can come to new systems many years later, giving their players a surprising chance to finally enjoy something other gamers have come to call a beloved classic. That's precisely what happened this week, with the studio behind the fan-favorite open-world PC game Starbound confirming that an Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One release is coming soon — a full eight years after its original 2016 launch.

"The Starbound Xbox version is finally almost ready to launch!" reads the recent announcement blog post from publisher and developer Chucklefish. "Before we confirm the release date, we would love to involve the Starbound community to get your thoughts and feelings regarding usability — specifically around controls and console-specific design decisions on the Xbox version. This will inform our final changes ahead of the game’s launch, and will help us with any further quality of life changes for future post-launch patches."

As the post notes, Starbound's specific release date on Xbox hasn't been revealed yet. However, Chucklefish is holding a playtest for the game on Microsoft's consoles through the Xbox Insider Program that lasts until next week on September 4, 2024. The developers say that "the testing pool will be size restricted in order for us to manage and prioritize the feedback we receive," but any Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One user may be eligible for this beta once they install the Insider Hub app (if you are, the option to participate will appear within the app).

In other words, there's a solid chance you can jump into the game right now on Xbox, but access isn't guaranteed. If you are and decide to try out Starbound, Chucklefish asks that you fill out this Xbox Insider feedback form when you're ready to share your thoughts on the experience. The survey is fairly extensive with six pages of questions, with most of them focusing on console performance, user interface, gamepad controls, and gameplay balance. The developers have also implored playtesters to report any bugs they experience with Xbox's "Report a problem" option (hold down your controller's Xbox button and you'll see it pop up).

"Our main aim of the playtest is to find the optimal default controller mapping for the launch version using information we receive from the playtest surveys," the studio explained. "We want to find out what feels best and most natural for the majority of players, so after you’ve given the default controls a try, you can adjust the mapping and deadzone balancing in the Settings."

If you're hoping to check out Starbound with friends, good news: the game was designed with multiplayer in mind, and supports four-player parties. Playing the beta on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One X, or Xbox One will allow you to join a full party, though Xbox One S users can only play with one other person. The reason for this limitation wasn't given in Chucklefish's blog post.

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If you've never heard of it, Starbound is a 2D open-world survival game in which you adventure through a vast procedurally generated universe by traveling from planet to planet in your starship. I haven't played it yet, but differences in presentation aside, it's immediately giving me No Man's Sky vibes — funnily enough, Hello Games' zero-to-hero hit also came out in 2016 — though Starbound seems to place a greater emphasis on RPG character building and narrative, while No Man's Sky is more about exploration. The game has a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, with 90% of its 85,189 reviews giving it a thumbs up.

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Note that if you don't manage to get into the ongoing Xbox playtest, many folks in the Xbox ecosystem can still blast off to the PC version without making a full purchase thanks to Starbound's availability on PC Game Pass (and, by extension, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate). It will likely also be playable through the console version of Xbox Game Pass once the Xbox edition releases in full, though this hasn't been directly confirmed at the time of writing.

Should you prefer buying the game directly, you can do so for $14.99 on GOG, Steam, and the Microsoft Store. It's not on sale anywhere right now, but based on its glowing reviews from critics and players alike, I'd say it's absolutely worth getting at its MSRP. If you're into the open-world and survival genres, it seems like one of the best PC games to play; I'm definitely checking it out soon for that reason.

What you need to know

• Mojang Studios has released a new Minecraft: Bedrock Edition patch update, this time falling under the 1.21.20 version number.
• There's no new content in this update, but there is an absurdly long changelog of bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements.
• Accessibility, the user interface, controls, audio, game features, performance — seems like everything was touched on in this update.
• It's admittedly not the most exciting release in the world, but it is good to see Mojang rolling out so many fixes at once.

My right pointer finger has fallen off. My eyes have melted from my skull. Minecraft has spread across my Xbox, taking over everything. Or maybe Mojang Studios just released a new patch update for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, and it just happens to contain a lot of fixes and quality-of-life improvements. That's probably more accurate.

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.21.20 is the latest official release for the multiplatform survival-crafting game, and the changelog for this update is ridiculously long. It genuinely takes quite a bit of time to scroll through all the changes, but you're not liable to find anything terribly exciting here. This is absolutely a patch update, with no new content in sight. That being said, there are a ton of changes aiming to make Minecraft a simply better game.

You can brave the full changelog on the Minecraft website if you want to test your scrolling endurance, but I'll summarize what's being improved or fixed in this update if you'd rather skip that step.

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A long list of minor changes and fixes

Alright, so what's new in the world of Minecraft, one of the best games on Xbox and everywhere else? Well, there's now an exclusive Beats Solo 4 Minecraft edition you can buy. Oh, and the official Minecraft art used for marketing the game has been redesigned! The most exciting of all, of course, is the laundry list of changes in the latest Minecraft: Bedrock Edition update.

Mojang Studios has fixed a number of issues related to downloading content from the Minecraft Marketplace and managing legacy worlds. Minecraft Realms should be a lot more stable after this update, and invite links have been streamlined to make them easier to create, manage, and send out to your friends. Accessibility and approachability in general have gotten a facelift, with various improvements for alternative input methods, customizable controls, text-to-speech and screen narration, and in-game tips.

The user interface has also been cleaned up as a part of this effort, with lots of optimizations for animations, icons, scalable elements like sliders, and more. A lot of minor audio sounds have been tweaked or pitched differently to sound better, and the Lush Caves biome now players another song from the existing Minecraft playlist. Of course, a huge number of gameplay features like mobs, blocks, items, and other features have seen plenty of bug fixes, especially the new Wind Charge item.

The lion's share of the changes, though, is directed at creators. There's a vast assortment of technical updates tweaking and updating scripts, APIs, commands, and more. There are even new experimental technical updates for creators on the cutting edge of Minecraft development. It's all in the name of making Minecraft a more reliable and consistent game, even if there isn't an abundance of new features in this release.

What you need to know

• Grounded may be done adding new content with the Fully Yoked Edition, but that doesn't mean it's done being updated entirely.
• Obsidian Entertainment has released the 1.4.4 patch update across Windows PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch with a number of fixes and improvements.
• This means various balancing changes for New Game+, fixes for numerous crashes, and other assorted bug fixes.
• This patch also adds Adaptive Trigger support on PlayStation, Gyro aiming support on Switch, and the ability to unlink Microsoft Accounts on both platforms.

Grounded made a big splash when it landed on new platforms alongside its final (massive) content update, but Obsidian Entertainment clearly isn't entirely done with the hit open-world survival game quite yet. On Tuesday, the studio released a new patch update for Grounded across all platforms with a plethora of varied fixes and improvements, making the game a little bit better for everyone.

Grounded 1.4.4 is the latest version, and it includes balance changes, bug fixes, performance and stability improvements, and even some new features for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch players. There's no new game content, of course (and much to our disappointment), but it's still a pleasant surprise for Grounded players busy exploring the Backyard, either in New Game+ or for the first time.

