According to a piece over at GamesIndustry, Mojang is planning to offer a subscription-based Minecraft server service based at families with younger children. ‘Minecraft Realms’ is said to be aimed at “parents who are tired of trying to act as server administrators on behalf of their kids,” in the words of Mojang’s Carl Manneh.
“Minecraft Realms will be a simpler kind of service, aimed at families and kids. In the future we aim to offer certain profiles with mods that are certified to work without crashing, but this will still be a safe and easy way for kids and families to play Minecraft online,” Manneh adds.
Subscribers will have access to a self-contained Minecraft world and given control over who may enter. Anyone who gets an invite to your ‘Realm’ will need a copy of Minecraft and an internet connection, but not a ‘Realms’ subscription themselves.
The server subscriptions will be priced at around $10-15 per month (though this number is not yet finalised.)
In further Minecraft news, update 1.5 (Redstone) is out now for the PC version of the game. The title should, as usual, self-update. Here’s what’s in the latest release:
+ Added Redstone Comparator (used in Redstone logic)
+ Added Hopper (collects items and moves them to containers)
+ Added Dropper (similar to Dispensers, but always drops the item)
+ Added Activator Rail (activates TNT Minecarts)
+ Added Daylight Sensor
+ Added Trapped Chest
+ Added Weighed Pressure Plate
+ Added Block of Redstone
+ Added Nether Brick (item)
+ Added Nether Quartz and ore
+ Added Block of Quartz, with half blocks and chiseled variants
+ New command: /scoreboard
+ New command: /effect
+ Containers and mobs can have custom names
* Inventory management has been changed, for example you can drag-place items over slots
* Texture packs now have separate images for each block and item, and can have animations
* Nether Quartz Ore now spawns in the Nether
* Smooth lighting now has three settings (none, minimal, maximum)
* More detailed death messages
* Some hostile mobs now are harder in Hard difficulty
* Many, many, bug fixes
– Removed Herobrine
