Hey everyone! I’ve been a bit out of the loop with Minecraft updates since the Wild Update. My understanding is that the process used to be: Minecraft Live announces the next update, we get snapshots, and then it releases. But now, they’re doing something called drops, which are supposed to be smaller and more frequent updates. I’m really confused about the timeline, though.
For example, Tricky Trials was announced in October 2023 but released in June 2024. Some features like the pots, bats, and armadillos were included in drops before that announcement. Then, in September 2024, they announced Pale Garden/Garden Awakens, which is set to release in December 2024. Now we have this spring drop that has some features shown through snapshots, but I’m not sure when this drop was announced! There’s also a Minecraft Live coming up that will likely announce the next drop, but I feel lost since the spring drop never got a formal announcement. Can anyone help clarify this mess for me?
1 Answer
The next drop is pretty much hinted at through the snapshots we’ve seen, but no official name or release date has been announced yet. It’s speculated to be called the spring drop. Just to clarify, these drops will come out in between the major updates and will follow a .X versioning. So, for instance, the next drop will be 1.21.5, and the big update coming later will be 1.22. The drops are designed to be smaller with fewer significant changes, whereas the major updates bring big changes.
People are predicting that Minecraft Live will reveal what 1.22 will be, and 1.21.5 might drop within the next week or two since it’s already in pre-release. Just know that these drops will mostly be released as snapshots without much fanfare; features come one at a time in snapshots until they build up to a full release.
Interesting take! It does feel like this spring drop has a lot of content compared to the previous ones, but it’s strange there was no formal announcement.