You can skip the reading and go install the update right away, or you can scroll a little further for a more in-depth overview of what this update includes.

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Better New Game+, better performance, better controls

Obsidian Entertainment may be busy working on Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and even State of Decay 3 alongside Undead Labs, but the studio can still find time to give Grounded a little more love. Grounded's 1.4.4 patch update is rolling out to players across Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4|5, and Nintendo Switch (as well as Xbox Game Pass subscribers, of course).

The highlight of the update is a number of balance changes for the New Game+ mode players can access after completing the main campaign. For one, the damage multiplier of all enemies has been reduced by 33%, and MIX.Rs will now only spawn 10% more creatures with each New Game+ level instead of 100% more creatures. There are other tweaks to reduce the chance of being one shot and to make boss fights more reasonable, as well.

Plenty of potential crashing causes are fixed, as well, alongside a number of miscellaneous bug fixes and optimizations. Both PlayStation and Nintendo Switch platforms get their own set of improvements, though. PlayStation 5 players can now enjoy Adaptive Trigger support with the DualSense controller, while Nintendo Switch players can now (optionally) use Gyro aiming controls with the JoyCons. On both platforms, it's now possible to unlink your Microsoft Account and sign in with a new one, if you choose.

It's a decent update for one of the best Xbox games, although I'm still a little sad we'll likely never see new content get added to Grounded. Sure, this survival game is already bursting at the seams with things to do and is enjoying plenty of success across platforms, but you can't blame me for being a tad greedy. If you want to scour the full changelog for Grounded 1.4.4, you can do so on the Grounded website.

Base-building is a huge part of every survival game out there, and Starry Studio's new MMO-style open world title Once Human is no different. You need a safe location where you can rest, craft, and prepare for your next expedition in Nalcott, especially if you're playing in a PvP-enabled server where other players can attack you. Luckily, the shooter has quite a robust building system, and it even gives you the option to create a number of different prefabricated structures on your Territory as long as you've got the resources to do so.

Since exploration is key to progressing through Once Human, though, you'll likely want to move your Territory several times during your playthrough. Temporary Campsites work well as forward respawn points and basic crafting stations, but even so, you should try and keep the main base you've got all your advanced facilities at in the same region you're adventuring in.

If you're worried that this is annoying to do or that you'll lose the base you've spent a long time carefully constructing, don't be. It's actually quite simple and easy, and in this guide, I'll explain how you can move your Territory in Once Human whenever you need or want to.

How to move your base in Once Human

To move your Territory in Once Human, head to the spot you want to move it to, open the Build Menu with the B key, and then press the Z key. A holographic preview of your current base will appear; use your mouse to move it around until it's green and in the spot you want, then left-click to effectively "teleport" it.

Note that it costs nothing to move your Once Human base, though there is a cooldown that can last anywhere between 10 minutes and 24 hours depending on how high your level is. Another thing to know is that moving your Territory will transfer all your furniture and facilities into your Territory Terminal Vault, so you'll have to manually place them again once you've plopped your base down into a new spot.

Once Human largely gives you carte blanche to put your base wherever you want to, though you can't put your Territory on top of roads or within the bounds of Strongholds, major points of interest, and the Territories of other players. All other land is fair game, though, so if you find a spot that's particularly scenic or rich with natural resources to farm, claim it fast.

By the way, this is how you can take your base with you when you change Worlds, so make sure to do it if you're planning on permanently moving to a different one on your server. Just be aware that the land you were on previously may be taken in the new instance, so you might have to find a new spot to build.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's best PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

Each server in Starry Studio's new multiplayer open world survival game, Once Human, is split up into 10 distinct Worlds. Designed as separate instances of the same map, each World in a Once Human server acts as a partition that helps keep the server stable while also ensuring that no part of the open world feels overpopulated.

Players are allowed to freely travel between and switch to Worlds if they'd like to, which is useful if you're not happy with the available plots of land for bases in your current World or if you'd like to play with friends that happen to be in a different one. However, Once Human doesn't explain how to do this at first, and many players are confused about the process as a result.

If you want to change Worlds but you're not sure how, don't worry — I've got you covered with this quick guide that goes over what to do in full. Without further ado, here's how to change Worlds in Once Human.

How to switch Worlds in Once Human

To move to a different World in Once Human, you simply need to walk up to a Teleportation Tower — towers you've discovered while playing appear on your map with a radio tower icon — and press the G key. This will open up a list of the other nine Worlds on your chosen server; select the World you want to go to and hold the F key to switch to it.

Teleportation Towers are scattered all over Once Human's map, and you're bound to come across plenty of them as you explore. Note that you'll always find a Teleportation Tower close to Monoliths; I recommend using a Once Human interactive map to find others in the open world if you're trying to activate them all. By the way, there's a Teleportation Tower about 15 minutes away from the start of the game in Deadsville that you'll find by doing the main quest, so you can switch Worlds very early if desired.

Something important to know is that while you'll keep your character's inventory and equipped items when moving Worlds, your Territory base won't come with you by default. If you'd like to bring it to the new World you're playing on, you'll have to move Territory.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's best PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

What you need to know

• Once Human is a new free-to-play multiplayer survival shooter from developer Starry Studio and publisher NetEase.
• The game launched on Tuesday afternoon to a "Mixed" reception, with most negative reviews coming from players concerned about the game's End User License Agreement (EULA) and NetEase's privacy policy.
• In the policy, it's noted that NetEase can collect personal data like government IDs, mailing addresses, lists of friends on social media, and other things that have raised player eyebrows.
• In response, Starry Studio and NetEase have posted in the game's Discord server in an attempt to assuage concerns, promising that they "will only use your data lawfully and reasonably and in accordance with local legal compliance requirements."

The highly anticipated open world survival shooter Once Human finally launched on Tuesday afternoon after multiple beta tests in recent months, but it's off to a bit of a rocky start — and not because of issues with its gameplay. So far, the vast majority of the negative reviews keeping the free-to-play game at "Mixed" on Steam actually cite the game's Terms of Service End User License Agreement (EULA), and publisher NetEase's privacy policy.

Under that privacy policy, Once Human collects various different types of personal data from its players, such as names, gameplay info, preferences, marketing data, details about the device you're using to play the game, and other information. The list of what's collected is quite lengthy and extensive, but most of it doesn't seem particularly unreasonable or unlike what other publishers gather.

What are raising eyebrows quite a bit, though, are the sections of the privacy policy that note NetEase can collect things like government-issued IDs, lists of friends on social media, geolocation details, and mailing addresses. After spotting these, a wide number of players have left negative Steam reviews for the game, with several outright accusing it of being "spyware" and used for identity theft.

In the wake of these claims and complaints, developer Starry Studio and NetEase have responded in the official Once Human Discord server, attempting to assuage concerns by assuring players that data is only used if there's a "legitimate legal basis" and explaining that you don't have to use NetEase's Loading Bay launcher to play the game if you don't want to (many players don't trust it).

