Minecraft news » Day 1: Minecon is LIVE!

Watch events, panels, and more LIVE at the official livestream!

Minecon is now fully up and running! Highlights from today (Day 1) will be posted right here, including 1.9 info, awesome panels, and more. Keep an eye open, there will be some big news today!

 Opening Ceremony:

The ceremony opened up with a clever villager short by Element Animation, as the villagers arrive in London, and get into all sorts of trouble. The animation was playing on a massively wide screen, taking up the entire stage. Shortly after, Lydia introduced a Guinness spokesperson, who presented an award for Minecon for 10,000 tickets sold, the largest convention held for a single video game.

A representative from the U.N. followed shortly after, presenting a short film explaining "Block by Block", the Minecraft project that lets players re-design real-world areas, then fund those projects to be realized in real life. Minecraft Stop-Motion Movie creator was shown afterwards, and looked pretty promising! Shown on an iPad, it appeared to be an app that allowed the user to create stop-motion animations with Minecraft models. It was also revealed that 17 VIPs from Make-A-Wish (and similar) chose Minecon as their wish, and were in attendance. HoloLens made an appearance, as the E3 demonstration was shown on stage as well. Afterwards, the HoloLens lead developer and Jeb came on stage, and announced that 25 attendees would be able to test out the HoloLens first-hand on Sunday. Expect updates on that tomorrow! Jeb went on to say that Mojang would be discussing both the 1.9 Combat Update, and Pocket Edition features, in panels later in the 'con.

 Next up was a look at Telltale Games' "Minecraft: Story Mode". The visuals were strongly reminiscent of Minecraft animations from alums like Slamacow, and showed a number of dramatically tense scenes. More to follow!

Pic by @19lara97

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 Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta Announced

Owen Hill talks about the newest version of Minecraft:

Just like the first release of Minecraft all those years ago, this version will develop and evolve over time with the help of your feedback. That’s why it has “Beta” in the title - because it’s not quite finished, and will become even more fun over time. Just like the other versions of Minecraft, all future updates will be free. We spoil you. We really do.

If you’re one of the 20 million(!) players who have the PC edition of Minecraft (referred to by techy people as the Java version) you’ll be able to download Windows 10 Edition Beta from the Windows 10 store for free. Other players can get it for the paltry price of $10 during the beta period (the length of which is still being decided).

Minecraft is available on Windows, Mac, Windows Phone, iOS, Android, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, and now, Windows 10. Not every version of Minecraft is exactly the same, but they all feature two distinct game modes – Creative and Survival – that cater to different types of players. All versions of Minecraft support multiplayer. Some new features you can expect:

●     Craft, create, and explore online with up to seven friends playing Windows 10 Edition Beta, through local multiplayer or with your Xbox Live friends online.

●     Play online and local multiplayer with other Pocket Edition players thanks to a free update, due to arrive soon after launch.

●     Support for multiple inputs - switch between controller, touch, and keyboard controls with little to no effort

●     Record and share gameplay highlights with built-in GameDVR.

●     Help shape the future of Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta with built-in player feedback mechanisms

●     Chickens, zombies, pigs, boats, armed skeletons, potatoes, zombies, baby squids, enchantment tables, villagers, naked sheep, iron golems, potions, ghasts, pickaxes, carrots, and all the weird and wonderful goodness you’ve come to expect from Minecraft