Minecraft 1.8 Snapshot 14w30c Released; Partnership with Lego to Reveal Toys This Fall

Coders Rest In The Office Of Swedish Company Mojang In Stockholm — Coders rest in the Mojang company office in Stockholm January 21, 2013. A pool table, a pinball machine, board games and Lego dot the offices of Mojang, the small Swedish company behind the wildly popular Minecraft video game, and one of its founders is wearing a tuxedo and purple tie on a recent "formal Friday". The atmosphere reflects the independent spirit that has contributed to the raw identity of the game that has just sold 20 million copies. The founders want to keep it that way. Mojang, the Swedish word for gadget, has so far resisted selling to a bigger player or listing on the stock market even though that could mean monster payoffs for the 25-person staff and funding to expand dramatically its games. Picture taken January 21, 2013. Reuters/Ints Kalnins

While 4J Studios is still busy doing bug fixes for "Minecraft Xbox One Edition," "MInecraft PS4 Edition" and "Minecraft PS Vita Edition," Mojang has released the latest snapshot for "Minecraft 1.80." Dubbed the "Minecraft" snapshot 14w30c, this will have a few more bug fixes for stability.

"We've released snapshot 14w30c to fix some more crashes, world holes, other bugs and more optimizations," said Mojang over at their official Web site. "Today's snapshot is heavily focused on more optimising, with a pinch of bug fixing and a sprinkle of feature creeping."

Some of the noted changes in the new Minecraft snapshot include the following:

- Additional banners

- Creeper, Skeleton and Zombie Heads are now available in survival mode

- Major optimisations in rendering

- Bugs, including lighting, have now been fixed.

- A change in the recipe for crafting.

In addition, there's a whole new list of bug fixes for "Minecraft" snapshot 14w30c, listed in the link above. As usual, Mojang is welcoming any more bug finds from "Minecraft" players, which can be reported via this link.

Lego Partners with Minecraft for Autumn Sets

Two building games are all set for a partnership that will bring more fun to the younger market of virtual game "Minecraft."

Lego, the long-standing physical building game that has been the go-to creative game of youngsters and young at heart, has partnered with "Minecraft," one of the biggest virtual games to explore the building scene in all its pixelated glory.

Financial Times reports that the new team-up will expand what Lego has already been producing in the "Minecraft" line. While there are already smaller-scale figures that Lego has for Minecraft, fall of 2014 will introduce more normal scale lines.

What's interesting about this project is that the sets that will be released have been collaborated with other "Minecraft" players, a feat that is not normally seen with Lego. According to the source, this may be due to the fact that "Minecraft" developer Mojang has been careful about licensure and partnerships in relation to the "Minecraft" franchise. The involvement of the community did help in more ways than one, with some of the looks of the characters in upcoming sets influenced by the "Minecraft" community.

"What you want is for people to play with Lego the same way they play the game, just constantly tearing things down and rebuilding it," said Vu Bui, chief operating officer at Mojang to Financial Times.