NOTE 1 : Audio tracks are available in Hindi, German, Spanish & French. Please let me know what you think of them! NOTE 2 : This video was finished a couple of weeks ago but moved due to timing issues, hence no mention of recent drama. NOTE 3 : I will be streaming in a couple of hours over on www.twitch.tv/xisuma < Please follow me to get notified!
Watched just a part of the German audio track (not to mention it was confusing at first since I didn't select it), but something that annoys me is that some things, especially numbers are in English. And it's not even fitting. Also, the formal Sie is not a good choice for a YT video
I think the German is pretty good. The grammar and vocabulary is mostly correct, albeit a bit formal at times. It mostly struggles with numbers like 1.5, 2016 and such. Doesn't translate them and just says them in English, which is a bit weird but still understandable!
I mean it's nice that they are available I guess. What's not so nice is that RUclips defaulted to German for me and I had to search for the option to switch back to English. I don't want to hear a computer voice translation when I could be listening to you talk. Is there a way to not make the translation the default?
It was really strange, because I didn't select the audio track, it automatically changed it. Personally, I don't like them, because if I watch a creator, then I also want to hear his voice, and this voice doesn't sound like your voice. But other people might find them practical.
5:33 The hints were already back in the Nether Update. Let's remember that Piglin Brutes had to wait until 1.16.2 because the devs weren't able to put them in time for 1.16 (and this isn't made up, the devs outright said it back then).
Weren't brutes decided later because bastions had many great loot and it was too easy to obtain them? So now, you have a dangerous encounter when you loot the bastion. I have never heard that they had a short deadline for the update
I'm curious to hear more about sustainability from you and your peers who have been doing full time RUclips for a decade. I've been making videos for just as long, but only went full time a year ago now. The RUclips burnout is real when it becomes your living! Perhaps Mojang and I could both learn a lot from the RUclipsrs who have been doing this the longest.
sustainability tends to mean flexibility Technology changes the lives of everyone, even ppl with no internet find themselves affected. Situations change all the times, what works today, may not tomorrow. look at what is not being tried, to find a gap
As neat as the new trailers are I think not making them *in-game* like the previous Hatfilms ones is a mistake because it can give a misleading impression of what the updates actually are like. You know, like most trailers. There's even youtube videos comically pointing out the difference by trying to recreate those scenes in vanilla minecraft.
Ive always hated the new animated trailers, mostly for the reason you stated. Its misleading. Makes it look better than it is. I want to see actual gameplay
not just that, the trailers then have little changes that make people hyped which is just an animation error. Remember bluestone? Or how about the splash effects?
I don't think the cycle needs to be longer. It's taking a year at this point, which is much longer than before the Microsoft Acquisition. I think they just need to focus less on promotion, marketing, and TRYING to get people to play the game and focus more on actual quality content
I think what they need is dynamic update schedules. Things that take a year should be promoted as such, things that take 6 months should do so, and things that need 2 years should do so.
@@Chulama-qk9fothe problem a lot of game companies run into is that they have unexpected delays and still try to stick to a promised release date, with unfinished features and game breaking issues as a result, sure delays and splitting content up is annoying, but it's better than having a long term world get irreparably bugged. The third way is give a very far away date and release it months after it's actually finished, in my opinion it's fine to just have it release when it's ready
@@laface2361 oh I meant like it should be released when it's ready as opposed to consistent yearly updates. The problem with yearly updates is that if a four month update takes a year to release, it becomes underwhelming (Trails and Tales), and if a two year update takes a year to release, it becomes overwhelming (Caves and Cliffs; there are still things missing from the update like bundles).
My theory about the phantom video not having as many views is because we’ve already had it for a while and people are wondering more about the other mobs. So I think that even though it has less views that shouldn’t be suspicious. We’d have to see the amount of views right before the mob vote to get unbiased results
Hey, spanish speaking person here, I just watched both the english and spanish versions of this video and to be honest it is really well made and understandable. Your point and opinions came across correctly and there weren't many errors apart from some numbers not translating but that's not really a major issue since they tend to be shown on screen at the same time. The only small tip i could give is with the name of updates, from my experience in the spanish minecraft community we tend to call the more recent updates by their english names, which of course the automatic translation wouldn't know. But other than that, genuine props, this is a really big step for you and I can tell you are doing it right.
It's probably one of THE biggest things that make games less interesting than their original concept, IMO. It tends to do that because of how many constraints or random requests (obligations) they tend to add onto the development because "marketable". It happens a lot where if the marketers can't think of a way to market a game... they think it's a bad game. Whereas in my opinion a good marketing team is meant to make the game marketing work, not change the game to make marketing it easier.
Makes sense in retrospect. The archeology update was basically a few structures and customizable pots, but the amount of hype that went into those two features made it sound like the update was going to be a total game changer.
I'm in marketing strategy myself, and Xisuma hits it right on the head. Sometimes we take our perceptions of what we think our consumers want, rather than listening to what they are saying they'll connect with. Mojang has gone flashy, colorful and marketing-deadline driven because that's Microsoft's formula for attracting new players (and specifically children players who will beg their parents to buy). They fit Minecraft in the family-friendly category compared to, say, Halo, and then apply the marketing ideas that fit that category. In my own company, marketing is often told to 'hurry up and wait' because the services are development-first. While it can get annoying when I want to make creative content for the product, I respect this way of doing things to get the best services for the client. Marketing doesn't get to decide what to make, the physicians and therapists do. Microsoft needs to understand what the Minecraft fan base is saying to them, and let the developers do their job before cranking the content machine.
I feel like mojang’s been focusing on getting people into the game, showing newer players all manner of appeal but not giving them much reason to stick around. A lot of features seem really interesting on paper and look really cool, but beyond looks and their concepts they’re pretty basic, cherry trees were highly requested and do look nice but beyond being another wood type, the most they bring to the table on a technical level is a new biome. People liked cherry trees because they imagine what they could do with it, now we know it’s just another tree, this time with pink wood, it’s not quite as interesting to many people (myself included). It’s like those tiny little bites of expensive food you get in fancy restaurants, they look incredible but they hardly fill you up at all. It’s neat to have things like sniffers and cherry blossoms but I’d rather be doing something a little more actively with them instead of letting them sit around and look pretty.
Agreed, especially with Sniffers. I made a 12-Sniffer farm after spending hours to get 2 eggs. My Sniffer herd is fairly productive, but there's not a lot to actually *do* with the seeds they find. It's effectively my slowest bonemeal farm. I don't regret making the farm, since I enjoy that sort of thing, but it's... underwhelming.
They did add the calibrated skulk sensors, which the redstoners may enjoy. Personally, I've found some things in modded I wouldn't mind having in vanilla, such as additional food types and recipes. I'd like to have chocolate in vanilla. All the pieces are already there, after all.
