Minecraft retires its controversial mob vote and completely revamps how it does updates: "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often"

Two character emerging from a cave in Minecraft
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Minecraft developer Mojang Studios announced it's no longer putting its focus on one big annual update. Instead, the team will focus on a number of free updates throughout the year. This announcement comes off the heels of the first Minecraft movie trailer, which was released to a mixed reception. 

These new game updates are intended to vary in scope and size, but will allegedly release more consistently throughout the year. This also means that Mojang is retiring the mob vote, the infamous player-voted contest for introducing new mobs into Minecraft. So you can unclench your jaw a little bit and relax, as all of the focus in the future won't revolve around player votes for penguins or armadillos. You know, the important things.

The mob vote was always contentious with many players lamenting the mobs that never made the cut. Only one of the three mobs would make it into the game, with many of the losers gone to the void. So pour one out for the Ostrich, Crab, and Moobloom, we hardly knew you.

The retirement of the mob vote also coincides with the announcement that Minecraft Live is no longer a once-a-year show. Instead of being held annually around October, it will now happen twice a year so the team can make a "more focused" broadcast and take some of the pressure off of hinging everything around a single yearly update to the community.

All of these changes seem to be geared around a more consistent stream of updates, which certainly feels healthier for a game with such a massive playerbase. A native PlayStation 5 version of Minecraft has also been announced alongside everything else, but no additional details were given like launch timing have been shared.

If you're looking for even more, maybe try out some of the best Minecraft seeds to mix things up.

Jesse Vitelli
Contributor

Jesse is a freelance games journalist with almost a decade of experience. He was the Associate Editor at Prima Games for three years and then moved into the world of freelancing where you might have seen his work at the likes of Game Informer, Kotaku, Inverse, and a few others. You can find him playing the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV or whatever hot new multiplayer game his friends are playing.