"Once Human takes our users’ data privacy very seriously. We would only use personal data if we have a legitimate legal basis, such as providing requested services or acting with your expressed consent," reads one post from the Once Human team. "We will only use your data lawfully and reasonably and in accordance with local legal compliance requirements, while practicing the data privacy principles such as data minimization, purpose limitation, and transparency. We appreciate and welcome any and all feedback given by our players to help us improve."

The developers continued, noting that "players who play the game from Steam or Epic will NOT need to download or use the [NetEase] launcher" and imploring fans to "please rest assured that we will continue to maintain a transparent, player-friendly gaming environment, not only because it’s required by law, but also because it’s the right thing to do."

Another statement reiterates that things like government IDs will only be collected if local laws require it or if the developers need to verify the identity of a user's parent to get consent for their child, and says this information will be deleted as soon as it's no longer needed. Notably, it also states the publisher has "recently revised [its] privacy policy with the aim to improve clarity and transparency, which will be published soon."

Coupled with a general distrust of NetEase titles (previously, users have fiercely criticized them for things like aggressive microtransactions and infrequent patches), it seems a lack of clarity is precisely what led to this situation, with many players not fully understanding the reasoning behind Once Human's privacy policy. Hopefully the publisher's revised policy will clear things up.

Outside of this controversy, Once Human is gaining some significant popularity. As I write this, the game's concurrent player count on Steam is about ~125,000, with a peak of 126,223. That makes it the ninth most-played game on the platform at the moment; I've enjoyed what I've played of it so far, though nothing about it seems particularly groundbreaking, at least in the early game.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

Starry Studio and NetEase's long-awaited mass-multiplayer survival shooter Once Human is out now, and it's shaping up to be one of the biggest PC game releases of the summer. As one of its "Meta-Humans," you can explore its post-apocalyptic take on Earth, fight back against the corrupting power of an alien lifeform called Stardust that's transformed its inhabitants into Lovecraftian monstrosities, gather and craft resources, build bases, and both team up with and compete against groups of other players.

Interested in playing Once Human, but aren't sure if your PC is up to snuff? Fear not, for you can use this handy guide to get a complete overview of its minimum system requirements and recommended specs. You'll find all of that information below, along with some tips on how you can check what hardware you have and make upgrades if any are necessary.

Once Human PC specs: System requirements

Here are all the official system requirements and recommended specifications for Once Human, taken directly from the game's Steam page as well as its official release FAQ:

Once Human minimum system requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit Operating System
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4460
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti 4GB / AMD Redeon RX 550 / AMD Radeon R9 270
• DirectX: Version 11
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 55 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD is highly recommended

Once Human recommended specs

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit Operating System
• Processor: Intel Core i7-7700
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Redeon RX 580 2304SP / Intel ARC A380
• DirectX: Version 11
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 55 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD is highly recommended

Once Human specs for 60 FPS

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit Operating System
• Processor: Intel Core i5-12400F
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT
• DirectX: Version 11
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 55 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD is highly recommended

Can my PC run Once Human?

While Once Human's minimum and recommended specs are very attainable — graphics cards and processors from 7-10 years ago meet its minimum system requirements — the hardware needed to enjoy a framerate of 60 at 1080p is a step up to something far more modern. As a result, you may struggle to hit that performance target if you're not using a mid-range gaming PC that was put together in the last few years. You may also have a hard time getting to 60 FPS with higher resolutions without a more high-end rig.

With that said, you should at least have a solid experience with the game as long as you've got 16GB of RAM, a GPU equivalent to an NVIDIA GTX 1060 (with 6GB of VRAM), and a CPU that's on par with the Intel Core i7-7700 processor. You'll also definitely want an SSD for faster loading times, as Once Human is an open world game with massive outdoor spaces. Oh, and while its file size isn't terribly large at 55GB, check out our guides on the best ways to free up hard drive space on Windows 10 and Windows 11 as well as the best SSDs if you need to make or get room for it.

If you're not sure whether your PC meets Once Human's requirements or not, don't worry: there's a quick and easy way to check. Here's what to do:

• Click the Windows button on the taskbar.
• Type dxdiag in the taskbar.
• Click dxdiag to see your PC's specifications.
• Select the System tab for your component details relating to memory, processors, and Windows version.
• Click on Display tab for GPU details.

Can my Steam Deck, ROG Ally, or other gaming handheld play Once Human?

Ever since the Steam Deck launched in 2022, it and other gaming handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go have become popular devices for enjoying PC games away from traditional desktop setups. Unsurprisingly, then, many users of these handhelds are wondering if they can use them to play Once Human.

Unfortunately, developer Starry Studio says that right now, the game is not compatible with Steam Deck (or controllers) "due to ongoing technical adjustments." Once Human may be solid with the ASUS ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go, though, as these are more powerful than the Steam Deck and natively run Windows instead of the Steam Deck's SteamOS Linux distro.

One nice thing about Once Human is that since it's a free-to-play game, you can try it out on one of these devices without spending any money on it. Therefore, I encourage you to do so if you're looking to play the survival game on your handheld.

How to upgrade my computer's GPU to play Once Human

If your PC doesn't have a strong enough graphics card to run Once Human at the performance level you want to play it at, you'll need to upgrade your GPU. That's a bit of a finnicky process, but if you need help, we've got a guide on how to install a new graphics card in your PC that goes over what to do in detail. You'll need to actually buy a GPU before you can do that, of course; we have a list of the best graphics cards you can browse if you're not sure what to get.

You also have the option of picking up one of the best pre-built gaming PCs or best gaming laptops, which saves you the hassle of upgrading a system or putting one together yourself (or paying someone else to do it). Both types of systems are highly configurable with a huge range of different options, allowing you to order something perfect for Once Human and all of the other best PC games you want to enjoy.

Fight the Stardust and build a better world

Whether you're rocking a DIY gaming PC, a pre-built system, or a quality gaming laptop, you should have a good time in Once Human as long as your machine meets the game's recommended specifications. The requirements for a 60 FPS experience at 1080p are a bit high, but even so, you probably already meet them if you've got a system built in the last four years.

Just remember to leave a considerable amount of extra space on your hard drive; after all, Once Human is a live service game, and that means big patches that add content and rebalance parts of its sandbox are sure to come. The game's file size may increase a bit as a result, so having some headroom is always a good idea.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

What you need to know

• Once Human is a new multiplayer survival game from developer Starry Studio and publisher NetEase in which players join a server to play on and create their own character.
• Once Human is now out on Windows PC, and players have quickly realized that there's currently no way to delete your character if you want to start over or transfer to a different server if you join the wrong one by accident.
• Coupled with the game's lack of support for multiple characters right now, these restrictions effectively force you to play on the server you initially chose and with the character you first made, as there's no way to go back or make any changes.
• Luckily, multiple characters per account is coming in August, which is one way you'll be able to get around these issues. Until then, though, be very careful when choosing a server and making a character.
• Update: Responding to launch day feedback, Starry Studio has updated Once Human to give players the option to make multiple characters. This gives fans a way to remake characters or play on different servers if they want to.