@@annawaite5527 they have a lot of old features they could use to spin into completely new features, it’s just they prefer adding new (and usually quite underwhelming) stuff for some reason. Why not give all of the trees seeds in place of apples? Perhaps have sunflowers as a crop rather than a simple flower? They’re all there, but mojang is blind I guess
Nail on the head. Everything they add looks nice and promising at first, but when you look into it, its all just decoriative items that do NOTHING. The players don't want that. We want functional stuff.
One thing I remember in the early days is that, due to being young and just not being aware, the only way I would find out about updates were through the launcher changelog; so every new update was a surprise to me. It was hard to complain when I had no idea what was being added, and any new content was a fun little gift.
The thing that upsets me the most about the marketing is the use of simplified textures and unbelievable lighting to make the game look better and more exciting that it actually is, which can be considered false advertising.
Team Fortress 2 is an interesting example to use, because one of the reasons that update happened was a bunch of high-profile community members making an open letter to Valve, and Valve excepted, if they hadn’t the game wouldn’t have received as much as it did. This could mean a similar response by having high profile figures in the Minecraft community speak out more, could do something, and this video is a good starting point.
The entire update is also 100% community made because like Minecraft, TF2 is an "Immortal" game. It's still thriving despite being infested with hackers and getting their last official update 6 years ago. I think Minecraft is simply "too big to fail", so Microsoft does whatever they can to milk it to death.
@@TipperProjectTF2's player numbers are hard to measure accurately. There are a lot of bot accounts that just idle to get random item drops to make profit.
You hit it right on the nail here. I recently just took a class on communications and learned that marketing is very closely tied with PR. Oftentimes the PR department tailors content before it is released on the company side. The unique thing about Minecraft though is its community, which is active to the point of being on par with Mojang’s promotional team, as you pointed out. It seems like the community and Mojang have different ideas and directions on where to take the game - this kind of dissonance could explain a large part of the mixed responses to updates, regardless of community feedback, if each update happens behind somewhat closed doors (though the effort clearly is there.)
I think youtubers add it in manually, but they have to paste in their script or something because the subtitle generation youtube has is not that accurate
this is a very pertinent point! I wonder: if they had left the youtube minecraft community continue promoting the game and the updates through more genuine excitment, and if they hadn't invested so much time and resources on their own channel / other projects, would they have been able to avoid the recent disappointments of update delays?
Minecraft has oddly had an issue of going from broad appeal to Microsoft trying to narrow and focus in on a younger audience. The simple always open development just kinda let the game be anything people wanted which was ideal to the game
They keep rolling real world nonsense into the game, too, like axing fireflies. The game is its own weird thing, and trying to bend it to a Cause hurts it.
It's worth noting for TF2 that TF2 has ALWAYS had blog posts/pages for updates, it's never deviated from that. Sure there have been update videos like Love and War and Jungle Inferno, but there's always been a blog post accompanying it explaining actual changes etc. Valve also communicates SIGNIFICANTLY less than Mojang and they're pretty much the only way to get information on the game other than through RUclipsrs making videos about it. I don't think it's a bad thing, and TF2 devs have said that it's better that way due to how the community always overhypes updates etc. And it would feel a bit disingenuous if there was a trailer etc for the recent summer update made by Valve when they didn't make any of the content present in the update (instead pulling stuff from the community workshop and implementing them). I do think that the whole marketing part of the process may be holding Mojang back, similar to what happens to Pokémon on a consistent basis. But I would rather see updates the way that Minecraft has had for years rather than the lack of updates since Blue Moon (2018) that Team Fortress 2 has had (I did really like the summer update, it's just that we haven't had any balance changes, or Valve made content in years). Grass is always greener on the other side I guess. Good video! Made me think a bit.
I will always look towards terraria for the gold standard of updates. They have had so many 'final updates' because the team loves working on the game and can't help but add more features.
Their community engagement is excellent as well. Red frequently jumps onto a social media platform to ask for suggestions for QoL changes or rebalances, and the teasers they share generate a lot of hype.
the devs for terraria also announce a new update a day or two before release, maybe earlier on their official social media accounts i'm not sure. i've never seen their actual accounts. i just know i randomly see an update for the game pop up every now and then on steam.
@@Daidan0 No, they announce when they're working on an update anywhere from a few months to two years before its finished, depending on the size. However, they only talk about upcoming updates on twitter, the official game forum, and sometimes reddit, and Relogic shows very little spoilers considering the size of Terraria's updates. They also don't have nearly as much pure marketing that hypes up the new version of the game, people get excited based off being told or even shown in-game features rather than having flashy, colorful trailers.
New sales of the game are what generate income for Java Edition. A player like me who bought the game nearly ten years ago for basically pocket change does not. So it is new players that pay for all my free updates. I see no problem with, in fact I encourage, the marketing towards a younger audience. That said, it is still essential to keep the existing player base happy as we generate a lot of free marketing for the game.
Pandering towards the young audience is a bad idea, just look at the new restrictions in "the name of children" and marketing to kids by adding cute animals that add zero substance whatsoever
@@EmperorPenguin1217idk, all the servers I've been playing on have those restrictions anyway, I doubt I'll feel that change much Though it's obviosly going to be different for other people
@@leochangesnamesthose are the *servers* and they can't ban you from the game altogether, plus on servers the community isn't consisting of millions of people, so it's easier to manage and avoid situations where someone just reported a person because they don't like that person, getting that person banned. Mojang shouldn't do the moderation instead of servers, that's just dumb
@@shadesoftime mb I should have clarified that I was talking about skins and names only, not chat, that's a whole other topic. I never said what they should or shouldn't do, I just noted that for some (likely most) players new reports are going to be inconsequential, so there's not going to be as much pushback. I even saw people actually liking this change. Plus, how are we going to stop them, not buy their products? Most of us already don't. I also suspect that the whole reporting thing was done so that they can say "we tried" in case something horrible related to mc becomes widely public. I know way too many cases of grown ppl messaging kids they met through minecraft, one of such stories is going to come to light eventually, and Mojang wants to be prepared for that.
All marketing teams need to be fired or kept in check, this seems like an issue in the wider corporate space, marketing doesn’t understand what a good or bad product is they are just there to sell it to you.
I somewhat jokingly refer to 1.20 as Caves and Cliffs Part 4, because they added yet another one of the features originally promised for 1.17, and, in my experience, I can't really tell the difference between playing on 1.19 and playing on 1.20.
These are some well thought out points. I find them ironic in my world, because I literally pay 0 attention to any Minecraft marketing, relying entirely on my favorite content creators to keep me up to date with current Minceraft events. I also have loved all the recent updates with new terrain generation, increased world height, and additional mobs, blocks, and structures. However, it only takes me a day or 2 to encounter all of these things, and then it's back to MC-Grind as usual. What I'm saying is, the marketing hype is wasted on me, and the new features seem to have very little lasting impact. I wish, as I'm sure many other players do, that Mojang would implement quality of life improvements. I would love to see stairs, slabs, and walls for all "building blocks" (like terracotta and concrete). I'd also like to see Mojang scrap the "bundle", and look to some of the backpack and storage mods out there for inspiration. As for timing of releases: as a professional software developer myself, I understand the push and pull between release when ready (RWR) and release predictably. I always favor RWR, but I rely on the "product team" to decide the release cycle. I think Mojang can figure that part out well enough.
