The Super Duper Graphics Pack for Minecraft was announced at E3 2017. Just over two years later, it’s still never been released, and there has been little news about the update’s progress.

Back in 2017, the team sounded optimistic. “Today we’re revealing a new look for Minecraft that we’re super duper excited for you to try out, one that’s inspired by the power of Xbox One X and available this fall,” said Mojang brand director Lydia Winters on stage at Microsoft’s press conference that year. She was referring to the Super Duper Graphics Pack, an update that would allow Minecraft to run in 4K, as well as add new lighting effects and, on the Xbox One X at least, increase draw distances to make players’ worlds feel that much bigger.

While the Xbox One X came out as scheduled that fall, the Super Duper Graphics Pack did not. At MineCon later that year, the game’s studio announced it had been delayed until the following year. “There’s a lot of work to be done still and we’re not going to be ready to launch it in 2017,” the company wrote on its website. “We’ll be releasing Super Duper next year, and we’ll have more information for you here on Minecraft.net soon.”

That information never came, though, leaving people to wonder about its fate to this day. Minecraft wasn’t featured prominently at E3 last year or this year, and while the game has received major updates in the last two years, including The Life Aquatic patch that added oceanic exploration and cross-play betweenMinecraft players on Xbox One, PC, mobile, and Switch, the 4K graphics showcased two years on the Xbox One X are still missing. Notably, it’s the only first-party game on the platform that still doesn’t have any Xbox One X enhanced features.

While there’s been no official update about what’s going on with the Super Duper Graphics Pack from Microsoft (which declined to comment for this story), developers at Mojang said at a MineCon Earth panel last October that the update was proving trickier than originally thought, requiring portions of the game engine to be overhauled. This past March, community manager Helen Zbihlyj said on Twitter that there were only eight people working on the game’s new graphics engine, stressing what a monumental task this was given all of the platforms it needs to support, including VR. (Mojang did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Given those factors, it’s not surprising that the Super Duper Graphics Pack is taking so long. If anything, the surprising part is that Microsoft decided to make such a big deal out of the new Xbox One X enhanced update so early.

While a thread about the missing graphics pack blows up on the Xbox One subreddit every so often, fans recently poked fun at a now infamous tweetmade by a user called ItsGam3r saying they planned to buy an Xbox One X just for Minecraft after seeing the trailer for the new graphics. “It’s going to be great for Minecraft fans,” the official Xbox twitter account had responded at the time. “If only he knew…” wrote someone reposting the exchange on Reddit.

“I never ended up actually buying an XB1X, lmao,” ItsGam3r told Kotaku in a DM. “Although it looked pretty sweet.”

Minecraft. You can’t spend a day browsing the internet, without some reference to the gaming phenomenon. It’s strikingly simplistic, but addictive gameplay has built thousands of careers on YouTube. It’s defined the gaming industry and is played by almost 200 million people today. It’s also sprouted many other block-inspired games, like its own Minecraft Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, and Terraria. Even ten years after its release, when most releases would have been forgotten, it’s going strong, rivaling Fortnite. And for several reasons, in 2019, it’s only getting stronger.

No One is Ever Really Gone

Arguably, Minecraft was never really gone. With Minecraft Earth releasing in 2020, and a Minecraft movie scheduled for 2022, it’s evident that the game’s huge fanbase has remained active throughout the last decade. It is obvious by the amount of exposure the game is gaining over the internet that there’s been a recent resurgence in popularity. Interestingly, it’s also clear that the game’s population hasn’t fallen dramatically since its 2011 official release. According to Google Trends, interest in the game has been slowly degrading since its July 2013 peak. It reached its lowest point of interest fairly recently, in October 2018. But since about April of 2019, the game has rapidly increased in popularity, rivaling the rapid growth of Minecraft’s in the early 2010s, and even that of Fortnite. Is this sparking a new gaming rivalry?

But what caused this sudden spike? And why after a decade of the game’s release, is Minecraft back as the biggest current game? Like most things, we need to travel back in time to see why it lost its popularity in the first place, to see why it’s again exploding in 2019.

The Past

It’s 2013 and Minecraft has arguably just had its most popular year. Millions have been playing, and the title has taken the internet by storm. But most importantly, and dangerously, players are happy with the game. Now, because the player base was content with Minecraft, the developers, Mojang, slowed down releasing any gameplay changing updates. This is because they were afraid changes would turn players, who were happy with the game’s state, away. Cut to 2014, and the game enters a stage of no major updates for two years, coinciding with the supposed ‘Dark Ages’ of Minecraft. This is where interest in the game really began to fall. Ironically, without updates, to Mojang’s greatest fear, interest in the game began to dwindle. Despite some updates, by 2017 hundreds of Minecraft YouTuber’s decided that there time playing Minecraft was over. So the game hit rock bottom. Oof.

Over the next year, the game would continue to suffer. The majority of its player base would migrate to over to game that took the industry by surprise. Fortnite. Like Minecraft a decade ago, Fortnite took the media and game industry by storm. As this game grew in popularity, Minecraft fell far — Minecraft references across the internet were quickly replaced with Fortnite, so mining for diamonds quickly became a distant memory, and trying to find a golden SCAR became everyone’s favorite pastime. That’s the important Minecraft history behind us; so why is history repeating itself?

The Present

In 2018 the aquatic update was released, but as Fortnite was still growing its empire, it wasn’t covered as largely by the media with most content creators and publications leaning towards what everyone was currently engaged with. Skip to April 2019, and the “Village and Pillage” update was released, and since then the game has been on a massive rise in popularity, coinciding with the Google Trends explosion in Minecraft search interest. Coincidence? I think not. But why didn’t the Aquatic Update have the same effect, and bolster the player count like Village and Pillage, and why did Village and Pillage cause such a rise in popularity? The answer, no joke, is because of memes (which really do have a massive implication in gaming), Fortnite, and a hint of nostalgia.

Internet Exposure

One of the reasons for Minecraft’s decline in popularity is because of a lack of internet exposure, and the best way to gain internet exposure, as shown through the recent ‘Raid Area 51’ Facebook event, is through internet memes. After the “Village and Pillage” update, the trailer gained huge exposure as of the images and videos that would derive from it, which therefore lead to players returning to the game.

Nostalgia also had a hand to play in this. This was the first time Minecraft was exposed over the internet on this level in a few years. As a result, it led to many wanting to revisit the game to build a cobblestone house, mine diamond and defeat the Enderdragon again. Like the few years before, to revisit their childhood memories, or as a joke. And as all jokes do, they can grow and get out of hand. So more references were made, leading to more players returning, and so on.