Original article: After multiple beta tests over the past several months, the highly anticipated survival shooter Once Human is finally here. The game has drawn a huge following with its post-apocalyptic, almost Lovecraftian "weird fiction" theming and its promises of deep mass-multiplayer PvPvE gameplay in a vast open world, to the point where it launched as the fourth most-wishlisted game on Steam. As a result, its arrival has the potential to be one of the biggest game releases of the summer.

One thing players are quickly realizing after joining one of Once Human's servers and creating their characters, though, is that there's not currently an option in the game to move to a different server or to delete your character if you want to start over. As revealed by the developers earlier today, there's also currently not support for creating multiple characters at launch.

Put simply, once you choose where to play and who you're playing as, you're locked in — and unsurprisingly, that's frustrating lots of players who chose a different server than their friends did or made a character they decided they're not happy with. If you haven't started playing Once Human yet, consider this a warning to take your time in the character creation menu and choose the server you want to play on very, very carefully.

There are two different kinds of Once Human servers available in a variety of regions across the globe: Manibus and Evolution's Call. Manibus servers are PvE only, while Evolution's Call features the game's full PvPvE offerings; if you're planning on playing with friends or loved ones, make sure you select a server in the same region that's of the same type and also has the same name and number.

As for the character creator, don't rush through it, as there's quite a few different options to choose from for the hair, eyes, face, body, and cosmetics of your "Meta-Human." There are a ton of presets you can use as well if you'd prefer not to make a character from scratch, so make sure you look through them all before finalizing anything.

Given that Once Human has longform progression systems baked into its gameplay and that its servers are being hammered by floods of players at launch, I can understand not allowing folks to make alternate characters or transfer to different servers. Not letting you delete your character, though, is a very frustrating restriction  that leaves anyone who joined the wrong server by accident or made a character they want to change unable to do so until support for multiple characters comes in August. I wouldn't be surprised if developer Starry Studio ends up lifting this constraint before then, but until the option comes? Don't rush when starting the game.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

What you need to know

• Once Human is a new free-to-play post-apocalyptic survival shooter from developer Starry Studio and publisher NetEase. After multiple beta tests, the game is now finally releasing on PC, with additional launches on iOS and Android coming later.
• Hours before the games launch, Starry Studio revealed that the game will be missing several major features at launch.
• These include support for making multiple characters on one account, cross-platform save support on Steam, controller support, Steam Deck compatibility, and DLSS.
• However, multi-character support and controller support are expected to come in August, and the developers "will be adding more account options in the future" for cross-progression. They're also ""continuously working to optimize the game for the best possible experience."
• Update: Following criticism from the Once Human community on launch day, developer Starry Studio has updated the game to give players the ability to create multiple characters ahead of the feature's planned release in August. Other features like controller support and improved cross-platform save options are still coming later.

Original article: Several hours before the scheduled arrival of Once Human — a post-apocalyptic, free-to-play survival shooter that emphasizes action combat, open world exploration, and plenty of multiplayer interactions in both PvE and PvP — on Windows PC, its developer, Starry Studio, has posted an official release FAQ on its website. Notably, this question-and-answer list reveals that multiple major features will be missing from Once Human when it launches on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and publisher NetEase's Loading Bay PC gaming app later today.

The most significant of these is the ability to create multiple characters per account at release, which Starry Studio says isn't available yet "due to technical limitations." This means you won't be able to make alternate characters on other servers once you create one to play with on your server of choice. "Some account types, such as Steam accounts," also won't be able to take advantage of cross-platform saves "due to their inherent limitations." It's unclear if the Epic Games Store supports cross-save at the time of writing, so if you want to use it once the game comes to the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store, I'd start playing on Loading Bay (in case you're wondering, crossplay between all platforms is supported).

Support for controller gamepads as well as Steam Deck systems (and presumably other PC gaming handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally and Legion Go) is also missing at launch, so for now, you'll need a traditional PC gaming setup with a keyboard and mouse to enjoy Once Human. NVIDIA's performance-boosting DLSS tech won't be in the game either "due to the ongoing optimization and integration of certain features," though there's DirectX 12 support.

Many players will undoubtedly be disappointed that these features are missing from Once Human right now, but the good news is that several of them are coming. Specifically, Starry Studio plans to add support for making multiple characters per account and controller support in August, and the developer "will be adding more account options in the future" to expand cross-platform save support, too.

Eventual compatibility with handheld PC gaming systems is still up in the air, but given that the developers are "continuously working to optimize the game for the best possible experience," there's hope that Once Human will be playable on these devices at some point in the future. If there's enough demand for it, it's likely something Starry Studio will work on in the coming months.

The rest of the article goes into detail about how Once Human will work, explaining that its gameplay is season-based, with each season bringing Diablo 4-style resets as well as a number of different "scenarios" that feature "different rules, environments, and stories to diversify your experience" (a server will only have one scenario active per season). You'll get to keep items like crafting blueprints and purchased cosmetics across seasons, but "common resources, weapons, and items" will be moved into your own personal realm called the Eternaland when seasons end. 

Basically, the idea is that with each reset, you'll get to play Once Human with unique gameplay modifiers that shake up the experience. At launch, though, there will only be two scenarios and servers: Manibus and Evolution's Call. The former is a PvE-only space, while Evolution's Call has PvPvE and a range of both cooperative and competitive activities.

Analysis: No multi-character support at launch is painful

Once Human not supporting the ability to create multiple characters at launch is pretty rough, as it prevents players from trying out PvE-only and PvP-enabled scenarios at the same time. It also means there's no way to join folks who happen to be on a different server without wiping out your current character, which makes playing with friends annoyingly difficult in a game built around social multiplayer. I was surprised to see cross-save support miss Steam, too, especially since other games on Valve's PC gaming platform have supported it before.

With all that said, though, it's good that Starry Studio is working to address these limitations and others, and it's great that both multi-character support as well as the option to play Once Human with a controller is planned for an August release. Hopefully Steam Deck compatibility and DLSS come at some point, too.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

Not on Game Pass, but for a good reason

If you enjoy survival games and multiplayer experiences, you'll definitely want to check out Once Human. It's one of the biggest game releases of the summer — as I write this, it's the fourth most-wishlisted game on Valve's PC gaming platform Steam — and is a post-apocalyptic survival shooter that strongly focuses on frequent combat encounters against surreal Lovecraftian entities, open world exploration, base building mechanics, and a variety of both PvE and PvP activities that involve other players.

Our Once Human FAQ goes over it in more detail, but just know that it's got the potential to be one of the best PC games of 2024. Unsurprisingly, that potential has many players curious if Once Human released on or will eventually come to the PC version of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, a popular buffet-style gaming service that gives subscribers access to hundreds of games for a $10 (soon to be $12) monthly cost.

Once Human isn't on Game Pass, but there's a very good reason for that: it's a free-to-play game. In other words, you can download and play it without paying a penny, which completely eliminates the reason players want games to come to the service in the first place: to save money on upfront costs.

Could Once Human get Game Pass Perks?

