Photo Courtesy of Amber Louis
By Amber Louis
TAMPA, Fla. – Twice a year, Mojang puts together a collection of announcements of upcoming and exciting things being added to the Minecraft community. In addition to in-game updates, platform expansions, a themed land in Chessington World of Adventures Resort, this year brought a surprise trending in headlines and chat servers amongst the gaming community. The meticulously crafted The Sift Dimension is being added to both Bedrock and Java editions of the game.
One Reddit user, Nicosito_we described in their own words, “The dimension itself is unique because it stands apart from the Overworld, which has few biomes or structures that truly stand out as being completely fantastical or magic-based.”
All crafters, miners, and builders alike will have their own opinion about adding such a radical, large change to the game, but that’s kind of the point. Minecraft gives the choice whether to explore new updates; it’s up to the user.
Personal opinions about the new dimension aside, there’s a different lens this update can be viewed from: a commercial brilliance for Mojang’s sequel Minecraft-based game: Minecraft Dungeons.
With over 350 million+ copies sold worldwide, Minecraft has undoubtedly been successful for a long time, guided by both its versatility and the opportunities it provides to a wide range of gamers. In light of their accomplishment, Mojang development created a different game, as any creative would, bouncing off of the triumph Minecraft had brought them. Hence, Minecraft Dungeons was born.
More of an adventurous and action-packed, storytelling game, Minecraft Dungeons takes place in the universe of Minecraft. It has plot, characters, and missions, still including an existing element of exploration that the original game holds.
With the release of Minecraft Dungeons II, there came an affirmation always held by Mojang development: more.
The Sift is also an addition to this new game; as Jen Bergensten, Chief Creative Officer put it, “Making the Sift in Minecraft Dungeons II, we are making it so much more intentional.”
Adding this feature to both Vanilla Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons II creates a sort of “Halo Effect” to set up the success of both launches. Since Minecraft Dungeons II is currently available to play, impatient and curious players will want to explore Dungeons II’s version of the Sift now to determine how they feel about the dimension being added to Vanilla Minecraft.
This circumstance could be reversed too. Loyal and die-hard Minecraft fans could wait until next year for the Sift update, explore the dimension, fall in love and look for more, which could drive their desire to try Minecraft Dungeons II. There are over 25 million active players on the RPG-spinoff, as opposed to the 350 million game owners of the sandbox game. Having a consistent new variable in both games could create more crossover than before.
As Game Director Allison Larsson spoke about at the end of Minecraft Live, “Our design philosophy for Minecraft [is] we are always thinking about what’s coming in the short term, as well as later down the line.”
Strategically, Mojang is aware of the importance of the game’s relationship in the community as well as the relationship between the community and development. Creating this cohesive change between both types of games seemed to be another technique of connectivity between veteran players who stick with the original, and newer players who explore Mojang’s adventurous new additions.