Fortnite

The game that would replace Minecraft, would also revive it. Despite absorbing so many of its players, Fortnite would also be a catalyst to return them from its gaming empire. Since the start of 2019, Fortnite has been growing into something reminiscent of Minecraft from 2014. Some are getting bored with the game, others are treating it more as a joke, but most importantly, Fortnite is losing internet exposure . This has led to Minecraft recently regaining its old player base, overtaking Fortnite, in becoming the more popular game again. The reason that the Minecraft Aquatic Update didn’t cause this revival, is because Fortnite was at its height of popularity. So the pull to play Minecraft was far less, as people weren’t as disinterested in the badly aging Battle Royale as they were in April of 2019.

The Resurgence of Minecraft

As a result of these two factors, Minecraft is literally spiraling into the 2013 levels of popularity. The fact the game is becoming a bigger meme, YouTubers and the media have latched onto its growth. In turn, this is propelling it to larger levels of success. Pewdiepie is a key example; each episode of his Minecraft series (started 21st of June) has over 10 million views, with the first and most popular at almost 20 million. Many other content creators are following suit, reviving the games massive population, not only in-game, but over the internet, and right now is a massive trending topic on YouTube, and as a result, the rest of the internet.

Minecraft is continuing to grow as a result of its resurgence in internet communities. When will it stop? Maybe it will continue to grow and stabilize. The more likely option is that people will lose their sense of nostalgia. Like all people, become bored and move on to the next trending game, whatever that may be. But whatever that is, for now, Minecraft is back at the number one spot in gaming.

Mojang has released the final 1.14.4 with bug fixes and added features ahead of update 1.15. Find out everything new and changed in the 1.14.4 plus how to download it, here.

On Friday, Mojang released its final version (1.14.4) of the Minecraft Village and Pillage update. According to the release notes, 1.14.4 will hammer out any addition bugs and issues that have been reported, while adding a few fun features to Villagers like the ability to remember gossip. The team will now turn its efforts towards update 1.15. Update 1.15 is rumored to bring new features like functionality for smithing tables and fletching tables, as well as quality and performance improvements. A theme and release date for 1.15 has yet to be announced but more details will be revealed during MINECON 2019 in September.

Below you can find all the changes and bug fixes noted in the 1.14.4 patch notes. The update is for the Java Edition of the game. Players can download and install the new update by opening up the Minecraft Launcher and clicking play. You can find the Cross-platform server jar here and if you need to report any additional bugs, you can use the Minecraft issue tracker.

Minecraft 1.14.4 Patch Notes: Everything New & Changed

General Changes and Features Added

• Performance improvements
• Suspicious stew made from poppies now gives you night vision instead of speed
• Added /debug report for getting more detailed information. Please include this while making bug reports about performance!
• Fixed a memory leak
• Removed camera pivot offset in first-person
• Improved chunk loading when traveling at high speed
• Fixed incorrect Pillager texture
• /reload and /forceload is now available to gamemasters
• function-permission-level is a new setting in server.properties that controls which commands functions have access to
• Villagers now stock more items
• Villagers will now remember their gossip after becoming a Zombie Villager
• Improved performance of Villager pathfinding
• Villagers can now work without also restocking at the same time
• Gossip about players who converted a zombie villager will now last longer
• The Player Activity button on the Realm screen has been removed
• Villagers now wait with restocking until they have trades that need restocking
• Village sieges no longer occur on mushroom islands
• Mobs will no longer try to path find their way through bamboo
• Pinged the human (new splash screen text)

Bug Fixes in 1.14.4

• MC-150623 – The game crashed whilst rendering overlay: Unable to fit texture
• MC-156389 – Game Crashes when Shift + Command + Delete 18 characters at once on Anvil
• MC-156407 – Unobtainable (speed) suspicious stew can be obtained from villagers
• MC-156574 – Villager demand values increase/decrease indefinitely
• MC-149018 – High Idle CPU usage on Server Edition (Minecraft 1.14 Release)
• MC-154271 – Rolling shutter issue on MacOS since 1.14.3 Pre-Release 2
• MC-149880 – Villager trades wrong book
• MC-151282 – Villager trade GUI doesn’t show the correct price on servers if trade demand is high
• MC-156042 – Villager demand never goes down over time unless 
  traded with
  MC-156349 – Cannot press Enter on Direct Connect
  Fixed debug reports in worlds with a dot in their name
  Fixed server freeze when Villagers fell into the void
  MC-145769 – Villagers aren’t shutting doors behind them
  MC-148613 – Aquatic mobs are not spawning / Fish spawned from buckets count towards the aquatic mob cap again
  MC-152908 – When a player joins a server, everything that happened during the time offline queued on connecting to the server
  MC-153406 – Score JSON Component Crash in items
  MC-153749 – Trusting Foxes attack player when self-injured
  MC-153852 – Concrete powder deleting waterlogged blocks when falling
  MC-155711 – Functions capable of running commands they shouldn’t be able to (publish, debug …)
  MC-156013 – Breaking Blocks “re-appear” to nudge player
  MC-136318 – Floatable mobs are unable to walk when in waterlogged blocks
  MC-151150 – Entities (Villagers) cause massive lag when attempting to pathfind
  MC-151376 – Villagers are not pathfinding towards their POI; POI detection range is too small
  MC-151810 – Mobs don’t try to avoid fall damage anymore
  MC-154214 – Chunks refusing to unload due to incorrect player ticket additions
  MC-155147 – Mouse acceleration with the new 1.14.3 update
  MC-155906 – Failed to save debug dump if the destination location contains a space
  MC-100946 – Bow with mending undraws when receiving XP while drawed
  MC-113968 – Zombies of village siege spawn despite gamerule doMobSpawning being false
  MC-113970 – Zombies of village siege do not spawn centered on a block
  MC-134964 – Unexpected error: java.util.NoSuchElementException
  MC-142037 – java.lang.NullPointerException: Initializing game
  MC-143755 – Arbitrary score/selector/NBT resolution using lectern without operator rights
  MC-143886 – Acacia leaves render improprly from a distance
  MC-146289 – Farmer villagers don’t stop to pick up their crops
  MC-147844 – Pillagers don’t pathfind around obstacles & out of water
  MC-152094 – End city/end ship generation gets cut at chunk borders sometimes
  MC-152636 – Killing a zombie right as it converts into a Drowned will drop the loot from zombie while still converting into a Drowned
  MC-153498 – Cyrillic letter Є is not included in the Minecraft font
  MC-153665 – Full villager inventory creates invisible items
  MC-153712 – Java using 100-200% CPU (MacOS)
  MC-153766 – Rabbits no longer need sand/grass in order to spawn in deserts/tundras
  MC-153892 – Mending slows down breaking blocks
  MC-154019 – Beacon deactivate sound not sounds when you break the base
  MC-154031 – villagers give away all food if they want to share it
  MC-154068 – parrots occasionally disappearing when you take them from a boat
  MC-154201 – Trying to trade with villager immediately closes trading menu for some villagers
  MC-154362 – Crossbow has to re-load when mending takes place
  MC-154509 – Bashkir letters Ҙ, ҙ, Ҡ, ҡ, Ҫ, and ҫ are not included in the Minecraft font
  MC-154668 – Invalid characters crash the game in jigsaw block input upon pressing enter
  MC-154830 – All wall signs use oak color on maps
  MC-155092 – Zombie sieges can happen on mushroom islands
  MC-155104 – when closing a menu while moving the mouse, the screen will move in that direction
  MC-155172 – Hostile Wolf AI has been broken. Wolves can no longer attack enemies efficiently.
  MC-155238 – Villagers picking up workstation through wall
  MC-155345 – ConcurrentModificationException when a player leaves an active raid
  MC-155571 – Silverfish & Endermite spawners no longer functioning