A thought about marketing occurs: The original content creators who have followed the game since its inception will be leaving the community in the coming years, and it may be necessary to excite new content creators with the marketing hype. It may be the case that even people who get their "update news" from content creators are being indirectly affected by the hype as creators essentially "forward" the hype to their viewers.
They hype up the updates, they take a long time to deliver them and when they come out the game barely changes or improves. As a mostly single player gamer, it's been a long time since I was really excited to get back into game to do anything.
I really like the mini promotions they have, like the funny epic nature videos on each biome. They are promotional, interesting (even if you know all the gameplay details already), and above all realistic to the actual game.
Regarding the (german) translation: Despite sounding robotic and some stuff (especially names and years) being pronounced weirdly, it is quite understandable. An interesting experiment for sure.
I think another issue could be that we know too much we learn about the feature and it’s functions before it comes out leaving little room to explore and find out about it on your own. Though maybe it’s not really a issue idk it’s a thought that came to mind
It's a bit of an issue, but you can choose to not follow snapshots if you want to. They, however, cannot give up snapshots since it's the biggest part of their testing process, updates would be even less polished without them.
I will say, a lot of the promotional material is STILL made by commissioning fans of the game. A lot of the animated content is made by Element Animations, famous for their "Egg's Guide to Minecraft" and "Villager News" skit and story animations. The quality jump has just been HUGE. Their channel was actually struggling before Mojang picked them up and started commissioning them, so as someone who was following them for years before their Minecraft content I appreciate it a lot. It's great that they get to keep doing this stuff.
Id rather have hat films trailers though. The production value of the new ones is higher, no doubt, but hat films trailers were brilliantly cheesy and I love them
Whilst I completely understand that as a game grows in popularity things are gonna change with things like advertising and promotion, but that’s the problem. Saying the game is getting too big simply isn’t an excuse. If it’s changing at the expense of the core values is it being done properly? I don’t think the problem is that the community are simply finding problems with the last eat updates, Mojang have done great updates in the past such as Update Aquatic and the Nether Update. It’s clear to see the content in the latest updates seem to be very lacking.
Super insightful video as always! I guess with the evolution of their marketing it's also important to consider the evolution of the RUclips platform. Most RUclips channels made around that time will have no doubt experienced a similar change. With their audience being so diverse I guess it puts a lot of pressure on the directors, devs, and marketing to create not only great content but also a game that ticks every box which imo is simply just the natural outcome of a wildly popular game. Deadlines can mean many things, for some they're intimidating but for others, they can be empowering to have a goal to work towards. As always, super excited to see what they do next!
Love the new audio track feature, was playing around switching between languages. Love how the Spanish track translates "Xbox three-sixty" to "Xbox three hundred and sixty"
I would understand why they would heavily promote the game's updates if they were paid for DLC's due to the need for a return on investment. But I wonder if they are doing this in the hope of getting the projected long-term financial return when Microsoft had acquired Mojang. It might also explain why the two divisions within Mojang (Bedrock and Java) seem so diametrically opposed in their approaches in how they manage the game and how they operate.
Also, it's funny how the actions of the marketing team appear to have the opposite effect in pleasing those who already play it. Perhaps Mojang should stop being so contrived in how they come across?
As demonstrated when they had to delay an update over covid, the community are more than happy to wait for an update, so doing it annually is just for business/shareholder reasons.
I clicked on the video and was startled by Xisuma's voice in Spanish 😂. The translation is great, the only issue is numbers not translating. For example, it says 2011 as "twenty-eleven" instead of the spanish number. Same happens with the update numbers. But other than that it's a very good video!
It's just regular game company marketing. The hype around the product is always more important than the product itself. It's not meant to be sustainable in the long term, a newer, bigger, shiner thing is supposed to show up every couple of years to replace the old. Of course, Mojang can't replace Minecraft, so it has to rely on hype cycles to drive merch sales, the real moneymaker. Like all companies, Mojang is also legally obligated to its investors to maximise profits or go to court. As a result, Minecraft becomes more of a product than a community.
I would love nothing more than a quality of life or inventory management update. Not every update has to be some overwhelming new thing which I think marketing it, pushes for bigger, when better may be the more preferred option. A simple update such as birds and bugs, adding a few new mobs that there are not really like any others, but at the heart is about sorting out some of the underlying inventory and QOL features would be a nice compliment.
I play hours of minecraft every day and I feel like I am always an update behind. I am still enjoying and exploring 1.19 features when this update came out. I dont think they need to rush new content at all. I almost feel overwhelmed when they add a million new things too often.
All I want is to be able to explore without needing to get a shulker farm. Look at the trail ruins. Three double chests of stuff I will use one day, but 5k from my house
For what it's worth, there's a very simple two-shulker farm by Mod Stop out there. I was avoiding a shulker farm for a long time after watching those beautiful but crazy complex ones on Hermitcraft, but I made this Mod Stop one and let it run overnight to great success. I did add some safety features to make it easier to AFK, but it was really easy.
@@arcticcmonkeyTo be able to move stuff? There's no early / mid game option for moving items*. You have to run the same decade old progression curve of nether -> stronghold -> dragon -> end city. * Bundles sort of help for stackable low quantity, high variety loot, but not much else, and that's only on java with experimental features enabled..
theyre even easier on bedrock and i have one in the overworld, but i shouldnt have had to make one justy to carry the stuff i got in the first 30 minutes on the world@@ProjectKhopesh
Phantom likely has so few views because its already in the game, hence new players would watch the others to see what they would have been like after the fact.
I will mention that it does not surprise me that the phantom mob vote has the lowest. Views are probably including the many many people who watched the other three just to see "what could have been" without bothering to watch the phantom one, as phantoms are already in the game.
Always a proponent of game companies prioritizing community experience and quality of life over big flashy new stuff for marketing reasons. A longer dev cycle as needed and more focus on fundamental features like inventory management would make long-time player happy I'm sure, but I must admit that the younger, newer players tend to respond very well to flashy marketing and quantity-over-quality marketing strategies. Is this good for long term stability? I kind of doubt it, but it probably does look good in terms of player-base growth statistics. I would be very interested to see Mojang's behind the scene systems for deciding update features/focuses.
You want to make a huge part of the user base happy with an update you do 2 things. 1. Make a game rule for PvP. That way people & servers can decide with ease what type of PvP they want. 2. Vertical slabs. Builders have been asking for that for a long time, and it would be a big change allowing for some creative builds.
Not sure if focusing on technical changes to the game would be well perceived by the community, even though they are very much needed. Still a lot of people are mad that there wasn't much added in the busy bees update (that focused mostly on fixes)
I have been working on a video about issues regarding Minecraft and this was one I did not consider! I will make sure to put the proper citations as you bring on some very good points.
