Minecraft 1.8.1 Pre-Release and New Screenshots Show Off Features, Minecraft Realms Coming With More Content

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 "Minecraft" has already been released to respective next-gen consoles PS4 and Xbox One, this does not mean that the updates have already stopped. Developer Mojang has recently released a third pre-release for "Minecraft" 1.8.1. It features quite a number of fixes, specifically the following:

- Slow (choppy) rotating beacon block

- Experience Orbs invisible for one second right after spawning

- Withers trapped in a barrier box attacks barriers, killing it

- Animals don't teleport to Player when target is air block

- /help for /worldborder not updated

- Bedrock at Y0 has wood log in it at x0 y0 z0

- Lightning gives AI to Witches and Zombie Pigman that were originally Pigs and Villagers that had NoAI set to

- Tab list headers and footers stay even when rejoining a different server

- When using /stop server executes the shutdown sequence twice (and hangs if players are online)

- Entity's Lose Scoreboard Scores when it unloaded Chunk

In addition to this, developer for ported "Minecraft" 4J Studios has also teased a couple of screenshots, which basically tease some of the features in the upcoming update TU 17. One of these is a tweet of the huge "Minecraft" spider plushie atop the monitor, in a classic teasing move by the developers.

There's a huge spider on top of the monitor! #MinecraftXBLA pic.twitter.com/7tEIV07Sct
— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) October 24, 2014

The tweet above comes with the image as seen in the link, and already, fans are chipping in their two cents' worth of what they think about the leaks. Some fans have already spotted the horses, while others have mentioned the much-waited-for redstone. Beacons have also been spotted in one area of the screenshot. Another screenshot features more than just the "Minecraft" ghoul plushie, as it also features a monitor containing a shot of "Minecraft TU 17." Apart from the mentioned beacon and redstone, one fan speculated a potential medieval or "Skyrim" texture pack based on the screenshot.

This Ghast is almost too big to fit on top of the monitor! pic.twitter.com/gKdF7okvHy — 4J Studios (@4JStudios) October 22, 2014

Apart from the "Minecraft" 1.8.1 pre-release, Mojang is also busy with the Minecraft Realms, which is now expanding in terms of new content in the form of maps and mini games. Updating their official website with the new information, the developer has detailed what's coming and what's to be expected.

The first is that fresh mini games, maps and custom spawns will be coming to Minecraft Realms. And it appears that Mojang has prepared quite a lot of them, as seen in the barrage of sneak peeks in the link above.

Some of the pre-made maps coming to Minecraft Realms includes Bloxorz, which is a puzzler that will give 33 levels of brain puzzles. There's also Color Cube, a mini game where players will be tasked to paint their colour in nine maps, with the challenge of not falling off a changing landscape. It also involves power-ups, which make it all the more interesting.

Another mini game is Diamond Defender, which makes use of the "Minecraft" classic character, the creeper. You need to face a total of 10 waves of creepers, while ensuring that your diamonds are safe. Hit the link for more of the new mini games playable for Minecraft Realms. For those who are yet to use Minecraft Realms, this is a paid subscription service offered for "Minecraft" players where you can host or join a party in a safe environment.