Once Human's release didn't bring the game to Xbox Game Pass, but could the survival shooter get roped into the Xbox Game Pass Perks program? For the unaware, this program allows Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to claim some exclusive in-game rewards like cosmetics and season passes for various titles, and aside from access to Game Pass on both Xbox and PC as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming, it's one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate.

There's always a chance Once Human rewards could be offered in the program — the game has cosmetic microtransactions as well as paid battle passes — but it would need to come to Xbox consoles or the Microsoft Store for that to happen. At launch, it's only available on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and NetEase's Loading Bay launcher (notably, it's also coming to mobile devices later this year).

If the game does eventually come to the Microsoft Store and rewards for it do get included in the Xbox Game Pass Perks program, I'll be sure to update this article with the latest information. Until that happens, though, being subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will give Once Human players no benefits.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

Once Human has both features, but...

One of the biggest multiplayer games released this summer is Once Human, a free-to-play post-apocalyptic survival shooter with a strong emphasis on combat, open world exploration, base building, and a blend of both PvE and PvP experiences. Conceptually, it stands out from similar titles like ARK: Survival Evolved with its elements of science and "weird" fiction; it takes place in a near-future where an alien entity called Stardust has overrun and corrupted most of Earth's lifeforms, resulting in the creation of bizarre, almost Lovecraftian monstrosities (check out our Once Human FAQ for more details).

Since it was one of the most-wishlisted games on Steam and could be one of the best PC games of the year, it's no surprise that it's had quite a big launch so far. Given that it's out on multiple platforms, though, many are wondering if the game has two highly requested features: crossplay and cross-save/cross-progression. The former allows you to play with players using systems and platforms other than your own, while the latter lets you move between these different platforms while saving and transferring your progress.

Fortunately, there's good news for hopeful fans: as confirmed in Once Human's official release FAQ, Starry Studio and NetEase's survival shooter has these features. In other words, as the developers put it in the FAQ itself, "whether you log in through Loading Bay, Steam, or any other platform, you will be able to play with your friends so long as you are all on the same server."

With that said, something important to note is that cross-platform saves are not available for the Steam version of the game, with Starry Studio noting that this is due to Steam accounts and "their inherent limitations." The good news, though, is that the developer says it "will be adding more account options in the future to make it easier for you to play across platforms."

Another thing to know is that Once Human's release date for the mobile edition that's coming to iOS and the Google Play Store hasn't been revealed yet. That means crossplay and cross-progression will be limited to the PC version of the game until the mobile one is pushed live at a later date.

What about if the game comes to consoles?

Once Human will have crossplay and cross-progression between the PC and mobile versions, but will those same features be present in potential releases on Xbox and PS5 consoles? It's impossible to say for sure right now, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's very likely these features will be supported on console as well.

Frankly, it would be very strange if this wasn't the case, as expectations for both features have risen greatly in recent years. Many popular online games like Fortnite, Destiny 2, and others have crossplay and cross-save between consoles and other platforms, so them being absent in console ports of Once Human would be both surprising and frustrating for multiplatform gamers.

Of course, we don't know if there will even be a console release for Once Human yet, as developer Starry Studio is still "carefully deciding whether to release the game to console based on the testing and player feedback, which will take some time." Hopefully the studio will have a clear answer for hopeful console players soon.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

The launch missed Xbox and PlayStation

One of the biggest games of 2024 that recently made its long-awaited debut is Once Human, a free-to-play open world survival shooter that was the fourth most-wishlisted game on Valve's PC gaming platform Steam. Our Once Human FAQ goes over all the game's finer details more thoroughly, but the gist of it is that it's set in a post-apocalyptic future where an alien lifeform called Stardust has overrun the Earth and infected its lifeforms, and puts you in the shoes of a "Meta-Human" immune to its influence and capable of wielding its own powers against it. The game also has a strong focus on multiplayer, with both PvE and PvP servers that can supports hundreds upon hundreds of players at once.

The game finally launched on July 9 after multiple beta tests, first going live on Windows PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and NetEase's Loading Bay launcher ( it's eventually releasing on mobile devices through the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store as well). Naturally, many Xbox and PlayStation gamers are wondering if they'll get to play what could be one of the best PC games of 2024 on their consoles, too.

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is "no" — at least at Once Human's launch, as Starry Studio's survival shooter is limited to PC right now. Additionally, while we know it's coming to mobile at a later date, there's been no official confirmation it will ever get ports for Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Don't give up hope if you play on one of these platforms, though, because...

Once Human may come to console later

While Once Human hasn't come to Xbox and PS5 at launch, it's entirely possible that the game will eventually make its way to consoles later down the line. In fact, Starry Studio has confirmed to fans multiple times this year that it's considering development of console ports "based on testing and player feedback."

"We will carefully [decide] whether to release the game to console based on testing and player feedback, which will take some time," reads the studio's statement. "If there is any update, [we] will post it to our social media, so stay tuned!" As of July 3, the developer still hasn't come to a decision: "As soon as we have an update on the game's release on consoles, we'll let you know right away."

So there you have it — ports to Xbox and PlayStation may come if there's enough of a demand for it, or if they're determined to be viable projects for Starry Studio and publisher NetEase to develop. Even if they don't, though, you should check it out on PC if you've got a decent rig, as the game's system requirements are fairly low for a modern release. Don't forget that Once Human is also free to play, too, so you won't even have to spend any money to try it out on your computer.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

Yes, Once Human is free for all

One of the biggest new games that dropped this summer is Once Human — a post-apocalyptic multiplayer survival shooter from Starry Studio and publisher NetEase that's about fighting a parasitic alien lifeform called Stardust that's overrun Earth and has infested everything from humans and animals to the water they drink and the ground they walk on. As a Meta-Human, you're one of the lucky few who not only survived Stardust's influence, but is capable of commanding its powers yourself (don't miss our Once Human FAQ if you want a more detailed rundown).

It's a neat sci-fi concept for a game in a genre that tends to stick to focusing on natural wildlife or the zombie apocalypse, and what could be one of the best PC games of the year has attracted a huge following. Once Human was the fourth most-wishlisted game on Steam before its release, and gamers around the world flocked to it in droves when it launched on July 9. Many are wondering, though, if Once Human is a free-to-play title.

If you're hoping it is, good news: Once Human is indeed a free-to-play game, so you don't have to pay in order to check it out. Note that like all free-to-play games, it's monetized with in-game microtransaction purchases. And that raises a question...

Does Once Human have pay-to-win microtransactions?

Something that has the potential to absolutely ruin a free-to-play game is monetization that's "pay-to-win," giving players that fork over lots of cash a significant gameplay advantage over those that don't reach for their wallets (Diablo Immortal is a strong example of this). Now that Once Human is here, one of the biggest concerns fans have about it is that it may have payments like this — especially since several of NetEase's past games, such as Dead by Daylight Mobile, have had frustrating pay-to-win mechanics.

According to Starry Studios' head of overseas operation Derek Qiu, though, players don't have to worry about any pay-to-win systems in Once Human whatsoever, and never will.

