Jens Bergensten, one of the developers on Minecraft, has today revealed new information about the upcoming update to Minecraft.
Jens first announced that Mojang has decided to stick to the previously publicized release date for the Minecraft 1.3 update of the 1st of August. According to Jens the 1.3 update will fundamentally change the game engine, removing the typical single player element and turning multiplayer into the main game mode: this will of course allow for single player games but with the added extra of being able to invite friends into the game world.
Also in the update will be emeralds and the new trading system. Emeralds will allow players to buy and sell items to/from the AI villagers at the villages that randomly popular the game worlds. Unfortunately the modding API hasn’t made it into this update but apparently the game engine change is a big step towards it being added.
