Minecraft isn’t all building houses and digging holes.
Mojang has announced new content out today for Minecraft Realms, a subscription service for the block-building game on PC that costs $7 a month. It allows players to create their own private servers, but it also gives them access to minigames and maps. It also gives Mojang a new revenue stream for a hit that has already sold more 100 million copies on PC, home gaming consoles, and mobile.
The new maps include the Big Giant Lightshow, a 20 minute musical experience synced up with the game world that Mojang is introducing as the first in a new “experiences” category. These aren’t minigames — they’re more like music shows or roller coasters that you can enjoy inside Minecraft.
If you want something a bit more traditional, you can also play the Battle of the Gods minigame, a new class-based brawler.
“Play as one of many gods, each with their own special powers,” Mojang details. “Blast people into the air, launch a ranged fireball attack, but whatever you do, make sure that you keep your eyes on the prize: grabbing the three relics and returning them to your home biome. Battle of Gods also features a single-player mode, based on the multiplayer, so that you can get to know the terrain and practice with the map’s innovative ability system.”
You can learn about the other new maps, including one that lets you play a board game inside Minecraft, on Mojang’s site.
Microsoft, which owns Minecraft, will stop supporting the Windows Phone 8.1 version of its own immensely popular world building game, Ars Technica reports. While the game’s development continues apace, Redmond is essentially admitting that even with a massive player base, the venn diagram between Windows Phone users and Minecraft fans has too little overlap to be worth the effort.
On mobile, the Android and iOS versions of Minecraft: Pocket Edition will still be supported, of course, and that same version is also what gets ported to platforms like the Gear VR and Apple TV. Unlike those other systems, which recently hit an official 1.0 version last month, the Windows Phone version never quite made it out of beta.
Microsoft did, however, recently release a new version of Minecraft for Windows 10 as a Universal Windows Platform app that will eventually run on everything from desktops to Surface tablets to the HoloLens. Although the Windows 10 version is based on the same Pocket Edition code, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to go against its own developer guidelines for the Universal Windows Platform and currently only supports a desktop interface. That means you’ll still need a mouse and keyboard to smash those blocks for now.
Respected security analyst Brian Krebs published a report today detailing his research into who authored Mirai, a publicly available piece of malware that can be used to infect devices with online connections (think: printers, routers, etc.) and unite them into botnets capable of executing massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Mirai and its ilk garnered headlines around the world last year after it was employed to DDoS the servers of DNS provider Dyn and “break the Internet” by taking down popular websites like Twitter, Reddit, Netflix and more.
Countless game developers rely on these services, and they may be curious to read Krebs’ report that the author of the Mirai malware — and indeed, the business of conducting DDoS attacks in general — is deeply intertwined with Mojang’s mega-popular game Minecraft.
Krebs claims the real identity of Mirai author “Anna-Senpai” is Paras Jha, who at one point described himself as the president of Minecraft-focused DDoS protection firm ProTraf Solutions. It’s unclear if he still works at the company — Krebs claims Jha has not (yet) responded to his request for comment, while a ProTraf Solutions representative reportedly told him that “we [are] in the process of restructuring and refocusing what we are doing.”
Moreover, Krebs reports Jha got interested in the mechanics of DDoS attacks as a Minecraft fan and server operator who complained online when his own popular Minecraft server was attacked. Krebs believes this inspired Jha to take an interest in DDoS protection, and notes that Jha’s LinkedIn page includes stints at multiple high-profile Minecraft servers.
Plus, in a now-deleted (but recovered via the Internet Archive) personal bio, Jha describes himself as an aspiring Minecraft modder and game developer.
“My passion is to utilize my skills in programming and drawing to develop entertaining games and software for the online game Minecraft,” reads the excerpt of his personal bio published by Krebs. “Someday, I plan to start my own enterprise focused on the gaming industry targeted towards game consoles and the mobile platform.”
Krebs’ whole post is fascinating, and well worth reading in full if you’re at all interested in the position Minecraft servers hold in the DDoS attack business.
“The Minecraft industry is so competitive,” Robert Coelho, chief of fellow Minecraft-focused DDoS protection service ProxyPipe, told Krebs. “If you’re a player, and your favorite Minecraft server gets knocked offline, you can switch to another server. But for the server operators, it’s all about maximizing the number of players and running a large, powerful server. The more players you can hold on the server, the more money you make. But if you go down, you start to lose Minecraft players very fast — maybe for good.”
Malware that launched the net’s largest ever cyber-attack last year had links to Minecraft servers, according to those investigating it.
Security blogger Brian Krebs has spent months investigating the attack which knocked his blog offline.
He claims that the origins of the Mirai botnet can be traced back to rivalries in the Minecraft community.
His claims are backed up by a security expert who provided net security for Minecraft servers.
Robert Coelho, vice president of security firm ProxyPipe, told the BBC that his suspicions about who was behind the Mirai code have been passed to the FBI, which is “actively investigating” the claims.