The closed beta of Minecraft Earth is currently rolling out to several cities in the UK and US, with access being given to many of those who signed up in advance.

Some Apple iPhone owners in London and Seattle have reportedly been able to play it so far, and more are expected to be invited to try the beta test version soon.

We at Pocket-lint have also been trialling the new augmented reality game over for a couple of weeks and here are our thoughts and tips on what you can do in the closed beta and how to start.

It’s important to note that any progress made during the closed beta of Minecraft Earth will not carry on when the full game is released. And, many features of the final release are not yet available.

However, read on if you want to know more.

What is the Minecraft Earth closed beta?

Minecraft Earth is Microsoft’s answer to Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizard’s Unite.

It is an AR game for iOS and Android that enables us to build Minecraft creations, either collaboratively or with friends, that are overlaid onto the real world for others to find, see and interact with.

Some of the gameplay revolves around collecting materials and mobs to build with, while the rest is dedicated to building mini Minecraft worlds.

An adventure mode will be added to the final release version of the game to be released at a later date, which will enable players to experience builds in a different way, but that’s not part of the closed beta trial.

Nor is the online storefront. You cannot, therefore, currently buy skins or mobs with cash – only collect them through the game.

How do you play Minecraft Earth?

You might see familiarities between the main screen in Minecraft Earth and Pokemon Go (and other AR games). It shows your character – using either male Steve skin or female Alex – on a map of your real world location. All around you will be collectable building resources and the occasional mob – a pig, duck, etc.

They appear in a catchment radius, represented by a circle around your position. Any within that circle are within reach.

You tap on them to collect them, which will break them down into their individual elements (blocks), which will be added to your inventory for use when building.

Mobs will remain whole and can also be added to builds once collected.

Minecraft Earth on-screen menu

Along the bottom of the screen are the different menu options.

On the far-left you can open your inventory of collected items and equip them for use. The next menu icon is to scan for friend invite codes. We are yet to play with someone who also has closed beta access, so that’s not proved to be much use for us yet.

The next menu is perhaps the most important for now as it allows you to start a build or continue with an existing project.

At present, you are presented with several templates to adapt. They are ranked by your player level (which rises as you build and collect materials) and only unlock when you’ve reached each specific level.

Buildplates

There are two options for a build. Either place it on the ground to see what it looks like in the real world, or as a buildplate to get close up to change how it looks. Every time you quit this mode it will save the template to reflect your modifications.

There is a settings menu to turn off the traditional Minecraft music and the like, and an option to turn on/off precise mode.

Precise mode, when switched on, allows you to turn your avatar using your finger. If off, you have to physically turn around to see all of the objects within the catchment radius.

That’s basically it for now. There’s not much to the closed beta as it is designed as a stress test for Microsoft rather than a full experience to enjoy on your travels. However, there’s still enough there to get a feel for how it will work on release and, although your builds won’t survive the switch over, it’s worth it to see what you are capable of making so you can eventually hit the ground running.

Our first impressions

The Minecraft Earth closed beta is remarkably simple. Being honest, there’s not really that much to do right now and until more people are accepted, few friends to share it with.

The adventure mode will surely spice things up. As will the expansion of players, who will drop their builds around the world for you to check out.

It’s more potential that perfect as it stands, although we do like the idea that it’s actually a lot easier to jump into than PG and Wizard’s Unite. That means it will be more suitable for younger players too.

Unfortunately, that means parents will have to hand over their phones to their kids once again, rinsing the battery in the process. But, Minecraft Earth is a more collaborative game anyway, so we might find it becoming an outdoors family pursuit in future.

You can still sign up to be part of the closed beta here.

The debut trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher series is finally out and it actually looks good, though that could be Henry Cavill’s muscles talking. And while we already know all about when the show takes place and who it stars, the trailer marks the first time we’ve seen everything in action.

So much happens in the trailer’s meager two minutes, so unless you’re scrutinizing every frame, odds are you’re going to miss some stuff. We’ve combed the trailer ourselves and turned to the internet to pull out as many interesting character reveals, plot details, and references to the Witcher books as possible.

Is Yennefer OK?

Early glimpses of Yennefer in the trailer depict a woman hunched over with a swollen cheek. That’s the norm for plenty of sorceresses in the world of the Witcher, who often become students of magic due to varying physical irregularities. Yennefer is no different. She, like many magic users, becomes beautiful through the use of magical glamours that mask her actual appearance. Looks like we’ll get to see her transformation in the show. 

Hey, it’s the Isle of Thanedd!

That’s where sorceresses go to magic school, including Ciri for a bit. It’s also the setting for some big betrayals and terrific violence. I can’t wait to see how the show interprets those big beats.

What’s up with that wacky purple tree in the desert?

At first glance, I thought this was a scene from Ciri’s trip to the Frying Pan, which feels too far off to plop into season one. I wasn’t alone in my thinking either, but, twist! Showrunner Lauren Hissrich confirmed the purple desert tree is not related to the arc depicted in Time of Contempt. Get to making those theories. 

The Dryads aren’t bright green, thank goodness

The Witcher show is taking a simple approach to its depiction of Dryads, the nymph-like humanoids that live in the forests of Brokilon. The games tend to depict them as nude green plant people, but the books describe them as very human-like with slightly greenish tints to their skin tone. The show is definitely leaning towards the latter.

That’s a Striga

A few quick clips depict Geralt going at it with a grimy humanoid, likely a Striga, which is one of the first monsters he dukes it out with in The Witcher short stories. Striga are women transformed into beastly monsters via a curse, something like a werewolf with hints of troll. Geralt dreams of his fight with the Striga in The Voice of Reason, the opening story in The Last Wish collection. And he dreams of it after some good sex. That’s our guy.

