The Minecraft Recap 2022

Year in Review

Author: SmokeyStack

Published: 4th January 2023

All the Major Things

The purpose of this blog is for me to talk about how Minecraft is doing and what I hope will change. Let's start with the some rumours back in 2020/21. WhatIfGaming and GameSpot reported that Mojang is working on two new games. So, if the rumours are true, we should see a new game announced in a year or two. Just this year, Mojang announced Minecraft Legends and is slated to release in Spring 2023, so look out for that.

Moving on, Mojang released the Wild Update, bringing more content to the game and reviving interest in the game. This update also brought many new mechanics such as vibrations, mobs eating other mobs and more. This updated finally released the long anticipated Deep Dark biome and it is amazing, turning Minecraft into somewhat a horror game. Mojang also released some new default skins bringing more diversity for players to express.

Mojang did a fantastic Minecraft Live this year, clarifying their controversy with update reveals and an amazing show overall. Speaking of mob votes, the leaks were unreal. Ranging from the mob vote being in-game to what the candidates are. The leaks surely did hype up the event more which I'd argue is good for the game and community.

Speaking of community, we lost two amazing Minecraft Content creators, Technoblade and TinfoilChef. For Technoblade, Mojang has paid their respects by including a new splash text in the game, forever cementing him. Technoblade never dies! Now while TFC may not have an official Mojang tribute, the Hermitcraft community did.

Staying on the YouTube side of things, Minecraft reached 10 million subscribers and 1 trillion views on YouTube which is insane. Not bad for a 13 year old game.

Minecraft Java

The performace on Java is still poor. Needing to rely on so many mods just to run the game smoothly should not be the case. I hope Mojang focuses mroe on performance. With the announcement of more minor updates for Java, I am hopeful for this.

Java Edition also received a controversial update in the form of the Chat Reporting Feature. I talked about it before in this blog post righ here.

Minecraft Bedrock

Gone with the old beta system, in with the new Preview system which is much easier and more accesible to players. iOS players finally get to joing the fun! Now that's left is for the console manufacturers of PlayStation and the Switch to allow the Preview system.

Bedrock is getting more parity features and bug fixes each preview which is fantastic. However, one of the more recent parity changes was campfires not dealing fire damage anymore which sparked a discussion in the community. Once again, a feature favoured towards Java rather than the Bedrock quirk. While the devs were openly communicating, this is still a huge blow since Bedrock was advertised as the definition of Minecraft.

Nonetheless, the future of Bedrock is bright. Spectator mode was released after 9 years since its debut in Java. Not only is this a major parity feature, but it is one step closer to Hardcore mode!

However, on the creator side of things, it's a mixed feeling. Custom biomes have been broken since 1.18 and Bedrock isn't getting as much new creator features. Granted the team is trying to make them stable and not experimental, but I miss the days where new betas would bring more creator features. On the bright side, the famously leaked editor mode could be an amazing thing. This could help bring more creators to Bedrock.

I'm looking forward to what 2023 has in store for Bedrock.

Leaks

2022 has more leaks than previous years from my experience in this community. I'll be mostly going over my tweets and the things I've "leaked" in 2022.

  • New Create World UI, January 6th, 2022
    • I discovered a snippet hinting at a new UI and Volgar liked the tweet basically teasing it might be true.
    • Beta 1.18.20.21, January 27th, 2022, the Create New World UI began rolling out to some players.
    • Tweet
  • Minecraft Live in-game, April 30th, 2022
    • I discovered a snippet hinting Minecraft Live will be in-game this year.
    • August 17th, Mojang ran some public stress test servers. Tweet
    • October 15th, 2022, Mojang announces Minecraft Live 2022 and that there will be an in-game mob vote. Close enough.
    • Tweet
  • Customizable Touch Controls, june 8th, 2022
    • I discovered a snippet hinting at customizable touch control.
    • Still hasn't come true, but has been commented to come eventually.
    • Tweet
  • Editor Mode
  • New Death Screen UI, December 2nd, 2022
    • I discovered some files hinting that the death screen UI is up next for a revamp.
    • Still hasn't come true.
    • Tweet

Conclusion

That's all folks, 2022 is over, here is to 2023!