Minecraft
Mojang announces it will be handing out 12,000 Minecraft Realms this weekend.Facebook

Minecraft users will be happy to note that its developer Mojang has announced that it will be handing out 12,000 Minecraft Realms this weekend.

Minecraft Realms is a paid service that allows players of the game to create an online world that will be approved by a list of players. Players can now team up with friends and "build, create, and explore in the same world," said a post on the official Mojang website.

Players will be able to generate a realm from a random seed, from where the map can be uploaded enabling them to choose the presets. The progress of players will be regularly saved, allowing them to go back to the previous save in case of any eventuality. Players can also see who has been online in the activity monitor.

The post also noted that account holders will be getting variety of minigames. Players who have subscribed will get to switch between minigames and the Realm. Realms will cost players subscription fee of €8/£6.40/$10.40 a month; if a player has been a subscriber for a long duration, he might get it for a cheaper price.

As of now, the Realm's availability is limited to Minecraft PC version.

It also went to say that there will be 500 Realms that will be made available in the Minecraft client every hour from 11 am UTC on 30 May until 11am on 31 May. It noted in its post that it has been doing trails on Realms. Players can check the Realms menu in Minecraft for a trial link and can have a free 14-day trial. However, players need to have a Mojang account to do so.

It was also noted that the last Minecraft PC update 1.8.6 that brought in security fix has permanently removed a feature in the game.

Security update 1.8.6 was brought in after update 1.8.5 faced some security issues necessitating a new update.

The removed feature was used by map makers. It was related to command blocks and dispensers.

[Read Also:Minecraft Releases Security Update 1.8.6]

Pocket Edition to Get New Update with Boats and Skins

Mojang has officially announced that Minecraft Pocket Edition will be getting new Skins in the game. Skins will allow players to change the appearance of their Minecraft characters.

Its post revealed ways to change the skin for free:

  • Upload a skin from the Internet. Use a search engine or Minecraft skin website to find one, then upload it to Minecraft: Pocket Edition.
  • Create your own skin using the fantastic Minecraft: Skin Studio or your favourite piece of image editing software. Then upload it to Pocket Edition.
  • Use one of the free Skins available in game.

The company promises players "bundles of paid skins," with every pack containing 20 Skins. Each pack will cost $0.99/€0.79/£0.79.

The post also noted that it will be submitting a new update for Minecraft Pocket Edition, pending approval from Apple, Android, and Windows Phone.

This new update will include the following things:

  • Multiple language support
  • Boats with space for two! Take your pet for a pleasant ride.
  • The ability to throw stuff from boats, including snowballs and eggs
  • Fishing! Now you can fish for fishies!
  • Squids!
  • Spider jockeys!
  • Cave Spiders!
  • Bats!
  • Adorable baby zombies!
  • Weird chicken jockeys!
  • Edible clownfish. Yum!
  • A fancy new World Edit screen so you can rename worlds, change game modes and do other things
  • Creative players can no longer be set on fire. Controversial
  • We've stopped cheeky chickens from walking on water
  • Animals can no longer breed without touching each other ooh err
  • Drinking milk now removes mob effects
  • Ridiculous amounts of bug fixes
  • More cool things that you should discover for yourself 
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