Regarding deadlines: In my personal opinion, I see deadlines as a development tool to make sure the Minecraft team actually delivers on the content they want to. Without deadlines, there's no end goal, and feature creep steps in In my personal opinion, if the result of a deadline is cut or split content, that's a symptom of bad planning and scoping, and the deadline has done its job of highlighting that and from there the development team can figure out how to better plan & scope the next update ^- Just my personal opinions
It’s the over promise, absolutely. I feel like if the devs had more control over the marketing, they wouldn’t be having mixed reviews at all. The devs should absolutely have control over setting the deadlines and expectations, when and which announcements are made. The marketing machine is pushing the devs by over promising what can actually be delivered. Marketing only works if you deliver what you promise. You risk losing the trust of your community otherwise. The marketing machine is not what any of the longtime viewers or players are here for. We are here for the game, which means we are really here for the devs.
It's pretty cool that you're trying to make your videos more accessible. I hope you get the kinks worked out so it's not only accessible, but enjoyable. My video played in English like it was supposed to. I'm not sure that it played in a different language for so many people is on you though. Maaaaybe it's location related, but i lean toward it being a setting issue on thee people that had that happen. Idk.
While I know it's not the point of the video I wanted to address a small thing that is worth considering. You mention the Phantom having the fewest views of the Mob Vote options as being 'curious'. These view counts are from years after the Phantom was added, every player learns about the Phantom first hand in the game but might be curious to learn more about the other proposals.
I think when it comes to 'major added content' the ideas are long in the making i.e caves and cliffs. They know long term the game direction but not x realeased on z year. So it makes sense if deadlines impact how much can be developed to give a good update theme but still head in the goal direction
Please I beg they release an update to the server files to improve performance. Multithreading has been a feature request for years and would seriously help in getting more players to venture away from 1.12.2 for modded minecraft, arguably the main reason the game is still popular.
One issue that is often missed is that there's multiple versions of the game. (Java & Bedrock) This itself can cause issues with the sorts of features that end up being added. Bundles for example will probably never be available by default due to limitations on other platforms such as mobile. Then there's the combat update, trying to come up with an engaging/balanced combat system that works for both mouse/keyboard and controllers isn't going to be easy and is most likely why we haven't heard anything about the combat rework for a few years. Another issue is down to the overall direction. I've always seen Minecraft as a survival game but more often than not, the majority of features that get added don't actually enhance the survival gameplay. Don't get me wrong, its nice to have new building materials but it's always been new gameplay that makes me jump back in. I think they need to focus on new survival based mechanics that can be enabled/disabled via gamerules. These could be a more complex hunger system (maybe even including thirst), perhaps a more complex cooking system to go with it. The proposed changes to the villagers could easily be a gamerule that more casual players can disable.
I am very pro gamerule additions. I think there should be a default so people can just press play, but there should be tons of gamerules for different gameplay. One reason I liked Ark Survival Evolved was because there were so many things you could tweak. I don't care if there are 1,000 gamerules, I want em all.
minecraft has always been a sandbox game, with a mode that adds survival and resource managament elements. it's never really been a true survival game, because it isnt one. I think it can be fun if made into a survival game, but only fun for a select audiance. you'd lose a lot more than you'd gain by making minecraft's 'survival' more complex or more survival oriented. great for modpacks but terrible for vanilla. its the same for other directions that the game just isnt. it's not an mmo, not an rpg, not some boss rush game, it's not a progression oriented game at all it's a casual sandbox with survival and resource management elements
@@Sopsy_Hallow being a sandbox just means the player has the freedom to do what they want in a non linear fashion without any real goal. Most survival games are sandbox to some degree. I've been playing since the nether was first added back in beta over 10 years ago and I can still remember the feeling of my first few nights. It was scary and terrifying. Survival was the only option. Survival mode should be as the name suggests, survival.
I'm not sure it's as clear cut as the marketing deadlines. Pokemon has a problem of marketing deadlines. They have to put out new ENTIRE NEW games every 1-2 years. But the thing is, Minecraft is no where near as complex to develop as Pokemon is. On top of that, Mojang isn't even developing new games, rather just incremental updates. And we have proof that it's not hard to develop because modders have added "new" features in weeks (The mobs from the mob votes were added the very next day from their reveal). Mojang still haven't added any of the vote backlog. It seems their aim is to specifically generate controversy. We need to remember Microsofts core business practices after all. Pokemon is the best selling video game franchise in history. And the one thing it does have in common with Minecraft is: In recent times, both of their main business strategies is exploiting kids who don't know any better.
Anyone complaining about the updates should realize that this game is over 10 years old and they're not charging you for updates which is nothing like any other game out there. So just enjoy what you get
This explains my recent dissatisfaction with the game. I remember Minecraft many years ago when I didn't know anything about when the new update would be or what was even in it. I like the mystery it would bring. Minecraft now is too over-hyped and underwhelming with the features that are delivered. I think it's way too flashy and In your face now. I also feel like there is so much going on that it is hard to even get started without being overwhelmed and not playing anymore.
I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sold on Xisuma’s Team Fortress 2 analogy simply because Valve essentially abandoned the game for YEARS, allowing the casual mode to become infested with bots and providing no real meat with any updates save for new cosmetics. Valve didn’t even do most of the work for the most recent update, instead opting to use a COMMUNITY created game mode as the central focus. If anything, TF2’s success is almost exclusively because of it’s fanbase and enjoyable gameplay, having little to do with the games marketing right now. (not saying the marketing has never helped, just that we haven’t seen a proper TF2 sfm from Valve for a while now)
i remember an old trailer for the patch that introduced desert pyramids and jungle biomes, made by Basherverse i think. Sadly i think it's been lost to time, can't find it these days. had a whole mini song to it too.
Yes, but IMO the challenge Minecraft is facing is that they can't do things like they used to not only because of marketing, but also the community, and the community isn't one blob, it's a multitude of different communities that have vastly different aspects that they like and want to be taken into consideration with every new feature. Every single feature they add now has to consider things like creative, survival, hardcore, flat world, peaceful, skyblock, building/redston/combat/adventure - focused players, Minecraft content creators, modded (to a certain extend), compatibility with worlds from the previous version, performance impact, support for all the platforms MC is on, etc. and those are just the hard facts, then there are more soft considerations like accessibility, representation, how appropriate something is for all age groups in all countries that play the game, responsibility, could this feature lead to problems in the future?, etc. If you look at some things that were added early in the game and view it from todays perspective and ask yourself, would it still be possible to add this today, then I think you'll find a lot of things that you can find good arguments for why it shouldn't be added to the game, considering the aforementioned criteria. Invisible spider where you can only barely see the glowing eyes? Players wont understand what is happening. Half slaps and stairs? Complicating the data structure so much. Creeper? A penis shaped suicide bomber enemy?!?!? So you have a ton of Mojang developers, Microsoft marketing people, and all these different player types world wide, all wanting to be heard and taken into consideration, and everyone is pulling on Minecraft to try and nudge it more in the direction of their own vision for the game and its future. What you end up with is a game designed by committee. ( There is the saying "A camel is a horse designed by committee.", so maybe the Mojang devs even hinted at this themselves with the latest update xD )
Hmm. I do think either way we have to emphasize their dedication to the backend code they have been optimizing. They absolutely do the work that is nice to have but never will be directly marketed. It is an interesting question though, I mean how long ago was it brought up that combat was being looked at? iirc there was an experiment branch, maybe I just assumed something would actually come of it but they should know even just mentioning something to your consumers they of course will expect more eventually.
