Minecraft release date announced, next update to add rain and snow

Notch has announced an official release date for Minecraft on his blog . Minecraft will go head to head with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on 11/11/11, with the unofficial tagline "us too." The game's sold millions already, and it's being updated all the time, which might make the idea of an official Minecraft release date a little odd. In his blog post, Notch explains the behind the date, and announces some of the features we can expect from next week's Minecraft update.

Notch points out that, thanks to the constant updates, "the version we deem as the “full version” won't be very different at all from what the game was like a week ago, and we'll keep adding features after the release as well, so it's really more of a milestone when we finally get rid of the Beta label, and some kind of goal for us to work towards."

"The plan is to be open with this and try to get people to cheer us on as much as possible, but to be open with the fact that the game won't change much at the actual release day.

"It's the same date as a few other games and movies, and the one I'm the most excited about is Skyrim, so that will be a nice reward for me if we actually manage to hit that date!"

Notch goes on to talk about what he's being working on for next week's update. "There's periodic downfall (snow in snowy areas, rain in others, nothing in deserts) that make the sky darker, hides the sun, moon and stars, and makes everything wet. Ice grows back in cold regions, and snowfall covers the ground when it's snowing. During rain/snow, there can be occasional thunderstorms with lightning.

"I haven't finished the actual lightning bolt yet, but everything else is fairly done. Once the stats are done and the weather has been tested through, we'll release 1.5. I'm guessing this will be next week."

For more Minecraft adventures, check out Tom's Minecraft Experiment .

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.