Minecraft's Super Duper Graphics Update Gets The Ax

Remember that Minecraft trailer from E3 2017? The one that showed off the Super Duper Graphics update and teased it for Fall 2017? That update never came and Minecraft never got prettier, but the team at Mojang kept working at it. Now, over two years after that announcement, the Super Duper Graphics update is dead.

Mojang made the announcement on its blog today, noting that the update was more "technically demanding" than the studio initially expected.

"We realise this is disappointing to some of you — there was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio — but unfortunately, we aren't happy with how the pack performed across devices," Mojang said. "For this reason, we're stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look."

It seems the very thing that's made Minecraft so successful — its ability to run on just about anything — is also what made the Super Duper Graphics update an impossible dream. The update would've likely run fine on most current generation consoles and newer PCs, but there's a real question as to whether some devices (iPhones and Android phones, for example) could've handled it. If it's Microsoft's intention to have Minecraft in as many places as possible — and that certainly looks to be the case — it wouldn't be wise to push an update that hurts performance for a large swath of the game's player base. Unfortunately, that's what the Super Duper Graphics update might've ultimately done.

Is this a bit of a letdown? Of course. The update looked gorgeous with its glistening waters and its impeccably shadowed voxel blocks. But if Mojang is to be believed, the studio is already looking for ways to improve the visuals inside Minecraft while still ensuring it runs reliably on all hardware. So don't fret just yet; you could still get a nicer looking Minecraft at some point. Just not right now.

We'll keep a lookout for news on these future efforts and get back to you once we have it.