And that’s a Kikimora

There’s some debate over what that swamp spider is in the last shot of the trailer, but I’m banking on a Kikimora, monsters known to live underground or in, get this, swamps. It’s also one of the monsters he kills in the short stories before bringing it to Blaviken, where Geralt starts a major beef with just about everyone—on accident, of course.

Meet the Butcher of Blaviken

As this thread points out, when he looks all tore up and pissed may well be a formative scene set in Blaviken that earns Geralt a lifelong nickname: The Butcher of Blaviken. We’ll leave the show to tell the tale if you’re not aware, but it’s a classic bit where Geralt, ever the neutral, gets screwed over by everyone in an attempt to save everyone. Needless to say, a lot of people die, the blame gets pinned on Geralt, and he becomes feared throughout the continent. Poor guy. 

Our boy’s casting Aard

Either Geralt’s getting about to blind a three-eyed monster or that boy’s casting the Aard sign. If you’re unfamiliar, witchers dabble in magic, much to the dismay of sorcerers who view the witchers’ practice as clumsy and contrived. But whatever, because Henry-Geralt is about to send someone flying across the room like a hot Jedi.

Emhyr the Hedgehog says hello

Here’s one that most people missed (including me). Some sharp-eyed folks in this Reddit thread might’ve spotted a quick glimpse of the future Emperor of Nilfgaard, Emhyr var Emreis. See, before the imposing bastard become a tyrant, he was cursed by a sorcerer to take on the appearance of a human-hedgehog hybrid. The curse did not make him go fast, unfortunately. We’ll leave the rest to the show since lifting the curse is its own adventure, but clearly, he doesn’t stay that way forever. Until we see how the show depicts Emhyr’s origins, all you really need to know is that the whole ordeal does not make him a cool, chill guy.

Minecraft is good for a lot of things: creating your own dream worlds, hanging out with friends, bludgeoning zombies to death with blocks of wood. Whether it’s good for browsing Reddit or not, I’m not sure: but it’s definitely possible, thanks to this plug-in created by Reddit user DeltaTwoForce.

As the gif below demonstrates, the plug-in turns Reddit into a tight descending dungeon, with each floor dedicated to its own thread. Once in, a sign is used to specify which subreddit the user wants to visit, and then the plug-in generates it, complete with thread title, the number of interactions, and an embed of the thread’s main image. Beneath the image is a chest, and inside is a collection of books with each response written inside.

This is a .gif of the plug-in in action, created by the plug-in’s programmer, DeltaTwoForce:

Is this a pleasant way of reading Reddit? That’s for you to decide, in my opinion: no. But the point is that it’s possible, just like lots of other ridiculous things are possible in Minecraft, such as Atari 2600 emulators, BASIC interpreters and mobile phones.

According to DeltaTwoForce, the plug-in is not safe to use on survival servers because it will clear out your inventory. It’s available to download here, and you can see the original Reddit thread here.

Minecraft Java Edition patch 1.14.4 is now available, and is set to be the final update update for 1.14 before Mojang moves onto the new features of 1.15. The fresh patch promises a ream of bug fixes, improved performance, and a bunch of improvements to villager behaviour – in addition to an amusing fix for the suspicious stew item.

“Suspicious stew made from poppies now gives you night vision instead of speed,” so you can be sure you’re getting exactly the right kind of high from your poppy seed-based comestibles. Maybe it’s less important than the performance improvements, memory leak fixes, and built-in /debug function for detailed bug reports, but it is entertaining.

The bigger selection of changes focus on villagers. They now stock more items, feature improved pathfinding performance, and will remember their gossip if they become zombified. They can now work without restocking at the same time, and will now wait with restocking until they have appropriate trades.

You can read the full list of changes – and all the bug fixes – on the official site.

Microsoft is returning to Gamescom this August to flaunt its Xbox wares once more, and would like you to know what happening this time around – including a first public hands-on of the intriguing Minecraft Dungeons and Gears of War 5’s Horde Mode.

This year’s Gamescom, once again being held in Cologne, will run for four days from 20th August. Microsoft, however, will be kicking things off a day early, holding a special Gamescom-themed episode of its Inside Xbox show, live from Cologne’s Gloria Theatre. The latest “news, games, accessories, and features” are promised, with proceedings scheduled to begin at 4pm BST on Monday, 19th August.

Should you be interested in tuning in, you’re not exactly short of options; it’ll be streamed via Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Mixer, and the official Xbox website.

Later in the week, from Wednesday, 21st August, until Friday, 23rd August, Microsoft will be holding a free public live event that it’s calling Xbox Open Doors, situated at the Gloria Theatre. This will play host to “community events, game tournaments, panel sessions and other exciting experiences”, and more details are due at a later date.

Within Gamescom itself, Microsoft’s Xbox Booth will feature a variety of playable games – including the aforementioned first public hands-on of Minecraft Dungeons and Gears of War 5’s Horde Mode – with Project xCloud also getting an airing somewhere along the line. Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition will make an appearance in Microsoft’s PC-focussed area, and there’s an official gear shop too.

Microsoft’s Xbox Booth can be found in Hall 8 of the Koelnmesse, for those Gamescom attendees keen to pop along and see what’s what.

Keemstar and UMG are continuing Minecraft Monday for another week.

The event went in a different direction in Week 3 as gamers participated in different minigames rather than just Hunger Games (last man standing). The change up in gaming led to Technoblade not winning the event for the first time (he and his partners won the first two weeks). Instead, Traves and Cscoop won Week 3.

Week 4 will follow a similar format as Week 3 by playing minigames, but the type of games have been changed. Those can be viewed below.

Will Technoblade get back to dominating the event? We’ll find out later today. Below is everything you need to know about Week 4 of Minecraft Monday.

When does Minecraft Monday start?

Date: July 15th

Time: 4 p.m. EST, 1 p.m. PT

How to stream Minecraft Monday Week 4

UMG will be streaming the event live above.

You can also watch live from individual streamers on their respective platforms (some stream on Twitch, others stream on YouTube, a rare few choose other outlets).

Minecraft Monday Week 4 teams, rosters

Minecraft Monday rules, scoring system

• Eliminations: +10 Score
• Victory: +30 Score
• Top 2 Teams: +20 Score
• Top 3 Teams: +10 Score
• Surviving: +2 Score (Whenever a team is eliminated all other remaining teams earn +2 Score)

An added note, scoring for placements, surviving and victories are split between teammates if both are alive. But if one member of the team gets eliminated, the score is awarded to the surviving teammate.