"We definitely don't want to see any pay-to-win features in the game," Qiu said in an interview with streamer King Gothalion, explaining that Starry Studio has full control over Once Human's monetization. "There will be no pay-to-win. I swear to God, there will be none."

The microtransactions are instead completely cosmetic in nature, with players able to buy items like character and weapon skins as well as decorations for their bases. These cosmetics are also included in Once Human's battle passes as rewards that you'll be able to earn by progressing through them as you play.

Once Human is here, and the multiplayer open world survival shooter might just end up being one of 2024's biggest and brightest PC games. Notably, it's completely free to play, so you can check it out without spending a penny.

What you need to know

• After years of rocking the same artwork across social media, marketing, box art, and the games, Minecraft is getting an artwork redesign.
• Mojang Studios has announced a new official Minecraft key art in a new colorful, bright, and lighthearted style.
• The new artwork will begin to replace the old across the entire Minecraft franchise, including box art and logos.
• This is just a franchise update, it doesn't include any updates or new content for Minecraft itself.

After years of the same style, Minecraft is finally getting a visual update! Oh, wait, never mind. This redesign is for Minecraft's artwork, not for the game. Still, Mojang Studios is shaking up the well-established formula with a new official Minecraft artwork that will represent the franchise moving forward with an updated art design that is more bold, colorful, and flat.

This isn't an update to Minecraft as a game, especially not so soon after the release of the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update, and is more of an update to Minecraft as a brand. This new artwork will become Minecraft's game box art, icons on digital storefronts, headers and images for the Minecraft Launcher, mainstays for social media and marketing, and more.

Above, you can see various parts of this very detailed key art highlighted, showing how this new artwork does a better job representing modern Minecraft and how much it has grown. That includes appearances from the seven new default characters Mojang introduced as part of the Minecraft 1.20 update cycle in addition to the Steve and Alex we all know and love.

Ultimately, though, this is obviously a very minor update to the Minecraft brand, and won't give players any new reasons to jump into a new world with their friends. Still, I do feel that this new key art does a much better job representing what Minecraft has become in the last few years as one of the best Xbox games, and should help to strengthen the franchise moving forward as it expands into shows, movies, and more.

In other recent news, Mojang Studios has begun testing a native PS5 version of Minecraft, but don't get your hopes up too high — it's nothing more than a native version for better hardware support, and won't bring ray tracing or any other visual enhancements to the game.

What you need to know

• Confirming earlier rumors and speculation, Mojang Studios has officially confirmed a native version of Minecraft for PlayStation 5.
• Owners of the PlayStation 4 version of the game can now enter the PS5 preview to help test the native port ahead of launch.
• The PS5 version of Minecraft doesn't have any unique features or capabilities, but should run better thanks to better support of the PS5's hardware.
• There's no sign of a native Xbox Series X|S version of Minecraft right now, but Microsoft's next-gen consoles do run Minecraft at 4K and 60 FPS now, with increased render distance.

The Minecraft behemoth keeps on marching along with little regard for what the rest of the industry is doing, and it keeps succeeding, too. In fact, the massive Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update just rolled out to players on all platforms. However, one consistent criticism levied against the legendary survival-crafting game is the lack of a native version for next-gen consoles. Could that be about to change?

On Thursday, Mojang Studios finally confirmed the all-but-official: a native version of Minecraft for the PlayStation 5 is coming. In fact, PS5 owners currently playing the PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft can test the PS5 Minecraft preview starting today. All you have to do is go to "Settings" and then find the "Preview" option. Don't expect anything too exciting, though — this is just a native version to help Minecraft run better on the PS5's hardware.

There's still no true next-gen Minecraft with major advancements like ray tracing, not for the PlayStation 5 and certainly not for the Xbox Series X|S. There are still a lot of players holding out for a real next-gen upgrade, but I honestly suggest giving up on those hopes. Mojang Studios is more focused on ensuring that Minecraft players across every platform have a similar experience, so I don't see ray tracing on console happening any time soon (even if Windows PC players already have it).

Instead, the PS5 version of Minecraft should hopefully run smoother and with better stability (and possibly faster load times) thanks to not running through the PS4 emulation layer anymore. As for Xbox, there's still no Xbox Series X|S Optimized Minecraft anywhere in sight. After one of the recent Minecraft updates, the game does now run at 4K and 60 frames-per second (FPS) with options for a higher chunk render distance, but it's still technically the Xbox One version running in backward compatibility.

Still, this is a step in the right direction. In the future, we could have a cross-platform Minecraft that actually properly and fully embraces the unique strengths of every platform, instead of giving everyone the same experience (flaws and all).

If you're interested in trying out Minecraft on your PS5, just boot up the PS4 version of the game and join the preview. Cross-play will only work between PlayStation versions and Minecraft Realms, though, and you won't have access to the Minecraft Marketplace. Mojang Studios hasn't announced when Minecraft on PS5 will officially launch, as it's dependent on how smoothly development goes.

State of Decay 2 is genuinely one of my favorite Xbox Game Studios titles ever, as I've put hundreds of hours into the zombie-survival game alongside my partner. SoD2 may be rough around the edges in its own quirky way, but I still absolutely loved the blend of open-world survival and community management. It shouldn't come as any surprise that State of Decay 3 has been one of my most anticipated games since it was first revealed nearly four years ago.

During the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, we finally got a new, more in-depth look at Undead Labs' magnum opus, and it looks spectacular. Even lacking all the details we do, State of Decay 3 is slowly but surely shaping up to be the perfect sequel I've wanted for years. The new trailer was visually stunning and emotionally powerful, but it did inject a fresh sense of frustrated impatience in me — we've waited four years for this trailer, and we still don't have a release window, let alone a release date.

I want Undead Labs to take all the time it needs to fully realize its vision with State of Decay, but the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 trailer was a fresh reminder that Xbox's past tendency to tease games many years away from release continues to be a source of annoyance for fans.

• Check out our LIVE Xbox Games Showcase 2024 coverage

An in-game trailer to set the tone

The initial State of Decay 3 teaser set expectations to uncertain levels given the incredibly early nature of the CGI-filled video, but the new trailer shown at Xbox Games Showcase realigns those expectations in a very positive way. Made entirely in-game, the latest SoD 3 trailer shows the results of Undead Labs' work with The Coalition to squeeze the most potential out of Unreal Engine 5.

Frankly, the visuals are stunning. Models are detailed and full of character, lighting is realistically gorgeous, and the splatter of blood and gore from the impact of bullets or an open car door send shivers down your spine. These advancements in graphics help set a newly darkened tone for the franchise, which has never been known for its happy endings.

The zombie apocalypse has not abetted since the events of State of Decay 2, and has instead evolved in grotesque and abnormal ways. The zombies may have slowly decomposed over the years, but they're no less dangerous to the dwindling number of survivors attempting to make their way in this brutal, morbid world. From the start, the new State of Decay 3 trailer highlights how the importance of community will be even more of a focus in the new game.

