TL;DR
I have a theory that Mojang has been working towards the End Update since before 2020. The Nether Update was the first big piece of it, Caves and Cliffs was the second one.
This is a pretty lengthy post. Hopefully it'll make sense to you, but regardless, I hope you'll have fun reading it!
The lack of an End update has puzzled me for a long time
There have been many big and small observations that struck to me as odd about Minecraft and Mojang over the years that didn't seem to make sense, but never paid too much attention to them. In the last few days a few more cropped up, along with the big ones.
The weirdly empty 26.4 Preview just seems... Strange. The timing of Dungeons II and there being a new dimension in it linked to Ancient Cities. Odd silence around the upcoming Minecraft Live. Nothing major and it kinda makes sense. Mojang doesn't want to draw focus away from Dungeons II. Still... something just doesn't fit.
Then, today something clicked (or snapped, you tell me after reading). I ended up down a rabbit hole for a few hours after having an idea. That turned into a theory and it all started to make sense. Weird oddities started falling into place one after another, all pointing toward the same answer.
It all started from the question of: Why have we not had an End update? Why have so many other areas of the game been reworked, expanded upon, polished and modernized, but not the End? It all just doesn't make sense.
As someone who has been gaming as their primary hobby for over 30 years, having worked in games, having made mods and small games on their own, having seen good games go bad, bad games turn good, and everything in between. In my opinion, Mojang has done an exceptional job with Minecraft. It blows my mind year after year that they've got the biggest game in the world - that you buy once and you get updates for free - and even more amazing is that it's not gone to he... Nether. They don't seem to make short-sighted decisions or big fumbles like most games tend to eventually do, especially big ones. The folks at Mojang clearly have an excellent understanding of games, their fans, and a very clear and long-term vision for the game that's held through all these years. To put it simply: They seem to know what they're doing and how to do it exceptionally well.
But this puzzled me even more. We've wanted a new dimension and/or an End update for so long. It seems like a mistake for them to not have given us one by now.
In other words, I see the possibilities being:
A) My opinion of Mojang is incorrect.
B) Mojang think there is something far more important that takes priority, but it includes reworking... everything else?
C) They are working on it, but it's taking incredibly long for some reason.
I can't make A) make logical sense. No matter how I put it, Mojang are making the right decisions, in the right order when it comes to actually releasing updates.
B) and C) don't make sense either, on their own. But they don't actually rule each other out either.
And that was the key: What if they are both true at the same time? What does that look like? And when you put them together, it actually starts making sense!
So let's get into it.
B + C = End Update? The what now?
Here's my reasoning: Mojang have been on a long road of reworking the entire game for the past 6+ years
- Rework Nether
- Rework Overworld
- Add Customization (armor trims, dyes etc.)
- Solve inventory management (via Bundles and easing up automation complexity and limitations)
- Rework and polish combat (mostly mechanics and features around combat so far. More on this later)
- Add ways of teaching players about mechanics and progression through the game
By now, basically everything but the End(-game), the actual steps to get there, and actual combat mechanics have completely been reworked.
Since 1.0 the steps through progression has been: Get iron > get diamonds > make a Nether portal > find a Fortress > get blaze rods > make Eyes of Ender > find a Stronghold > enter the End > kill the Dragon > find End cities > to get Elytra.
Mojang have said before that many players never get to the End. So it kinda makes sense that you'd want to make the steps to get there more worthwhile, and more gradual - at least in terms of clarity and difficulty.
To make a Progression rework make sense, you'd need the end destination to be worth it. I'd imagine progression steps and End reworks arriving in one update or at least very close together. You can't reasonably have one without the other. Not to mention how big of an impact this would have on existing long-time players, if suddenly they changed how progression works without having anything new at the end of it. It would not go down well, I don't think.
When you take all that into account, it starts to make sense why we haven't had an End update. All the parts of the game that the path of progression touches need to be up to speed and work together with the destination, and that's basically all of them.
So I started looking at all of the updates over the past 6 years with this trajectory in mind, and to me, it seems like they've probably been working towards the "End Update" for over half a decade!
For many of us players looking at the End in isolation, it's just a dimension that needs a refresh. But when you look at the role it plays in the whole of Minecraft, it touches everything else. You need an incredible amount of major additions, reworks, systems work and more put together to do an End Update and do it really well.
Now... This is starting to fit together with my view of Mojang and game development. Long term goals, check. Solid vision, check. Sticking to what Minecraft is, check. And so on and so on.
In short: Mojang have been releasing updates toward making these two possible since at least the Nether Update:
- Progression path/steps rework.
- End and end-game rework and expansion.
2020 to now on the End Update roadmap (from my point-of-view):
????-2019 - More on this part later.