There’s no cheating allowed. Cheating includes no cross-teaming, no “feeding” to help another team no mods or resource packs that grant unfair advantages. Trash talk is allowed, but toxic trash talk could result in a ban.

UMG lists the games played as followed:

• 1. Hunger Games (MAP)
• 2. TNT Run
• 3. Dropper
• 4. Spleef
• 5. Battle Arena
• 6. Find The Button
• 7. Run From The Lava
• 8. Bingo Hunt
• 9. Hunger Games (MAP)

Minecraft Monday Week 4 results

The leaderboard above should update throughout the tournament.

The makers of Minecraft Earth launched a closed beta today in Seattle and London, the first time fans will be able to get their hands on the heavily hyped augmented reality smartphone game.

London and Seattle are the first two markets in the beta test, but it will steadily expand to other cities across the globe, Thomas Wiborgh, head of communications of Microsoft-owned Mojang wrote in a blog post Tuesday. Players can sign up hereto participate in the test.

Microsoft expects the test to eventually roll out to “hundreds of thousands of players,” according to an FAQ. The game requires a mobile device running iOS 10 and Android 7 or newer. As long as they are signed into the same Microsoft account, users can bounce between phones and tablets and bring their creations with them.

Beta users must log on at least once a week, or risk losing their spot. Don’t be surprised if the game is reset and progress gets wiped away, that is pretty standard among beta tests as the teams update the game.

Minecraft Earth✔@minecraftearth

LONDON and SEATTLE, you’re up! As the first two cities to go live in the Minecraft Earth closed beta, all eyes are on you and your life-sized minetacular (specblockular?) creations!

↣ http://redsto.ne/MCEarthCB  ↢

2,0831:14 AM – Jul 17, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy527 people are talking about this

The game takes Minecraft off the computer screen and brings the game into the real world — through the lens of a smartphone. Players collect items, go on quests and use their inventories to put together impressive structures that can be captured and shared. There’s important elements of cooperation in defeating bad guys in missions and collaborating on tabletop Buildplate structures that can be ballooned up to life-size scale.

While players will be able to transport “skins” over from traditional Minecraft, the team is setting up the game to stand its own. The game will be familiar to long-time Minecraft player, but the goal is for every item and creature in Minecraft Earth to come from that game.

Microsoft first teased the game at its Build developer conference in May and shared details a few weeks later. Minecraft has yet to give a release date for the full game.

The game is free to play, and executives in the past have demurred when asked about in-app purchases. However, we do know that Minecraft Earth won’t have loot boxes, a popular trend in the gaming world of grab bags full of items that users have to buy with either real money or in-game currency.

Minecraft Earth is part of rising trend of smartphone games layered over the real world. The immediate name that comes to mind when talking about games like this is Pokémon Go. And the company behind Pokémon Go, Niantic, just put out a brand new Harry Potter-themed augmented reality game based on the real world. Speaking with GeekWire when it first unveiled Minecraft Earth, the team behind it said “we don’t see ourselves as a clone” of anything that’s out there today, which they referred to mostly as “geocaching games.”

“It’s not just a geocaching game with like 2 percent of it in augmented reality,” Torfi Olafsson, game director for Minecraft, told GeekWire in May. “We decided to go head-first and build the game from the ground up as an experience that you play both in your immediate environment — when you’re home — and out in the world, like in parks, in cities.”

Microsoft Pokémon Go-alike Minecraft Earth has begun rolling out to its first group of beta testers – those who previously signed up and live in either London or Seattle.

Anyone with early access is free to post gameplay videos and impressions – and from these we have a good idea what’s in the game currently.

The Map screen looks very familiar to Pokémon Go, with things (“Tappables”) to click on in a radius around your avatar. It’s here you’ll find blocks, items and mobs.

One nice touch is that, when playing in a car, your avatar is shown riding in a minecart.

Then there’s the Buildplate screen, where you use your collected Tappables to create Minecraft builds. Different sized Buildplates are available as you level up, with varying biomes.

Here’s the best footage I’ve found of more advanced builds available in Minecraft Earth. YouTuber SethBling demonstrates a couple of redstone creations such as a TNT cannon and a life-size human speedometer which reminds me of something I’d probably have to do in PE.

It’s worth noting, as SethBling does in the video, Microsoft provided him with extra redstone parts to complete his creations. Otherwise, they’re only available as a rare drop, he said.

Missing from the beta at present are Adventures – Minecraft Earth’s AR encounters with mobs I got to test out at E3. The app’s in-game store is also unavailable while in beta.

There’s no word yet on when Minecraft Earth’s beta will open up to more users, but you can still pop your name down on Microsoft’s official site.

What you need to know

• The closed beta for Minecraft Earth is opening in two cities.
• The game is available in Seattle and London.
• Anyone living in those two cities who has signed up for the closed beta could get an invite.
• You can still sign up for the closed beta right now.

Minecraft Earth is an upcoming augmented reality (AR) game that aims to bring the world of Minecraft to your phones, in the vein of something like Pokémon Go. While it’s still early, the team at Mojang has shared some great news: the Minecraft Earth closed beta is beginning in Seattle and London right now!

If you live in Seattle or London and you’ve signed up for the closed beta, go check your email because there’s a decent chance you’ve been invited. “Thousands” of invites have already been sent out and more are no doubt coming. If you don’t live in either Seattle or London, keep in mind that the closed beta is just now rolling out, it’ll expand to other cities in the future.

If you haven’t signed up yet, don’t worry: you can still register for the closed beta right now. If there’s anything else you want to know about Minecraft Earth, our Xbox Senior Editor, Jez Corden, has a cohesive wrap-up right here. How does monetization work? Just what are players allowed to do? Do you have to walk around everywhere like in other AR games? The questions to all these and much, much more are covered.

If you’ve been waiting to check out Minecraft Earth (Mojang’s  Pokémon GO-style augmented reality reimagining of its hugely popular game, Minecraft), good news: it’s starting to roll out to some people now.

The catch? It’s only available to a slice-of-a-slice of the world, at first.

After opening a registration system for its closed beta just a few days ago, the company says that it sent out the first batch of beta invites this afternoon.

The beta is being rolled out on a region-by-region basis, with randomly picked players in Seattle and London getting access at first. Mojang says more cities should go live in “the next few days,” but doesn’t get any more specific than that.

It’s also worth noting that the beta is iOS only for now; Android support is on the way, but it won’t land until later this summer.

Our own Devin Coldewey went hands-on with an early build of Minecraft Earth a few months ago — check out his first impressions here.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Lion King, in theaters Friday nationwide.

Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Lion King doesn’t make a lot of changes to the overarching narrative of the 1994 animated classic. Although somewhat understated, its few alterations are to character motivations. A handful of the supporting players are tweaked here and there, contributing new layers.

And no one receives as much of an update as Shenzi (Florence Kasumba), the leader of the hyena pack. The original movie featured her more as a just another goofy member of the comically inept henchmen for Scar. But in the new film, Shenzi is a much more intimidating and serious character. None of her dialogue is played for laughs, and she’s given a lot more imposing moments to make herself a true threat to the lion pride.

EXCLUSIVE: We’re hearing from non-Disney sources that Jon Favreau’s The Lion King reboot is doing some smashing business tonight with an estimated $22M-$25Moff showtimes that largely started at 6PM (there were 5pm select fan screenings). Again with these estimates, sometimes they can fall outside the range we’re hearing from sources, but overall, it’s a great start.

While that’s not a July Thursday night preview record —Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2‘s midnight shows of $43.5M looks to still hold this record– Lion King‘s Thursday night cash stash is on the low-end above Captain Marvel‘s $20.2M (which repped 33% of its opening day Friday for a $153.4M opening) and on the high-end just under Black Panther‘s $25.2M (33% of Friday, for a $202M 3-day opening).

Bringing tonight within comparisons of Disney live-action adaptations of its classic toons, Lion King is already burying Beauty and the Beast‘s $16.3M Thursday night preview which yielded 26% of its opening day for a $174.7M opening. Heading into the weekend tracking estimates were between $180M-$192M. If Lion King clicks past Deathly Hallows 2‘s $169.1M, then it’s the best domestic opening ever for July. One rival studio marketing executive marveled today, “This film has had a 98 total awareness on tracking for a long time — that’s unheard of!” First choice for The Lion King is leaning heavier toward females than males.

Further evidence that Simba is bound to have a royal weekend: Fandango reports that the Favreau film is the second best pre-seller of 2019 behind Avengers: Endgame. Bad reviews with that Rotten Tomatoes of 56%? Well, Lion King is just all Hakuna Matata about all that when it comes to RT impacting its B.O. prospects.

Tomorrow, Lion King opens in 4,725 theaters becoming the widest domestic theatrical release of all-time, unseating Avengers: Endgame‘s first weekend footprint of 4,662. Abroad Lion King has already roared past $100M, a bulk of that from China. We’ll have more updates for you in the morning.

Take the real-world exploration of Pokémon GO and mash it up with the building elements of Minecraft and you get Minecraft Earth.

While there’s no launch date for the game, Mojang  has been saying for a while now that a closed beta would go live sometime “this summer.” If you’re looking to get in early, good news: they just opened up registration.

You can find the beta registration page here.

Alas, because it’s a closed beta, registering doesn’t guarantee you access — but in its FAQ about the beta, the team notes that they’re planning to open it up to “hundreds of thousands of players” eventually, so your odds of getting in probably aren’t too bad. You’ll need to be over the age of 18, have a device running iOS 10/Android 7 or newer and a Microsoft or Xbox Live account to get registered.

TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey got a super-early look at the game back in May — you can find his thoughts on it right over here.

Mojang also released a video teaser this afternoon, wrapping up much of what the game will offer in just under three minutes:

The best scene in Disney’s incredibly photo-realistic remake of The Lion King features a computer-generated beetle rolling a ball of computer-generated dung across a computer-generated African landscape. It might sound mundane, but this particular ball of dung is carrying a tuft of fur from the runaway lion Simba, and its eventual discovery will renew hope that the rightful king of the savanna is alive and well. It’s a funny, touching reminder that in the circle of life, every little creature and every lump of waste has an important role to play.

The best thing about this scene is that it’s completely wordless, and it convinced me that this Lion King would have been far better as a silent movie, one that treated its newfangled visual style as more than just a digital face-lift. But that wouldn’t have suited Disney’s game plan: to produce an essentially risk-free remake of the 1994 animated film that remains one of its all-time greatest hits.

The Hamlet-inspired plot is nearly identical to the original. So are Elton John’s memorable songs and Tim Rice’s less memorable lyrics, this time sung by a solid voice cast that includes Donald Glover, John Oliver and Beyoncé. (The soundtrack also includes a new Beyoncé song called “Spirit.”) The crucial difference is that, instead of the original’s gorgeous hand-drawn visuals, the new movie looks and feels like live-action, an illusion achieved through a sophisticated mix of digital imagery and virtual-reality techniques.

The result plays like a Hollywood blockbuster disguised as a National Geographic documentary, or perhaps the world’s most expensive safari-themed karaoke video. The movie feels both overwhelmed by its technical virtuosity and shackled by its fidelity to the source material. It begins with a nearly shot-for-shot re-creation of the first film’s famous opening sequence: The sun rises over the landscape; the lush, soaring melody of “Circle of Life” rings out; and some very persuasive-looking elephants, zebras, giraffes and other critters gather to celebrate the birth of Simba, an adorable little cub destined to succeed his father, Mufasa, as king of the Pride Lands.

As shot by the cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, it’s a majestic, if redundant, sequence, a sign that we’ve seen this all before. Then the familiar plot kicks in, the characters start talking and singing, and your sense of wonderment may turn to confusion. The animals’ lips may match their dialogue, but there’s next to nothing going on behind the eyes: Who knew photo-realistic lions were this bad at emoting? You can’t fault the actors: James Earl Jones, who voiced Mufasa in the earlier film, reprises that role here with his signature gravity. And Chiwetel Ejiofor strikes the right note of menace as Mufasa’s brother Scar, who plots to kill both father and son by luring the unsuspecting Simba down into a gorge, placing him directly in the path of a wildebeest stampede.

Within minutes, Mufasa is dead and a heartbroken Simba is on the run, leaving Scar and his vicious hyena allies to take over the savanna. At this point, the movie shifts abruptly into zany comedy mode, as Simba befriends the amiably loud-mouthed duo of Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog. They’re voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, and their energetic banter and their performance of that classic slacker anthem “Hakuna Matata” — it means “no worries” — give the story an undeniable lift.

Laughing at this movie is a lot easier than taking it seriously. Soon the grown-up Simba, now voiced by Donald Glover, is reunited with his childhood friend Nala, played by Beyoncé. But when they launch into “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” not even the actors’ lovely voices can bring these lions’ dead-eyed come-hither expressions to life.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of the original Lion King, which beneath its brightly entertaining surface has always struck me as too emotionally calculated by half. But that film feels like a triumph of form and content next to this movie, because its story about a fictional animal kingdom feels so vividly and gloriously cartoonish in every detail. The new Lion King is so realistic-looking that, paradoxically, you can’t believe a moment of it. And although it was directed by Jon Favreau, who previously shepherded a wild menagerie in his recent remake of The Jungle Book, it has none of the imagination that made that movie more than just a high-tech retread.