In the trailer, various survivors convene on a single location with a unified goal: one of them is in danger and needs to be saved. The survivors work together to mow down hordes of zombies, but one is unfortunately overwhelmed by the sheer numbers after saving their companion's life. The remaining survivors take a moment to mourn and collect a memento by which to remember their fallen friend, but then have to move or risk sharing their fate.

Of course, as is expected from State of Decay, you can always expect newfound challenges around every corner. The three remaining survivors crowd into a custom car, only to come across a bridge that has been ravaged by the new, more aggressive Plague Hearts at the source of the zombie infestation. Defending the bridge? A hulking mass of stench of flesh, otherwise known as a Juggernaut. The trailer ends here, but I can't imagine things went great for our unfortunate survivors.

It's a short trailer, but showcases everything I adore about State of Decay — community, resourcefulness, determination, and unwavering courage in the face of ceaseless adversity. The context around the trailer also gives us some much-needed information about how Undead Labs is taking State of Decay to a new level.

Working with the best to make the best

In an Xbox Wire interview published shortly after the Xbox Games Showcase, Undead Labs revealed a few more details about State of Decay 3 that weren't shown in the trailer. For one, Undead's staggering elevation to a true AAA games studio is due in large part to the studio's partnership with other talented teams. I already mentioned how The Coalition, of Gears of War fame, is bringing its Unreal Engine expertise to the table.

However, that's not all. Undead Labs is also working with Blind Squirrel Entertainment and Wushu Studios for technical support, the latter of which having experience taking over State of Decay 2 content updates from Undead. None of this is particularly exciting, though. What most caught my attention is the new information that Undead Labs is working with Obsidian Entertainment — and more specifically the Grounded team.

Why? Well, it turns out that Undead Labs provided the foundation for Grounded's online multiplayer servers, which Obsidian evolved and expanded to fit the ambitions of the critically acclaimed co-op survival game. Now, the studio is returning the favor, lending a hand to remove the troublesome (and oft criticized) "tether" that prevented you and your co-op partner from wandering too far from each other in State of Decay 2.

This culmination of talent should (hopefully) lead to a State of Decay 3 that is more polished, has better performance and visual fidelity, is more technically sound, and has a far superior online co-op experience than its predecessor. It also gives Undead Labs more room to think about the design and scope of its most ambitious game yet; we don't know many of the details on this front, but there is a little we've learned.

We know that SoD 3's open world will be much larger than previous entries in the franchise, and that the detail, environmental storytelling, and dynamism of that world will be greatly increased. Undead Labs is investing in community management, resource scavenging, and exploration to make surviving in its zombie-infested world more engaging and freeing. A new level of detail also means expanding the lore of the world, as the progression of the zombie apocalypse means that resources are scarcer than ever.

To showcase this, Undead Labs is making it so that players will be unlikely to discover whole and untouched weaponry or clothing in the wild; instead, players will need to scavenge components and materials to craft their own clothing, armor, weapons, and even vehicles. More than just a narrative-driven decision, this means players will have far more room than ever before to customize the gear their survivors use. There's still so much we've yet to learn, too, and I'm already on the edge of my seat waiting for this game to release.

More impatient than ever to play the game

• Check out our in-depth State of Decay 3 FAQ

It has been nearly four years since State of Decay 3 was originally teased to the Xbox community. I'm not kidding; State of Decay 3 made its first appearance at the Xbox Games Showcase 2020 during the exciting lead-up to the Xbox Series X launch. There has been almost complete silence on the project since that teaser, apart from the unmissable rumblings at Undead Labs that big changes were underfoot.

Four years is a long time to wait for a second glimpse at a game you're incredibly excited to play, and that was a reoccurring theme of that Xbox event. Fans criticized the company for teasing and announcing projects years in advance to disguise the fact that Xbox had little to show for the near future, and there are still multiple projects announced there that have yet to actually release (such as Avowed, Fable, and Everwild). Since then, Xbox is more careful to only announce new games that are a reasonable amount of time away from release.

In the aftermath of the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, which many across the community seem to be agreeing is among Xbox's absolute best shows, I'm reminded again of how bittersweet that 2020 show was in comparison. I'm glad Xbox has rescinded its earlier tendencies to tease games no one would be able to play for a long time, because we're still dealing with the consequences now. I waited four years for a new State of Decay 3 trailer, and I still don't know when I'll be able to play the game.

The State of Decay franchise is incredibly important to me, and State of Decay 3 has been at the top of my wish list since I knew it was in the works. The fact that a four-year-long wait resulted in a (admittedly gorgeous) trailer that still doesn't boast any release window is a little annoying. Many other games at the showcase are arriving in 2024 or 2025, but we could be waiting until 2026 or even longer before State of Decay 3 is actually in our hands. I'm looking forward to it, genuinely, but I just want to know around how far forward I'm supposed to be looking.

The little I've seen and heard about State of Decay 3 makes me optimistic that it'll end up being one of the best Xbox games, but it's hard to keep my impatience in check when I'm so excited for it. That being said (and even if it sounds contradictory), I do want Undead Labs to take its time to get the game right — it's better to wait and release a finished product than rush into a flawed launch. Could you maybe tell me how long I still have to wait, though?

What you need to know

• After months of development, we finally know when the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update will officially release.
• Mojang Studios has announced that the major content update is rolling out to all Minecraft players on June 13, 2024.
• The Tricky Trials update includes a ton of new features like several new mobs, Trial Chambers and Ominous Trials, a new weapon, and lots more.
• Players can now keep an eye out for the update to download, with it seemingly coming to Java Edition a little earlier than Bedrock Edition.

Months of development later, and Mojang Studios has finally begun to release the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' content update. With no further delays after announcing the planned release date and moving it into the final stage of development, Minecraft: Java Edition players on Windows PC, Linux, and Mac are the first that can download and play the completed update.

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Switch, and mobile devices will be following close behind, with that update also fully expected to arrive at some point today. Players should keep an eye out on their platform of choice for the update. Mojang Studios has also released a Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' changelog for those who want it, or you can check out our Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update FAQ for a more digestible breakdown.

As a brief summary, players can expect new features like challenging Trial Chambers and automatic Crafters, new mobs like the Breeze and Bogged Skeleton, a new weapon in the Mace, and plenty of new customization and decoration options to discover.

Our original article continues below.

The day has finally come! After months of development and no small amount of speculation, Mojang Studios has confirmed when the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update is officially releasing to Minecraft players on every platform. Matching my expectations, the Tricky Trials update is aiming for an early summer release, meaning we only have a couple more weeks of waiting before we can fully dive in.

So, when does the next Minecraft update release? Mojang Studios has confirmed that the Minecraft 1.21 content update drops on June 13, 2024, just two weeks away! The update will roll out to all players simultaneously, whether you play the Bedrock or Java Editions, or are on Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Switch, or mobile devices.

Minecraft's next major content update is a little smaller than originally expected thanks to the surprise release of the Minecraft 'Armored Paws' update, but it's still packed with a ton of features. You can check out our Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update FAQ for all the information, or you can skim the summary below.

