A panel on Minecraft at E3, a video game trade show in Las Vegas in June 2019
Microsoft has halted development of an ambitious update to Minecraft, throwing in the towel after concluding it was technically too complicated, according to a blog post by the team responsible for the hit adventure and construction game.
Microsoft had unveiled the project, dubbed “Super Duper Graphics Packs,” to great fanfare in 2017, at E3, the world’s biggest video game trade show.
“Unfortunately, the pack proved too technically demanding to implement as planned,” the blog post said.
“We realize this is disappointing to some of you -– there was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio –- but unfortunately, we aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices,” it said.
“For this reason, we’re stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look,”it added.
Minecraft—with its signature pixilated characters and accessories—enables players to build entire universes either alone or with other players online. Inspired by Lego and its plastic bricks, this digital versionis immensely popular with a young public.
In May, Minecraft said 176 million versions of the game have been sold since its launch 10 years ago. In October 2018, Business Insider said the game was attracting 91 million players a month.
After announcing a plan to completely overhaul Minecraft‘s visual engine in 2017, the game’s developers at Mojang have finally come clean: the “Super Duper Graphics Pack” is no longer coming to the hugely popular sandbox game.
The update’s E3 2017 announcement sent tongues wagging thanks to an incredible trailer, which bathed the game’s familiar, blocky environs with a newly dynamic shadow-and-light model, crepuscular rays, screen-space reflections, material-based lighting, and more. Keeping in line with its description as a “pack,” the update left the game’s raw assets untouched, which made it seem similar to other existing “texture packs” sold within modern Minecraft games. All of this would even run in 4K resolution on supported hardware, Mojang said, and it promised a free launch by “fall 2017.”
Once that date slipped, Mojang became wholly mum about the pack’s existence until Monday. That’s when Mojang confirmed the project’s cancellation in a brief, official blog post. In it, the company told fans, “Unfortunately, the pack proved too technically demanding to implement as planned.” Instead of offering technical details, Mojang went on to blame the update’s problems on “how the pack performed across devices.”
Thanks to this brief statement, we’re forced to read between the lines and remember that the Super Duper Graphics Pack was originally announced as a free update for Minecraft on Windows 10 and Xbox as opposed to power-starved platforms such as Nintendo Switch or smartphones. And we learned in December 2018 that Microsoft was officially done supporting the game on Xbox 360 consoles. This may very well have been a crucial brick to lay in moving forward on “Xbox One-only” console support for the pack.
So that “across devices” line may very well point to the non-X version of Xbox One as a performance sticking point. But neither Mojang nor Microsoft is saying.
Shortly after the pack’s 2017 announcement, Microsoft rolled out a Minecraft “beta test” channel via the Xbox One Insider channel. But that test version of the game never included any hints of Super Duper Graphics Pack bonuses or even a jump to 4K resolution. However, that doesn’t mean Microsoft is done pushing Minecraft‘s limits on its existing platforms. The Monday blog post included a tease of some technical upgrade possibly coming: “We’re constantly trying to make the most of the technical architecture of each [platform]. We’ll be able to share more on that subject very soon.”
And in good news, some of the Super Duper update’s graphical touches appear to have found a home in the promising spin-off game Minecraft Dungeons, slated to launch sometime next year.
Minecraft fans have been expecting a major update to the game since 2017. But the update has proved “too technically demanding,” Microsoft said Monday, leading the company to cancel production.
The update, called Super Duper Graphics Pack, was expected to bring more with lighting effects like shadows and fog, new motion for some game elements like leaves, and new textures for characters. Microsoft unveiled the “ambitious” update at the massive E3 video game conference in 2017, but on Monday conceded that the update “proved too technically demanding to implement as planned.”
“We aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices,” developer Mojang said in a company blog post. “For this reason, we’re stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look.”
Minecraft has come a long way since its introduction a decade ago. It remains one of the top paid mobile games in Apple’sApp Store and the Google Play Store, while Minecraft: Education Edition has become a popular way to teach kids things like computer coding, engineering, architecture, urban planning and math.
It’s also been used to help kids with autism engage in school and build healthy social lives.
The pack would have given the game realistic textures, lighting effects and all-round better graphics.
The pack has proved “too technically demanding” so has been ditched.
‘Disappointing’
The plan to make Minecraft look more realistic was unveiled in 2017 at the E3 games show. The ambitious plan was to make a downloadable add-on that all but did away with the basic, blocky look of the massively popular game.
In 2017, Mojang said its work also would produce an add-on for the Xbox version of Minecraft that let the game run at a resolution of 4K on the console.
Originally the Super Duper add-on was due to appear in autumn 2017 but the release date was pushed back to 2018 before being cancelled altogether in 2019.
The technical demands of the update have proved too much, it said in a short apology.
It added: “We realise this is disappointing to some of you – there was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio – but unfortunately, we aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices.”
Mojang added that it was not entirely finished with improving the look of Minecraft on different game-playing gadgets and said it would share more information about this work soon.
In his August 3 Minecraft video, YouTube star Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg was gearing up to take on an epic mob boss when he got extremely lucky with his item drops.
PewDiePie’s recent Minecraft videos have been blowing up on YouTube, as almost every single video in the series has gone on the trending page on the platform.
On August 1, The YouTube star assembled an army of 96 million pigs to help him take on a notorious boss called ‘Wither’. But in order to summon the enemy, he needed to collect several extremely rare items – which he managed to do during his August 3 video.
What is a Wither?
A Wither is a floating undead boss mob that attacks players with skulls that explode. He is the only hostile boss that can be created by players in the game currently.
Making the enemy, requires 4 blocks of soul sand that have to be arranged in a T shape, as well as three ‘Wither Skulls’ that are placed side by side on the top three blocks. However, obtaining Wither Skulls is pretty hard as they are a rare drop.
MICROSOFT / MOJANGThe three headed boss is what PewDiePie is working towards.
Wither Skulls can be found in the Nether after killing a Wither Skeleton. However the drop rate for them is as low as 2.5%, but can go up to 5.5% depending on buffs. The low drop-rates can make it extremely difficult to create the enemy.
In his August 2 video, PewDiePie managed to get the first skull from his first skeleton spawn. “Whoa! Whoa, I’m so lucky dude. Already!” he shouted with glee.
As if he wasn’t already lucky enough, a skeleton dropped another rare item immediately after the first one. “Oh my god. Dude. Looting three, baby!” the YouTuber beamed with excitement.
YOUTUBE: PEWDIEPIE / MOJANGPewDiePie has incredible luck.
PewDiePie then gets three more Wither Skulls
PewDiePie then ended up getting the third skull after being rushed by two Wither Skeletons at once in a frantic battle.
“AHHHHH!” he screamed as he hacked away at the enemies until they died, leaving behind the item. “YESSSS!”
Then to top it all off, the Swedish YouTuber even ended up getting a fourth one. “Oh. My. God.” he breathed in total disbelief when he realized how lucky he was.
(Timestamp of 00:01:07 for mobile viewers.)
The Swede’s battle with the Wither and his army of 96 million pigs is gearing up to be an epic showdown.