Disney is in the midst of an ongoing campaign to update its beloved animated classics for a new generation, from the recent Dumbo and Aladdin to upcoming versions of Mulan and The Little Mermaid. Some of these remakes have been more inspired than others, but few have felt quite as futile as The Lion King. This isn’t the circle of life; it’s more like a creative dead end.

What you need to know

• Minecraft is an incredibly popular building game.
• It keeps on getting new features to allow for easier building.
• Today, the game new features for Realm owners and content creators.
• Minecraft is part of Xbox Game Pass which you can get through Best Buy.

Minecraft has been getting few features for many years now, and that’s one of the main reasons why it’s played by over 90 million players each month. Today, Minecraft got a massive patch which addresses permission settings for Realm owners, brings numerous bug fixes, and changes the way creators can access certain commands. You can take a look at the patch notes below. They have been edited for clarity.

Changes

• Increased the frequency and volume of the ambient mob sounds made during raids, to make them easier to locate.
• Added new Wandering Trader sounds.
• Updated the main menu splash text.
• Updated the default main menu panorama from Aquatic to Village & Pillage.
• The Store button on the main menu has been renamed to Marketplace.
• Realm owners can now set relevant permissions for players invited to their Realm.
• Default settings can be set for all new members entering a Realm
• The owner can set permissions for an invited player to either visitor, member, or operator.
• When resetting a world, or uploading a new world, already set permissions stay in place.