I find it interesting how the feature for the latest update that i have heard most people praise is the improved lighting engine. I really think that a gamplay update would be really good. Just work on combat, inventory management and performance.
I watched your video on german (well the first minute) and I think its great that you try new features as I havent seen this anywhere else! But I think that this technology needs to be refined. It was really weird (but that isnt really bad as everything thats new is weird, like people say "thats not minecrafty") and it sounds very mechanical, like a robot. In general I dont think I will listen to the german versions of videos but thats not only because of quality but rather as a method to improve my english 😅
Bastante decente el audio en el español. Hay detalles que pulir. Comenzando desde como va diciendo las versiones del juego en ingles, ejemplo: "one point twenty" en vez de "uno veinte" como lo diría cualquier hispanohablante. La forma en la que menciona "Mojang" entre por menores. Buen vídeo como siempre X🎉.
The word I'd use for the misdirection in development is "Boutique'ing" ... it's the same problem MOST mainstream media suffers from whether they are pandering to a niche Convenience or a niche Theme. They are in effect: putting "Form" as their 1 and only priority at the expense of all of the "Replayable" Functionality and imagination that their franchise was once built on.
Been playing since 2012 and gotta say, the new updates feel like they are coming at a breakneck speed compared to before and the updates with lots of stuff don't feel as meaningful as before. I remember when they added diorite, andesite, and granite and just how game changing that was. We had a long time to digest and get used to those before another major update like that. Now it feels like I need to reset my world every year or so to keep up with all the new stuff and I haven't even been able to fully digest the stuff that came out before.
I disagree with the idea of longer update cycles. In my view, it's about actively listening to the community and shedding some of the bureaucracy that cropped up following Microsoft's takeover. Minecraft updates were never flawless, but they consistently made improvements. In the earlier days, they didn't repeatedly postpone things or scrap concepts like fireflies. Opting for longer update cycles could potentially invite more bureaucratic challenges. In the end, we might find only a handful of changes in the game. While I value quality over quantity, finding the right balance is key. It's challenging to maintain quality when processes become too internalized and structured. This situation parallels major social media platforms like RUclips, which also struggle with slow updates and disconnection from the community. I do recognize that game design is likely more complex than I'm portraying it, but it's interesting that modders, often working solo, manage to create content at a quicker pace, albeit sometimes with slightly lower quality. This suggests that a certain level of agility and responsiveness can be achieved even without massive resources. In a rapidly evolving gaming landscape, where player preferences and technological advancements can shift swiftly, it seems important to maintain a balance between the intricacies of game design and the dynamic expectations of the community. Shorter update cycles, like the weekly snapshots used to do, could facilitate testing features, gathering feedback, and even experimenting with different branches like the PvP snapshots. Such an approach could offer a more adaptable and engaging experience for players.
Y thought i was crazy when i heared Xisuma talking in spanish 😂. Really cool add to the video, i think is accurate but i still have to whatch it in both languages to be sure. Nice video like always 😃.
wow you're right about this, consistent updates do not mean they are good, but that's exactly what a marketing plan is built on, highly predictable and consistent updates. it does look like the game is turning more to a marketed experience instead of a gameplay experience. Someone in game development recently talked about how marketing people tend to rise the ranks in game development companies and end up driving features and development at large. Their intentions and experience is entirely counter to real game development. I hope Minecraft won't go down the EA/ Blizzard path and start putting marketing teams in charge of feature development.
On the note of the AI dubbed voice, I like Xisuma's content for being clear and close to heart, The AI voice for as much as the technology improves (right now it is feels like a fancy voice to speech which soon will take over a more realistic approach for sure) it will never stop feeling unfamiliar and unnerving, I'm sure it will help on the reach out for sure, but I find it hard to feel that human made connection with the content if a robot is going to generate it. I'm native spanish speaker and I love learning other languages by watching and listening to others, thankfully youtube still allows me to switch it back to english. Cheers!
Somehow i'f listened to the video and didn't understand a thing. Usually I subconsciously understand you video even when im doing other stuff in the meantime. But the German Versions threw me of so bad i didn't understand a thing if i wasn't listening to it precisely. ( It probably was because the strange robotic voice) Despite this and the translation of the universal "you" into the polite verion ("Sie" In the sense of: you may sit now.) I find it pretty interesting to see what AI enables us to do now and in the future. If you plan on using this tool in future videos you could maybe have some people look over the script again (if possible). I understand that that's a lot to ask but i believe it would higher the quality a lot. Other than that its a nice thing you experiment with these features :) Now im gonna watch it in english again to understand what you said 😅
I'm pretty sure the marketing team is different from the dev team... But even if that's true, its pretty clear that some of the top devs (such as Jeb and Agnes) are directly involved in a lot of the marketing, as well as the dev diaries. So they're STILL spread pretty thin. I don't think most people even watch those advertisement videos, and most of the hype comes from the snapshot updates on RUclips.
My personal favorite way to get up to date on Minecraft, through RUclips, has to be YourMCAdmin's update songs. Even long after the features mentioned in them are outdated, I still find myself singing them to myself. He's been doing them since 1.3 and has released them the day before each update released when he could, except for 1.4 I don't know why he skipped it. He really deserves more subscribers even though he only uploads for updates nowadays. You should invite him to join Hermitcraft? He's shown interest when I've asked him and the comment got a lot of likes so his fans agree.
I dont play Minecraft anymore.... but still consume content. I like the behind the scenes stuff Mojang puts out, as well as the update stuff... but because I no longer play, I no longer find lets plays, building tutorials or speed runs enjoyable to watch :/ I think this is just a result of ppls preferences having changed... Perhapse.... you could do some vids about the marching cubes algorithm??? Or game design and mechanic vids ???
This video is basically saying what I've been thinking for a long time. I would love an update focused on performance, code clean-up, and modding improvements but that likely won't happen since it's easier to market new gameplay than performance. I get the feeling that the yearly release update also puts strain on the devs and doesn't give them the time to implement anything more than new blocks, items, and mobs.
Not to mention the gargantuan amount of features that are sort of obscure nowadays due to how badly they were initially designed or how something new pushed them off. For instance, I keep forgetting that pandas are even in the game, people rarely have horses, horse armour is abundant, frost walker, etc. Many of those features shouldn't've been in the game to begin with, and some were killed off by newer ones(like horses, which got replaced completely by elytras). I imagine the sniffer will be like that too in a couple of years because it's hard to get and barely serves any purpose
You're one of the few to bring up this point, since marketing tactics can be kinda invisible to most people. It can be modified, but it ain't going away. Having a good online presence is super important to Mojang, and the update trailers are great for *showing* what the new stuff will look like, not just *telling* it in a blog post. Also it most likely isn't taking away from development, as the marketing team is smaller. It's just a part of video game culture now.
