Minecraft giveth; Minecraft taketh away.
Mojang has officially published all the big announcements from this year’s Minecon Earth live show—a much more convenient replacement for the traditional convention the company throws for its world-building game. Before we chat about the new aquatic content comign to Minecraft, we’ll get the bad news out of the way first: The game’s Super Duper Graphics pack isn’t going to arrive this year.
Instead, says Mojang, the optional downloadable content—”crammed full of excessive visual razzmatazz” for console and mobile players, including 4K HDR graphics—is going to arrive next year. Mojang didn’t offer a specific release date, but says that it’ll be updating Minecraft.net with new information as it becomes available.
Similarly, a new version of Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch that allows for cross-platform multiplayer is also being delayed until 2018.
“Nintendo has been a great partner and we’re really excited to fully bring Switch players into the fold, however, we need to make sure we deliver the best experience possible. So the new version of Minecraft will now be coming to Nintendo Switch next year. Xbox One, PC, mobile and Nintendo Switch, all playing multiplayer Minecraft together in 2018 – I’m getting emotional just thinking about it,” write Mojang’s Tom Stone.
The big content announcement from Minecon Earth is Mojang’s ‘The Update Aquatic,’ which will add lots of new watery features to Minecraft, including new fish, dolphins, coral, water physics, and explorable shipwrecks. Players will also be able to wield tridents as they adventure around—weapons you jab enemies with or throw at them. And, yes, you can enchant your trident to ensure it always returns to your hand once you’ve tossed it, the world’s most awkward boomerang.
In Mojang’s update, players will be able to catch different kinds of fish depending on the temperature of the water they’re in, and they’ll be able to create and populate aquariums for their collections. Minecraft builders will also get a chance to drop new bubble columns into their creations, and all players can go on hunts for treasure around their worlds—dolphins can help point the way to the loot, found in various structures like shipwrecks and icebergs.
Mojang didn’t indicate when The Update Aquatic would land, only that it would arrive in a future Minecraft update.