Minecraft is ending its annual (and much-maligned) crowd vote

Mojang Studios is taking away one opportunity for players to choose what kind of content they want to see in the future Minecraft updates, and that could actually be a very good thing.

The Minecraft developer has announced it is withdrawing its divisive mass vote via a blog post on Monday. The mob vote, which began in 2017, was a community event where developers presented players with a selection of possible creatures to add to the game. People voted to choose their favorite, and developers added it. It sounds cute enough, but the event eventually drew massive criticism from fans who argued that the practice was killing off great ideas; in 2023, players organized a organized a petition on Change.org to overturn the massive vote, which was supported by more than 530,000 people.

The canceled event is part of a larger shift at Mojang that sees the team changing the frequency with which it engages with fans and the way in which the team releases updates. Instead of one big old Minecraft Live per year, the team will now do two, and each event will be a “more focused” broadcast with information about what the team is working on and general Minecraft news. In addition to the changes to community events, the team will also be changing the cadence for releasing new content. Rather than just offering one free update in the summer, the team will instead be releasing “a series of free game drops throughout the year.”

The post also emphasized that the team values ​​players’ thoughts on the game. “Not only does your feedback help inspire what comes next in the game, it also helps us iterate on features throughout development,” the post read. So while you may no longer be able to vote to add an adorable penguin to the game, there are at least some ways for players to provide feedback.