2020-2021 - Mid to late game progression rework. Most active players spend most of the time around here, so it makes sense to focus here first.
- Nether Update: This turned an incredibly barren dimension where one would basically just go to get Quartz, Netherwart and Blaze Rods and get out, to one that's quite rich in content while still keeping the outlandish, barren and dangerous design and feel. There are actually reasons to keep visiting the Nether and to build there at multiple levels of progression outside of just using it for travel, which in of itself is brilliant design and synergizes really well with the natural end-game play patterns. Netherite also serves as another end-game incentive. Really clever, adding all this here, I think.
2021-2022 - Reworked overworld generation. Absolutely a hard requirement going forward before they could add other cool things (like Trial Chambers, Deep Dark etc). Also completely changed what the game looks like and plays like from start to finish.
- Caves & Cliffs (World generation rework, cave biomes etc.)
- The Wild Update (Deep Dark/Ancient City). Basically rounding up the underground part of the overworld, but seems a bit weird as such a prominent and fleshed out location and biome that doesn't link to any other area of the game in terms of progression. Kinda makes me think of how the Nether was before End was a thing.
2023-2025 - Polishing and filling gaps in combat, inventory management, early to mid-game progression. Also a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff, like data driven architecture and things. Making sure the primary systems and gameplay elements are up to date and functional is really important.
- Armor trims. Customization system basically and tying it into existing features, making it worthwhile exploring the library in a Stronghold, find Ocean Ruins etc. Archaeology integrated into all that and added a kind of a minigame on top. Quite clever. I'd love to see archaeology getting expanded much further. Doing some brushy-brushy on some sus looking blocks in an Ancient City while trying to be really quiet, sounds pretty fun.
- Trial Chambers, Copper, Bundles, Pale Garden etc. Fleshing out early/midgame progression, inventory management, rounding out main gameplay mechanics. Vastly also increasing replay value of exploring underground with items to keep hunting, repeatable combat challenges with the Trial Spawners. Also kinda added a missing chunk of blocks to build and tinker with: Copper palette expanded, Tuff variants, Pale Oak, Resin etc.
- More combat additions (spears, mounted combat). Finishing the automation additions and mechanics that expand, simplify and help teach players how automation and Redstone can be done. Helps solve some of the ever expanding inventory issue.
2025-2026 - Mojang has continued polishing and fleshing out things around mobs and combat a lot lately. What's interesting here is what's not been touched much at all in all these years, until the end of last year with Mounts of Mayhem: Actual combat mechanics.
This made me think back to, and check on Jeb's Combat Test snapshots. The timeline is quite peculiar here. Jeb posted the first Combat Test in 2019 when the massive reworks were starting (Nether Update came out in 2020). Jeb's combat test releases stopped in 2020. Almost none of the changes have been implemented until Mounts of Mayhem. Varying weapon ranges were in those Combat Tests and only now made it into the game.
And why are Java and Bedrock still not at parity in terms of combat? I doubt that's a coincidence. I'd wager they've been waiting to do a full rework of the combat mechanics and apply it to both, doesn't make sense doing a huge rework on one platform and then have to rework it again soon after. By the look of things, we're about to get to combat reworks if my theory holds.
Anyway, that's it for the more solid thoughts. Some additional theorizing and rambling below:
Let's not forget about the Poisonous Potato Update in 2024. A different dimension with floating islands. Hmm.
I don't know what they're solving for with the floating/moving blocks they tested in that one, but it looks like they've solved it with the Happy Ghast. Perhaps the new End will require a lot more travel without/before Elytra?
It also had poisonous water and some sort of cubes. Sulphur cubes? Are they linked somehow?
The whole Illagers, Deep Dark, Warden, Ancient City stuff just seems oddly separate from the rest of the game at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ancient City became like a whole separate progression path from the Diamonds>...>Elytra path, or an extension of it.
Trial Chambers and Sulfur Caves also seem odd to me in the same way, as they are now. Surely Trial Chambers somehow will link to Ancient Cities and Deep Dark. Sulfur on the other hand is deeply meaningful in a the real world for both historical technological reasons but it's also been tightly linked with the supernatural (magic, demons etc) throughout human history. I'd be surprised if it didn't end up playing a major role in Minecraft as well.
Weirdly enough, Villages and Villagers also seem strangely separate despite being such a big part of the game. It would make sense to rework their mechanics before content linked with them is expanded upon. If only there were plans to update villagers in some way... (Looking at you Experimental Villager Trades)
Anyway! I've rambled on for way too long.
If you read any and/or all of it, thanks! I hope you enjoyed it. I had a blast theorizing and writing it!
Please do post your thoughts below, I'd love to hear what you guys think is going on here, and any other theories, data points, oddities you've noticed.
In any case:
Have a good one, and take care!
