3 Minecraft updates that failed to meet fan expectations

Minecraft has one of the longest and most active development periods of any game of all time. This has been a major contributing factor to the game's continued success, as new updates have brought new content, keeping the game exciting and fresh. A vast majority of this content is both welcomed and beloved by the community. However, not every update is remembered so fondly.

There haven't been many times where Mojang has dropped the ball, but the few disappointing Minecraft updates there have been are detailed below, along with what exactly made fans so upset with them.

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3 Minecraft updates that left fans feeling disappointed

The Combat Update

1.9 is by far the most hated Minecraft update (Images via Reddit)

The first of Minecraft's many updates to receive wide-scale backlash is 1.9, also known as the Combat Update. This update added end cities, elytra, beetroots, chorus fruits, shulkers, tipped arrows, and lingering potions, all of which are generally great additions.

However, this update also changed combat in a way that the entire Java community despises to this day. The major complaints are that the cooldown timer makes PvP artificially longer, extending fights unnecessarily and that the increased cooldown between attacks makes landing intense combos harder. This, in turn, leads to Minecraft PvP experiences that end up feeling slow and bland.

This sentiment is summed up several times throughout different comment sections on the issue: PvP post 1.9 just has a lower skill ceiling. This makes it much less fun at a competitive level.

Mojang has acknowledged the Java community's disappointment with PvP and released a few combat-oriented snapshots over the years, testing out potential solutions. Given that it has been some time since the last of these combat snapshots, only time will tell if Mojang is continuing to solve the problem.

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Caves and Cliffs

Initial disappointment was mostly for the delay itself, rather than the content (Images via Reddit)

Caves and Cliffs is an interesting set of updates. They represent the absolute highest highs of recent updates, but they are also emblematic of many of Mojang's development issues. Caves and Cliffs revamped world generation to the extreme it's at now, added lush caves, axolotls, dripstone caves, copper, amethyst, and deepslate, and also increased the world height by a significant amount.

Most of the initial disappointment came from Mojang's decision to split Caves and Cliffs into two separate updates. There were a significant number of people at the time who were reasonably frustrated that the caves and cliffs aspects of the Caves and Cliffs update wouldn't be added until the second half.

Part 2 most likely saw increased criticism from higher expectations as a result of the delay (Images via Reddit)

Caves and Cliffs Part 2, on the other hand, saw different criticisms. This time, the complaints were that the new cave systems, reduced air exposure, and ore distribution had made caves too resource-light. This resulted in players spending a huge amount of time caving just to get no resources in return.

Several comments even said they no longer bother mining or caving and just use villager trading to get diamond gear. Other complaints for Part 2 were that open caves were too common, making exploration dangerous. This was made even worse by the very common extreme mountain ranges.

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The Wild Update

The Wild Update was the final straw for many already frustrated fans (Images via YouTube/Reddit)

Unfortunately, the update right after Caves and Cliffs also isn't free of controversy and disappointment.

One of the biggest issues with the Wild Update is that it contained the Deep Dark and Minecraft's deadly warden mob. Well, the issue isn't that the update had the content; fans were glad to see it released, but there was inarguably disappointment that the biome and mob were getting delayed again since they were also originally planned for 1.17.

But the bigger issue, at least in terms of long-term damage to the community's trust in Mojang, is centered around the birch forest. There was a section of Minecraft Live 2021 where concept art for a revamped birch forest was shown off, and yet Mojang would go on to claim that they never promised the feature since concept art is not a commitment.

This single sentence might have been the worst hit to the community's trust in Mojang ever. There are still sentiments to this day that it doesn't really matter what Mojang shows off in trailers and announcements since they could arbitrarily decide to gut features at any time without warning.

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Thankfully, the two updates since, the first being Trails and Tales and the second being the upcoming Tricky Trials Minecraft update, have gone over much smoother. Mojang seems to have learned the hard way not to overpromise, opting instead to show off features as they're ready. This is a much healthier model that also keeps the community engaged as new features are slowly added to new snapshots.

Hopefully, these three disappointing updates remain the only ones of their kind, and more updates like the fan-favorite Minecraft 1.16 can come out instead.