I don't really get the dissatisfaction. What other game is cheap to start with them keeps giving free new updates and DLC 15 years later? They also do a decent job of involving the community - props to Mojang
NOTE 1 : Audio tracks are available in Hindi, German, Spanish & French. Please let me know what you think of them!
NOTE 2 : This video was finished a couple of weeks ago but moved due to timing issues, hence no mention of recent drama.
NOTE 3 : I will be streaming in a couple of hours over on www.twitch.tv/xisuma < Please follow me to get notified!
Watched just a part of the German audio track (not to mention it was confusing at first since I didn't select it), but something that annoys me is that some things, especially numbers are in English. And it's not even fitting. Also, the formal Sie is not a good choice for a YT video
I think the German is pretty good. The grammar and vocabulary is mostly correct, albeit a bit formal at times. It mostly struggles with numbers like 1.5, 2016 and such. Doesn't translate them and just says them in English, which is a bit weird but still understandable!
How can I get rid of it for the future without changing the apps language? It sounded horrible and I don't want to hear it again.
I mean it's nice that they are available I guess. What's not so nice is that RUclips defaulted to German for me and I had to search for the option to switch back to English.
I don't want to hear a computer voice translation when I could be listening to you talk.
Is there a way to not make the translation the default?
It was really strange, because I didn't select the audio track, it automatically changed it. Personally, I don't like them, because if I watch a creator, then I also want to hear his voice, and this voice doesn't sound like your voice. But other people might find them practical.
5:33 The hints were already back in the Nether Update. Let's remember that Piglin Brutes had to wait until 1.16.2 because the devs weren't able to put them in time for 1.16 (and this isn't made up, the devs outright said it back then).
Oh thats a great point, well remembered :-)
No idea why the time between 1.16 and 1.16.2 wasnt enough for them to realize the feature is garbage
Weren't brutes decided later because bastions had many great loot and it was too easy to obtain them? So now, you have a dangerous encounter when you loot the bastion.
I have never heard that they had a short deadline for the update
@@shadesoftimewhat feature? The brutes*? You are delusional.
@@shadesoftime I disagree. The great loot in bastions fully deserves to have great guardians, and ordinary piglins were not up to the task.
I'm curious to hear more about sustainability from you and your peers who have been doing full time RUclips for a decade.
I've been making videos for just as long, but only went full time a year ago now. The RUclips burnout is real when it becomes your living!
Perhaps Mojang and I could both learn a lot from the RUclipsrs who have been doing this the longest.
Hi mog
I’d love to see Mogswamp in a superflat Season 10 of Hc
Imagine being the 3rd reply on a Mogswamp comment
sustainability tends to mean flexibility
Technology changes the lives of everyone, even ppl with no internet find themselves affected.
Situations change all the times, what works today, may not tomorrow. look at what is not being tried, to find a gap
hi
As neat as the new trailers are I think not making them *in-game* like the previous Hatfilms ones is a mistake because it can give a misleading impression of what the updates actually are like. You know, like most trailers. There's even youtube videos comically pointing out the difference by trying to recreate those scenes in vanilla minecraft.
It would be cool if the game actually looked like the trailers
Ive always hated the new animated trailers, mostly for the reason you stated. Its misleading. Makes it look better than it is. I want to see actual gameplay
@@Luukskywalkeranother art style change? I'm still recoiling from the first one
not just that, the trailers then have little changes that make people hyped which is just an animation error.
Remember bluestone? Or how about the splash effects?
@@hello-xm5il :-P
I agree with your thinking. A longer update cycle would be better for both Mojang and the community as a whole
I don't think the cycle needs to be longer. It's taking a year at this point, which is much longer than before the Microsoft Acquisition. I think they just need to focus less on promotion, marketing, and TRYING to get people to play the game and focus more on actual quality content
@@brevortofficial That and not aiming to release a update at specific times of the year.
I think what they need is dynamic update schedules. Things that take a year should be promoted as such, things that take 6 months should do so, and things that need 2 years should do so.
@@Chulama-qk9fothe problem a lot of game companies run into is that they have unexpected delays and still try to stick to a promised release date, with unfinished features and game breaking issues as a result, sure delays and splitting content up is annoying, but it's better than having a long term world get irreparably bugged.
The third way is give a very far away date and release it months after it's actually finished, in my opinion it's fine to just have it release when it's ready
@@laface2361 oh I meant like it should be released when it's ready as opposed to consistent yearly updates. The problem with yearly updates is that if a four month update takes a year to release, it becomes underwhelming (Trails and Tales), and if a two year update takes a year to release, it becomes overwhelming (Caves and Cliffs; there are still things missing from the update like bundles).
My theory about the phantom video not having as many views is because we’ve already had it for a while and people are wondering more about the other mobs. So I think that even though it has less views that shouldn’t be suspicious. We’d have to see the amount of views right before the mob vote to get unbiased results
That's true. Using the wayback machine you can see that initially they all had around 120K views, with Mob D actually having less views than Mob B
Hey, spanish speaking person here, I just watched both the english and spanish versions of this video and to be honest it is really well made and understandable.
Your point and opinions came across correctly and there weren't many errors apart from some numbers not translating but that's not really a major issue since they tend to be shown on screen at the same time.
The only small tip i could give is with the name of updates, from my experience in the spanish minecraft community we tend to call the more recent updates by their english names, which of course the automatic translation wouldn't know.
But other than that, genuine props, this is a really big step for you and I can tell you are doing it right.
Never thought about how marketing might be the reason recent updates are mostly getting worse
I see you everywhere
Recent updates aren’t getting worse. It’s literally just 1.20 that is the most overhyped piece of dog water.
As Jason said, maybe not worse, just that the expectations were increased too much.
It's probably one of THE biggest things that make games less interesting than their original concept, IMO. It tends to do that because of how many constraints or random requests (obligations) they tend to add onto the development because "marketable".
It happens a lot where if the marketers can't think of a way to market a game... they think it's a bad game. Whereas in my opinion a good marketing team is meant to make the game marketing work, not change the game to make marketing it easier.
Makes sense in retrospect. The archeology update was basically a few structures and customizable pots, but the amount of hype that went into those two features made it sound like the update was going to be a total game changer.
Xisuma throwing shade at phantoms never gets old haha
I'm in marketing strategy myself, and Xisuma hits it right on the head. Sometimes we take our perceptions of what we think our consumers want, rather than listening to what they are saying they'll connect with. Mojang has gone flashy, colorful and marketing-deadline driven because that's Microsoft's formula for attracting new players (and specifically children players who will beg their parents to buy). They fit Minecraft in the family-friendly category compared to, say, Halo, and then apply the marketing ideas that fit that category. In my own company, marketing is often told to 'hurry up and wait' because the services are development-first. While it can get annoying when I want to make creative content for the product, I respect this way of doing things to get the best services for the client. Marketing doesn't get to decide what to make, the physicians and therapists do. Microsoft needs to understand what the Minecraft fan base is saying to them, and let the developers do their job before cranking the content machine.
