Minecraft's first mob vote candidate for this year is a handy little crab

In yearly tradition, Minecraft is letting us choose what kind of creature will be included in its next major update. The mob vote is back for 2023: Ahead of the yearly Minecraft Live show on October 15, we'll be able to cast our votes on three different mob hopefuls, which Mojang has begun introducing today.

Our first potential new mob is the crab, which lives in the mangrove swamp biome. Mojang says that the crab claw (presumably possible loot from killing crabs) will help players place blocks further away from themselves. So it's like one of those long pole grabby hooks, then. I imagine that will help build-focused players like me complete projects without running about to different sides of our scaffolding while working on roofs and other details.

Mojang will be announcing the other two candidates in their own animated shorts this week but both are still under wraps as of this writing. This year's videos are boat themed, so it seems likely we may see some kind of ocean-dwelling creature as well.

As it goes every year, the race will likely be a contentious one as players all attempt to suss out which proposed creature will add the most interesting new features to the game. My personal favorite from last year, the Minecraft sniffer, was picked by the community, so I'm hoping to keep my popular pick streak.

Whatever the choices end up being, we'll have 48 hours to vote at Minecraft.net, in the game launcher, or a special public Minecraft: Bedrock server built for the occasion like last year. Voting opens on October 13 and runs into the beginning of Minecraft Live where the winner will be announced. 

The event will cover news from all corners of the Minecraft realm including the spinoff games, and the expected announcement of Minecraft update 1.21.

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Lauren Morton
Associate Editor

Lauren started writing for PC Gamer as a freelancer in 2017 while chasing the Dark Souls fashion police and accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as the self-appointed chief cozy games enjoyer. She originally started her career in game development and is still fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long books, longer RPGs, has strong feelings about farmlife sims, and can't stop playing co-op crafting games.