Microsoft"s sandbox game Minecraft continues to be a highly popular title. In October, the company revealed that over 300 million Minecraft games have been sold since it officially launched in 2009. However, the version of the game that"s available for Microsoft"s own Xbox Series X and S consoles is also the same version of the game made for the older Xbox One console years ago.
Today, Microsoft released a new preview version of Minecraft (1.20.60.23). In its long and detailed release notes, it quietly mentions a big new feature: "Added 4k resolution support for Xbox Series consoles." This is the first time that developer Mojang has released a graphical upgrade for Minecraft specifically for the Xbox Series X|S consoles. That likely means that the upcoming Minecraft 1.21 update for all users will add the 4K resolution support as well.
Of course, we are still waiting for the rumored ray tracing support for Minecraft on Xbox consoles that briefly showed up in March 2022 in an Xbox Insider build before it was removed.
Along with the 4K support for the latest Xbox consoles, the new Minecraft Preview 1.20.60.23 build adds a new neutral Armadillo mob to the game. In a blog post, Mojang stated:
The armadillo is a savannah-dwelling mob that’s easily startled. When an armadillo detects a nearby threat, it rolls into a very adorable blocky ball, and won’t uncurl until the threat is gone.
The new armadillo mob also drops what are known as scutes. In this preview build, these "bony external plates" can be used by the player to craft wolf armor, which can then be placed on the friendly wolves in the game.
Another one of the other new features added in this Minecraft Preview build is Realms Stories, which added a new "social hub for your Realm" that allows players to share gameplay moments with other Realms members and more. You can get all the info on this build in the release notes.