The problem is that the Minecraft community is so big that it's impossible to "Take heed" because they all ask for different things.
I feel like mojang’s been focusing on getting people into the game, showing newer players all manner of appeal but not giving them much reason to stick around. A lot of features seem really interesting on paper and look really cool, but beyond looks and their concepts they’re pretty basic, cherry trees were highly requested and do look nice but beyond being another wood type, the most they bring to the table on a technical level is a new biome. People liked cherry trees because they imagine what they could do with it, now we know it’s just another tree, this time with pink wood, it’s not quite as interesting to many people (myself included). It’s like those tiny little bites of expensive food you get in fancy restaurants, they look incredible but they hardly fill you up at all. It’s neat to have things like sniffers and cherry blossoms but I’d rather be doing something a little more actively with them instead of letting them sit around and look pretty.
Agreed, especially with Sniffers. I made a 12-Sniffer farm after spending hours to get 2 eggs. My Sniffer herd is fairly productive, but there's not a lot to actually *do* with the seeds they find. It's effectively my slowest bonemeal farm. I don't regret making the farm, since I enjoy that sort of thing, but it's... underwhelming.
They did add the calibrated skulk sensors, which the redstoners may enjoy. Personally, I've found some things in modded I wouldn't mind having in vanilla, such as additional food types and recipes. I'd like to have chocolate in vanilla. All the pieces are already there, after all.
@@annawaite5527 they have a lot of old features they could use to spin into completely new features, it’s just they prefer adding new (and usually quite underwhelming) stuff for some reason. Why not give all of the trees seeds in place of apples? Perhaps have sunflowers as a crop rather than a simple flower? They’re all there, but mojang is blind I guess
Nail on the head.
Everything they add looks nice and promising at first, but when you look into it, its all just decoriative items that do NOTHING. The players don't want that. We want functional stuff.
@@ProjectKhopesh what even is the point in sniffers anyways, other than the plants they can find?
One thing I remember in the early days is that, due to being young and just not being aware, the only way I would find out about updates were through the launcher changelog; so every new update was a surprise to me. It was hard to complain when I had no idea what was being added, and any new content was a fun little gift.
The thing that upsets me the most about the marketing is the use of simplified textures and unbelievable lighting to make the game look better and more exciting that it actually is, which can be considered false advertising.
Team Fortress 2 is an interesting example to use, because one of the reasons that update happened was a bunch of high-profile community members making an open letter to Valve, and Valve excepted, if they hadn’t the game wouldn’t have received as much as it did.
This could mean a similar response by having high profile figures in the Minecraft community speak out more, could do something, and this video is a good starting point.
The entire update is also 100% community made because like Minecraft, TF2 is an "Immortal" game. It's still thriving despite being infested with hackers and getting their last official update 6 years ago. I think Minecraft is simply "too big to fail", so Microsoft does whatever they can to milk it to death.
Also a fact not mentioned is after this update TF2 has it's highest concurrent ever player base
@@TipperProjectTF2's player numbers are hard to measure accurately. There are a lot of bot accounts that just idle to get random item drops to make profit.
@that_leaflet yes but the player count spiked hugely when the update released
@@michaelo4476 Which could also mean a lot more bots spun up to get new cosmetic crates.
You hit it right on the nail here. I recently just took a class on communications and learned that marketing is very closely tied with PR. Oftentimes the PR department tailors content before it is released on the company side. The unique thing about Minecraft though is its community, which is active to the point of being on par with Mojang’s promotional team, as you pointed out. It seems like the community and Mojang have different ideas and directions on where to take the game - this kind of dissonance could explain a large part of the mixed responses to updates, regardless of community feedback, if each update happens behind somewhat closed doors (though the effort clearly is there.)
I just wanna say, I was very confused when Xisuma started speaking German😂
Ikr i thought it was just a clip he was pasting in at first
Wait is the AI thing automatically generated by RUclips or is it something RUclipsrs can add manually?
I think youtubers add it in manually, but they have to paste in their script or something because the subtitle generation youtube has is not that accurate
I was jumpscared by French xisuma
this is a very pertinent point! I wonder: if they had left the youtube minecraft community continue promoting the game and the updates through more genuine excitment, and if they hadn't invested so much time and resources on their own channel / other projects, would they have been able to avoid the recent disappointments of update delays?
Minecraft has oddly had an issue of going from broad appeal to Microsoft trying to narrow and focus in on a younger audience.
The simple always open development just kinda let the game be anything people wanted which was ideal to the game
Yeah I noticed that when all the colourful art began appearing all over the brand.
the recent updates on the eula and chat/skin/name reporting, further supports the focus on younger audiences
In the ened the amout of money they can make from one or the other strategy will decide what path they will go down on.
you would think they would realize that this might harm them over time since their average player age is 24 according to a quick search.
They keep rolling real world nonsense into the game, too, like axing fireflies. The game is its own weird thing, and trying to bend it to a Cause hurts it.
It's worth noting for TF2 that TF2 has ALWAYS had blog posts/pages for updates, it's never deviated from that. Sure there have been update videos like Love and War and Jungle Inferno, but there's always been a blog post accompanying it explaining actual changes etc. Valve also communicates SIGNIFICANTLY less than Mojang and they're pretty much the only way to get information on the game other than through RUclipsrs making videos about it. I don't think it's a bad thing, and TF2 devs have said that it's better that way due to how the community always overhypes updates etc. And it would feel a bit disingenuous if there was a trailer etc for the recent summer update made by Valve when they didn't make any of the content present in the update (instead pulling stuff from the community workshop and implementing them).
I do think that the whole marketing part of the process may be holding Mojang back, similar to what happens to Pokémon on a consistent basis. But I would rather see updates the way that Minecraft has had for years rather than the lack of updates since Blue Moon (2018) that Team Fortress 2 has had (I did really like the summer update, it's just that we haven't had any balance changes, or Valve made content in years).
Grass is always greener on the other side I guess. Good video! Made me think a bit.
I will always look towards terraria for the gold standard of updates. They have had so many 'final updates' because the team loves working on the game and can't help but add more features.
Their community engagement is excellent as well. Red frequently jumps onto a social media platform to ask for suggestions for QoL changes or rebalances, and the teasers they share generate a lot of hype.
the devs for terraria also announce a new update a day or two before release, maybe earlier on their official social media accounts i'm not sure. i've never seen their actual accounts. i just know i randomly see an update for the game pop up every now and then on steam.
as a terraria player with 2,500+ hours, I can confirm this is very true
@@Daidan0 No, they announce when they're working on an update anywhere from a few months to two years before its finished, depending on the size. However, they only talk about upcoming updates on twitter, the official game forum, and sometimes reddit, and Relogic shows very little spoilers considering the size of Terraria's updates. They also don't have nearly as much pure marketing that hypes up the new version of the game, people get excited based off being told or even shown in-game features rather than having flashy, colorful trailers.