The botnet Mirai was made up of more than 500,000 web-connected devices such as webcams and routers.
The attacks it launched – so-called denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that hit web pages with so much data that they fall over – were the biggest the net had ever experienced.
Victims that were knocked offline included Twitter, Spotify and Reddit.
‘Hundreds of hours’
Shortly after the attacks, the individual claiming responsibility – using the codename Anna Senpai – released the source code online, paving the way for copycat attacks.
A modified form of the malware was later used to attack UK internet service providers TalkTalk and the Post Office.
Since being hit by the Mirai botnet in September 2016, Mr Krebs has devoted “hundreds of hours” into uncovering who was behind it.
“If you’ve ever wondered why it seems that so few internet criminals are brought to justice, I can tell you that the sheer amount of persistence and investigative resources required to piece together who’s done what to whom (and why) in the online era is tremendous,” he wrote.
His research led him directly to the community around Minecraft, a computer game now owned by Microsoft, in which users build things from cubic blocks.
It has a huge following, especially among children, and it is estimated that at any one time a million people are playing it.
Image caption A sweeping valley featuring a castle
According to Mr Krebs, a large successful Minecraft web server with more than 1,000 players logging on each day can earn up to $50,000 (£40,600) per month, mainly from players renting space to build their Minecraft worlds.
“The first clues to Anna Senpai’s identity didn’t become clear until I understood that Mirai was just the latest incarnation of an IoT [internet of things] botnet family that has been in development and relatively broad use for nearly three years,” he writes.
The code for these earlier versions was often used to knock over web servers used to host Minecraft, he claims.
ProxyPipe – owned by Mr Coelho – had plenty of Minecraft servers as clients and in mid-2015 was hit by a massive attack, launched from a botnet made up of IoT devices such as web cameras.
Mr Coelho told the BBC that he had his suspicions about who was behind the attack: “Minecraft is a tight knit community. We know who is talking to who.”
He alleged that the attack came from a competing security firm, which also offered DDoS protection to Minecraft clients.
He claimed that the founder of the security firm had previously run a Minecraft web server and was one of his clients.
He also claims that the Mirai author – Anna Senpai – contacted him via Skype at the end of September, partly to explain that the attack on his firm was “not personal” but also to brag that he had been paid by the owners of a large Minecraft server to launch an attack on a rival server.
Nintendo confirms that the popular indie game “Minecraft” is coming to the Nintendo Switch and is currently in development. This adds to its library of games alongside powerhouse “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Super Mario Odyssey.”
Nintendo’s announcement doesn’t contain much detail about the game, let alone a release date, according to Game Rant. However, Nintendo UK recently tweeted a lineup of games that may indicate that “Minecraft” will come out this year. The said announcement also did not include how many players can join in “Minecraft” at the same time.
This is not the first time the game has been ported to a Nintendo console, as it already exists on the Wii U. In addition, Nintendo released a DLC with a “Super Mario” update that enables players to create environments and levels and also include textures and skins from the series.
Meanwhile, according to Gamespot, “Minecraft: Story Mode”, a TellTale Game Series, has been confirmed also by Nintendo. It has not disclosed a release date so far.
“Minecraft” was developed and published by Mojang and was initially released for the PC. It has been available for almost seven years and, due to its popularity, the game has been ported to various platforms including Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, PS Vita and Xbox one. The Nintendo Switch is the most recent. Upon its release, it received numerous awards and accolades. Most people would agree that this game is one of the most surprising game stories in the industry.
Are you looking forward for the Nintendo Switch’s version of “Minecraft?” Write and share your thoughts on the comments section below.
Microsoft will no longer provide updates for Minecraft: Pocket Edition for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile, according to a new report.
Windows Central claims that sources familiar to Microsoft’s plans have revealed that the company is stopping development of a game it owns for its own software, owing to the lack of interest from the user base. That has probably got something to do with the fact that Windows Phone is essentially an outlier in the smartphone OS race, dominated by Google’s Android, and Apple’s iOS.
With Microsoft poised to bring Windows 10 on ARM devices in the future, it seems that would be the way to go to salvage what’s left of Windows on mobile devices. The company already makes Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, which despite being a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, is currently only available for PCs. It does support touch, however.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft for an official statement on the matter, and will update this story once we hear back.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition will still get support on Android, iOS, Amazon’s Fire OS, Samsung Gear VR, and Apple TV. Pocket Edition was in the beta stage until last month, when it hit version 1.0. Unfortunately, that never happened with the Windows Phone version, which remains stuck on version 0.16.2.
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, which is based on the Pocket Edition, recently exited beta as well. You can pick that up at Rs. 642 for now, after which the price will shoot up to Rs. 1,719 next week. Or you can continue playing the Windows Pocket Edition, which remains on the Windows Store for now, priced at Rs. 452.