• Trial Chambers & Trials. The headlining feature for the Tricky Trials update are Trial Chambers, which are hidden underground dungeons filled with traps, puzzles, and challenging Trials. Players can take on waves of mobs and traps to gain access to Vaults, which hold valuable loot. For additional challenge and greater rewards, players can even seek out Ominous Trials.
• New mobs. Trial Chambers are upping the challenge further by introducing two new hostile mobs: the Breeze and the Bogged Skeleton. The former blasts its foes away with explosive wind powers, while the latter poisons you with deadly arrows.
• The Mace. For the first time in years, Minecraft is getting an all-new tool in the form of the Mace, a slow and powerful bludgeoning weapon that can deal devastating area-of-effect damage. To craft it, you'll need to dominate the Trial Chambers.
• New blocks and more. Forget about the tedium of crafting with the Redstone-powered automatic Crafter, or building an epic new home with the assortment of new Tuff and Copper decorative blocks. There's even a new Copper Bulb with a variable light strength.f
• More decorations. Finally, the Tricky Trials update is introducing a ton of new Banners, Armor Trims, Pottery Sherds, and Paintings. Decorating yourself and your Minecraft home just got a lot more interesting.

That's not all that's happening with the best Xbox game right now. In addition to the impending release of the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update, Mojang Studios is celebrating 15 years of Minecraft with the community, including free gifts, exclusive collaborations and merch, and even an opportunity to go on a real-life Minecraft adventure. Minecraft is even getting its own animated series on Netflix, which is an exciting step forward for this unstoppable franchise.

Of course, that's in addition to the live action Minecraft movie that's already in the works. Finally, there's a small sign that Minecraft may finally come to Steam on Windows PC in the future, although nothing is set in stone on that front. Either way, it's an exciting time to be a Minecraft fan, even without a major free content update right around the corner. Minecraft's 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update officially releases on June 13, 2024, so mark your calendars!

What is the next Minecraft update?

The next major Minecraft content update is the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update, which was initially revealed at Minecraft Live 2023 (sans the name, which was announced later). The Tricky Trials update focuses on adventure, with its focal feature being the new Trial Chambers. These Trial Chambers are hidden, underground labyrinths filled with traps, puzzles, and trials that pit players against waves of dangerous enemies for a chance at rare loot and treasure.

There are also new mobs like the Breeze and the Bogged Skeleton, a brand-new weapon for the first time in a very long time, and a ton of other new features, changes, and improvements. However, it's not the largest update in the world, especially given that some of the features expected to arrive with the Tricky Trials update were actually released earlier (more on that below).

You can read our Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update FAQ for all the information you could possibly need on this update and all its features. As for its release date, Mojang Studios announced that the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update is officially releasing on June 13, 2024. That matches my initial speculations that the update was on track for an early summer release, given how smoothly development seemed to be progressing.

When the update releases, it'll drop at the same time for all Minecraft versions and platforms, including on Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. As always, this is a free content update.

What was the previous Minecraft update?

The predecessor to the Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' update is not, in fact, the Minecraft 1.20 'Trails & Tales' update. Mojang Studios surprised players by spinning out several of the features being tested alongside 1.21 additions into its own separate update. Minecraft 1.20.5/80 'Armored Paws' was released on Apr. 23, 2024, for all platforms and includes three notable features: Armadillos, new Wolves, and Wolf Armor.

Armadillos were the winner of the Minecraft Live 2023 Mob Vote and are a neutral mob that curls into a defensive ball whenever it's startled. Players can breed but not tame them and can brush them to obtain Scutes, a valuable crafting material used to make Wolf Armor. As the name suggests, this is armor that protects your furry best friends from almost all forms of damage, and it can both be dyed and repaired while your Wolf wears it.

Finally, the Armored Paws update introduced seven new variants of Wolves, adding a ton of much-needed variety. Now, you can find different kinds of Wolves depending on your biome, and each Wolf is unique both in its appearance and its pack size. The feature list for the Armored Paws update isn't the largest, but it's still a very exciting release that made a lot of players very happy. Of course, the side effect of this update being released is that Minecraft 1.21 'Tricky Trials' is now a little smaller than expected.

What you need to know

• Minecraft is one of the only major Xbox titles that isn't available on Steam, the world's most popular PC gaming platform.
• Even other Minecraft spin-off games like Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends are available, but Minecraft isn't.
• A new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perk for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition mentions Steam as a supported platform, however.
• It could simply be a coincidence, but other Perks feature different disclaimers, suggesting that Minecraft could possibly release on Steam in the future.

In recent years, Xbox strategy has evolved to envelop both console and Windows PC platforms. This especially includes Steam, the world's largest PC gaming platform and a nearly unavoidable behemoth if a video game wants to succeed on PC. The vast majority of Xbox's first-party games are available on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store on Xbox and Windows PC, but there is one notable exception: Minecraft.

The best-selling video game of all time, Minecraft has long required its own separate launcher for the Java Edition, and the Bedrock Edition is only available on console storefronts and the Microsoft Store. However, there is a sign that this could potentially change in the near future. Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends are already available on Steam, so it makes sense that Minecraft would make its way there, too.

Eagle-eyed Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers have spotted an interesting tidbit of information, and Windows Central has verified it. As part of Minecraft's 15-year anniversary celebration, a new Game Pass Ultimate Perk gifts players 500 Minecoins for use in the cross-platform Minecraft Marketplace. It's a nice offering, but what's fascinating is the disclaimer text when you go to claim the perk: "Requires Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC or Steam) with Minecraft Marketplace."

Obviously, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition isn't available on Steam, so it's odd that the PC platform is specifically named here while other platforms like Switch, Android, and iOS aren't. We checked other perks to ensure this isn't generic boilerplate text, and confirmed that disclaimers are unique to each game.

However, this doesn't really guarantee anything. It's unlikely that whoever is in charge of these disclaimers has in-depth knowledge of upcoming platform releases, for one, and it could simply be a coincidence or mistake, given that most of Xbox's other games are available on Steam.

Still, it's more sign than we've gotten in the past, and could potentially point to a future (likely imminent) Steam release for Minecraft. This would undoubtedly make a lot of players very happy; Steam isn't just a storefront and the primary games library for most PC gamers, it also boasts a wide array of community features and could potentially bring more mod support to Minecraft via the Steam Workshop. On top of that, players would no longer need weird workarounds and hacks to get Minecraft to run on the Steam Deck.

Still, I wouldn't get your hopes up, yet. While I do believe it makes a lot of sense for Minecraft to join its siblings on Steam, Mojang Studios is infamously slow at implementing massive changes for the Minecraft franchise, and bringing Steam into the tight-knit, cross-platform fold that is Minecraft: Bedrock Edition would undoubtedly be a monumental effort. Above all, this is one mention of Steam in an insignificant location — interesting, but not a stone-set confirmation of Minecraft on Steam.

If it'll happen, hopefully we'll hear about it soon. If it won't, then I imagine we won't hear anything more at all. Whatever happens, would you be willing to purchase Minecraft once again?