Fixes

• Fixed several crashes that could occur during gameplay.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when launching the game on some Windows 10 devices.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when certain interactive blocks are loading in when joining a Realm.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when switching players on Xbox One.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when engaging in a fight with an Elder Guardian in an Ocean Monument.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when loading the game.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when throwing an Egg or Snowball.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when trading with a Villager.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when throwing a trident with Loyalty enchantment
• Fixed a crash that could occur on Nintendo Switch when the game was saving or loading.
• Fixed a crash on Nintendo Switch that could occur when suspending and resuming the game.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting the game.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when signing into Xbox Live.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when choosing a skin on launch of the game.
• Fixed a Marketplace issue that could result in the game getting stuck or crashing when loading in items.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when the game was checking for previously downloaded content.
• Made further performance improvements when opening inventory screens.
• Made several performance improvements related to various interface screens and interactions.
• Significantly reduced bandwidth usage by allowing the client to reuse chunks it has already seen.
• Improved chunk loading performance in multiplayer.
• Improved performance around new villages and villager job sites.
• Several other performance improvements, including some related to mob pathfinding.
• Frosted ice blocks no longer drops performance while they’re melting.
• Endermen teleporting particles no longer cause consistent performance drops, especially during boss fights.
• Reduced the amount of memory required to load textures.
• Cached resource packs no longer decrease performance on Nintendo Switch.
• Removed an unnecessary Xbox Live sign-in notification.
• Fixed an issue where consuming the last item in a stack to unlock an achievement could cause the achievement not to unlock.
• The Haggler achievement once again unlocks when requirements are met.
• The Zombie Doctor achievement now unlocks when curing a zombie villager.
• Marketplace resource packs are now immediately applied after downloading in the world edit menu.
• Player permissions now apply correctly when more than one operator tries to adjust them.
• Made improvements to roaming skins, which should apply correctly after reloading or reinstalling the game and signing in.
• Custom skins are now applied correctly without needing to restart the game to see them.
• Skins equipped from the Recent section are once again applied when selected.
• World settings now sync correctly between different Xbox One devices.
• Resource packs are now applied correctly after downloading through the world or global settings.
• Newly purchased Realms are now always visible after finalizing the purchase.
• Fixed an issue that would show an error message when attempting to renew a Realm subscription on Xbox One.
• Fixed several related issues with End Gateway portals. These should now teleport the player to the correct safe location when used.
• Villager trading now properly takes away items from the second slot, when applicable.
• Only players who fought in a raid now receive the Hero of the Village effect in Realms.
• The Bad Omen effect is now only received when killing an Illager Captain, not when dealing non-fatal damage with a bow or potion.
• Players no longer see through the world when clipping into blocks after leaving a boat.
• You can now interact with blocks while holding a charged crossbow on touch devices.
• Players no longer clip through walls when transitioning from swimming to standing in water.
• Players that are being healed can now still be knocked back by TNT.
• Arrows that are shot into blocks keep their position when reloading the world.
• Area of Effect clouds no longer try to spawn excessive numbers of particles when time of day is changed.
• Corrected the position of leads on Wolves.
• Tamed cats no longer slide around while sitting.
• Fixed the missing Taiga Zombie Villager skin.
• Fixed a fighting texture issue on some Villager skins.
• Dyed leather horse armor color no longer affects other horse armor.
• Vindicators can now path correctly over carpet during raids.
• The Wither no longer plays its spawning animation when reloading a world.
• Mobs will no longer path-find over Brewing Stands.
• Added a sound to indicate when a villager does not want to trade.
• Illager Captains now drop banners correctly even if the world is reloaded.
• Mobs will now spawn on double slabs.
• Fixed the sitting model for cats that were previously tamed ocelots.
• Fixed missing zombie villager sounds.
• Certain zombie villagers now have the correct name in death messages instead of a placeholder name.
• Mobs no longer get stuck when pathfinding on ladders.
• Evokers no longer move too fast when moving towards villages in raids.
• Mobs no longer spawn inside leaves during raids.
• Villagers that are actively trading with players will no longer run and hide when the raid bell rings.
• Clerics now correctly pathfind to their job sites.
• Tamed tuxedo cats now use the proper texture.
• Stray cats can no longer claim beds in villages for worlds converted from version 1.10.
• The Ghast spinning model in monster spawners is now the correct size.
• Fixed wandering trader podzol and coral trades.
• Fletchers now trade sixteen arrows instead of five.
• Changed the cost of butcher’s cooked rabbit trade.
• Leatherworker’s saddle trade is lowered from ten to six emeralds.
• Removed the sand trade from the wandering trader and adjusted the cost of a diamond hoe from tool smith villagers.
• Iron Golems no longer run to the world center after their village is destroyed.
• Villagers without professions now follow regular schedules and will actually sleep, which they deeply need.
• Fixed the creeper model in some Marketplace maps.
• Converting a normal Pillager to a Captain with tag commands now displays the banner correctly.
• Fixed various scenarios where certain blocks couldn’t be placed until the game was restarted.
• Frosted ice blocks can now be broken.
• Fixed Sea Grass texture brightness.
• Bamboo leaves are now lighter.
• Flowing lava once again turns into cobblestone when hit by water.
• Red sandstone stairs now have correct textures on all sides.
• Players no longer lose villager job site locations if they replace a job site block that is tied to an experienced villager.
• Village job site blocks now have consistent sound volume levels when used by players.
• Scaffolding can no longer be placed on Conduit blocks.
• The Bell now swings towards a player when it is hit.
• Note Block particles now correctly correspond to the notes played.
• The grindstone now correctly combines and repairs two damaged items.
• Farmland now has the correct side and bottom textures.
• Smokers now have the correct bottom texture.
• Fixed door and trapdoor textures.
• Cocoa beans now break and drop when pushed by pistons.
• Slabs and other non-solid blocks once again prevent grass from growing on dirt.
• Flowing water is no longer left behind after flowing over string.
• Bells now ring when hit with splash and lingering potions.
• Composter growth particles now appear in the correct location.
• Blocks can once again be placed on unlit Redstone Ore.
• Fixed animated textures for flowing lava and water on several texture packs.
• Efficiency pickaxes now break packed ice at a faster rate.
• Dropped items no longer prevent minecarts from being placed on rails.
• Empty glass bottles now stack correctly when removed from brewing stands.
• Banner patterns can no longer be lost or duplicated when switching them in a loom with a full inventory.
• Using Pick Block on sweet berry bushes now gives the player the correct item.
• Bone meal is now consumed correctly when used on grass.
• Cactus blocks of different growth stages can be smelted into green dye again.
• Stripped birch wood is no longer used to craft acacia planks when playing on Realms.
• Shields no longer appear too bright in item frames.
• Updated the Illager Banner texture.
• Barrels now appear in the proper place of the creative inventory.
• Correct colors of wool are now displayed as a material required to create colored banners in the recipe book.
• The player’s arm is no longer displaced in first person view after eating food.
• Tinted spawn eggs are now properly scaled in item frames.
• Fixed a bug on dedicated servers and Realms which could cause the wrong block types to generate in the world.
• Tweaked the number of job sites that generate in villages.
• Updated the glass texture for locked maps in the Cartography Table UI.
• Adjusted the Cartography Table screen to fit Android screens when using Classic Interface.
• Pressing the Y button on controller on the Cartography output slot now only crafts the correct amount.
• Added controller tooltips for the Lectern screen.
• The villager trading screen no longer opens and closes if the player is standing too far away.
• Items that are split between slots in the villager trading screen still count as a total trade amount.
• The How to Play button on the Cartography Table now directs to the proper screen.
• Killing a wandering trader’s llama can no longer display their inventory screen.
• The screen reader prompt no longer appears every time network settings are adjusted on Nintendo Switch.
• The Always Day toggle now correctly animates and shows the correct setting.
• Dates appear again next to player earned achievements in the Achievements menu.
• The Invite to Game button is no longer enabled on Featured Servers.
• Going back to the Play screen or Settings screen will now properly select the previously selected tab when Text to Speech is enabled.
• The Wheel Turning button is now only shown once in the Minecraft VR settings.
• Made improvements to the patch notes to make sure the correct ones show up after an update.
• The Marketplace search screen now displays the proper pack icons.
• The New tag will be properly removed from a Marketplace collection once it has been viewed.
• Fixed Marketplace sale items not showing the discount percentage.
• Further improvements to performance when using selectors with commands.
• Removed tile prefix in the /give command.
• Made item names more consistent by removing tile from the beginning of some of them.
• Blocks and entities that aren’t available in the Creative inventory no longer require the minecraft namespace when used as parameters in commands.
• After fishing_hook is killed by command, players can now cast the hook again without having to cast twice.
• Killing a rideable entity no longer respawns its rider when killed in the same tick.
• The testforblock command now works reliably with items renamed in the language files.
• The Behavior Pack template once again contains the spawn_rules folder.
• Removing a timer component and adding a new one should no longer have the new timer inherit the old timer’s time value.
• Custom underwater mobs can now spawn naturally.
• Custom entities now correctly re-evaluate current target validity.
• getBlocks now returns a 3D array of block objects.
• Fixed a scripting issue that could cause the player to float.
• ScriptAttackComponent and ScriptCollisionBoxComponent now correctly retrieve updated data.
• Pick Block now works correctly on non-vanilla entities that have been added using add-ons.
• Functions ran on a game loop now use an origin which has Game Master permissions, not Owner permissions.
• Added a new constructor parameter to the ServerCommandOrigin so that the Function Manager can create an instance with upgraded permissions.
• Player Position is now reported for the player feet like other mobs.
• Collision Box and Attack components report the correct data now.
• Updated templates for 1.12.0 with new resources, behaviors, documentation, and example packs can be downloaded from aka.ms/MinecraftAddons.
• Created a screen to view content log errors for Behavior and Resource Packs.
• The log screen can be opened using Ctrl + H after enabling in Profile Settings.
• Enabled content logging for creators on Bedrock Dedicated Server to debug pack errors.
• Mob events can now be toggled using the new /mobevent command.
• Particle emitters can now trigger slash commands, actor events, and MoLang expressions.
• Added the ability to play single animations at any time, overriding an entity’s current state-based animation.
• Animations and particles can be spawned without being linked to entities using animation timelines.
• Sound effects can now be triggered by animation events.
• Added auto-complete to the Command Input field for command blocks.
• A delay can be added to the command block using the new field, measured in Redstone ticks.
• Allows custom crafting recipes for shaped crafting, shapeless crafting, and furnaces using Behavior Packs.
• Recipe JSON files have been added to the Behavior Pack template.
• New simple items can be added to the game using Behavior Packs.
• Currently, only a subset of components has been exposed, with more being added in future updates to allow more complex behaviors.
• Some items, such as food, are now data-driven and their JSON files have been added to the Behavior Pack template.
• New “simple” blocks can be added to the game using Behavior Packs.
• Currently, only a subset of components has been exposed, with more being added in future updates to allow more complex behaviors.
• New data-driven articles.
• New data-driven Animations
• Script engine updates.
• New block events and two new APIs have been included to query for blocks.
• Basic inventory events have been exposed to the Script Engine.
• Allows executing commands with a callback when the command is executed without using events.
• Data is contained in objects passed to callbacks under the data field.
• Custom events need to be registered before being triggered.

Be sure to check out these changes if you play Minecraft. The game is currently available through Xbox Game Pass. You can either pay $10 a month for Xbox Game Pass, or pick up Xbox Game Pass Ultimate which bundles Xbox Game Pass for consoles, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Live Gold into one package.