New sales of the game are what generate income for Java Edition. A player like me who bought the game nearly ten years ago for basically pocket change does not. So it is new players that pay for all my free updates. I see no problem with, in fact I encourage, the marketing towards a younger audience. That said, it is still essential to keep the existing player base happy as we generate a lot of free marketing for the game.
Pandering towards the young audience is a bad idea, just look at the new restrictions in "the name of children" and marketing to kids by adding cute animals that add zero substance whatsoever
@@EmperorPenguin1217idk, all the servers I've been playing on have those restrictions anyway, I doubt I'll feel that change much
Though it's obviosly going to be different for other people
@@leochangesnamesthose are the *servers* and they can't ban you from the game altogether, plus on servers the community isn't consisting of millions of people, so it's easier to manage and avoid situations where someone just reported a person because they don't like that person, getting that person banned. Mojang shouldn't do the moderation instead of servers, that's just dumb
@@shadesoftime mb I should have clarified that I was talking about skins and names only, not chat, that's a whole other topic.
I never said what they should or shouldn't do, I just noted that for some (likely most) players new reports are going to be inconsequential, so there's not going to be as much pushback. I even saw people actually liking this change.
Plus, how are we going to stop them, not buy their products? Most of us already don't.
I also suspect that the whole reporting thing was done so that they can say "we tried" in case something horrible related to mc becomes widely public. I know way too many cases of grown ppl messaging kids they met through minecraft, one of such stories is going to come to light eventually, and Mojang wants to be prepared for that.
they made a chat report earlier
All marketing teams need to be fired or kept in check, this seems like an issue in the wider corporate space, marketing doesn’t understand what a good or bad product is they are just there to sell it to you.
I somewhat jokingly refer to 1.20 as Caves and Cliffs Part 4, because they added yet another one of the features originally promised for 1.17, and, in my experience, I can't really tell the difference between playing on 1.19 and playing on 1.20.
These are some well thought out points. I find them ironic in my world, because I literally pay 0 attention to any Minecraft marketing, relying entirely on my favorite content creators to keep me up to date with current Minceraft events. I also have loved all the recent updates with new terrain generation, increased world height, and additional mobs, blocks, and structures. However, it only takes me a day or 2 to encounter all of these things, and then it's back to MC-Grind as usual. What I'm saying is, the marketing hype is wasted on me, and the new features seem to have very little lasting impact. I wish, as I'm sure many other players do, that Mojang would implement quality of life improvements. I would love to see stairs, slabs, and walls for all "building blocks" (like terracotta and concrete). I'd also like to see Mojang scrap the "bundle", and look to some of the backpack and storage mods out there for inspiration. As for timing of releases: as a professional software developer myself, I understand the push and pull between release when ready (RWR) and release predictably. I always favor RWR, but I rely on the "product team" to decide the release cycle. I think Mojang can figure that part out well enough.
A thought about marketing occurs: The original content creators who have followed the game since its inception will be leaving the community in the coming years, and it may be necessary to excite new content creators with the marketing hype. It may be the case that even people who get their "update news" from content creators are being indirectly affected by the hype as creators essentially "forward" the hype to their viewers.
They hype up the updates, they take a long time to deliver them and when they come out the game barely changes or improves. As a mostly single player gamer, it's been a long time since I was really excited to get back into game to do anything.
TF2 is an interesting parallel, especially seeing how the game has even kept alive and grown despite Valve's neglect
It feels quite surreal hearing Xisuma's AI Generated voice in Hindi 😅
Its the future it seems!
As an Indian I don't even know some of the meaning of those hindi words...
It's good! If you know 2% better Hindi than the average native, that is!
@@Nero_256same bro its pure hindi 😂
Same but German to me
I really like the mini promotions they have, like the funny epic nature videos on each biome. They are promotional, interesting (even if you know all the gameplay details already), and above all realistic to the actual game.
7:37 (TF2)'s also been continuously updated over the years.
TF2 Players from 2017-2022: *Cries in the corner*
Regarding the (german) translation: Despite sounding robotic and some stuff (especially names and years) being pronounced weirdly, it is quite understandable. An interesting experiment for sure.
Never thought I'd hear Xisuma's voice speaking German. I gotta say, the voice AI is pretty good! But I personally prefer the English original. :)
I loved your tower base with all the bee themes. Having Keralis (beeralis) as a neighbor with his detailed city was awesome. All the best X
I think another issue could be that we know too much we learn about the feature and it’s functions before it comes out leaving little room to explore and find out about it on your own. Though maybe it’s not really a issue idk it’s a thought that came to mind
It's a bit of an issue, but you can choose to not follow snapshots if you want to. They, however, cannot give up snapshots since it's the biggest part of their testing process, updates would be even less polished without them.
me likey, growing up with xisuma is rly nice. the same questions i started asking the older i got are getting answered here, tysm
I will say, a lot of the promotional material is STILL made by commissioning fans of the game. A lot of the animated content is made by Element Animations, famous for their "Egg's Guide to Minecraft" and "Villager News" skit and story animations. The quality jump has just been HUGE. Their channel was actually struggling before Mojang picked them up and started commissioning them, so as someone who was following them for years before their Minecraft content I appreciate it a lot. It's great that they get to keep doing this stuff.
Id rather have hat films trailers though. The production value of the new ones is higher, no doubt, but hat films trailers were brilliantly cheesy and I love them
Whilst I completely understand that as a game grows in popularity things are gonna change with things like advertising and promotion, but that’s the problem.
Saying the game is getting too big simply isn’t an excuse. If it’s changing at the expense of the core values is it being done properly?
I don’t think the problem is that the community are simply finding problems with the last eat updates, Mojang have done great updates in the past such as Update Aquatic and the Nether Update. It’s clear to see the content in the latest updates seem to be very lacking.
I don’t normally watch these videos but this was so entertaining I had to stay until the end!! Keep up the great work 👍🏻
Super insightful video as always! I guess with the evolution of their marketing it's also important to consider the evolution of the RUclips platform. Most RUclips channels made around that time will have no doubt experienced a similar change. With their audience being so diverse I guess it puts a lot of pressure on the directors, devs, and marketing to create not only great content but also a game that ticks every box which imo is simply just the natural outcome of a wildly popular game. Deadlines can mean many things, for some they're intimidating but for others, they can be empowering to have a goal to work towards. As always, super excited to see what they do next!
This makes a lot of sense. I hope they’re willing to do more technical and mechanical updates
Love the new audio track feature, was playing around switching between languages. Love how the Spanish track translates "Xbox three-sixty" to "Xbox three hundred and sixty"
I would understand why they would heavily promote the game's updates if they were paid for DLC's due to the need for a return on investment. But I wonder if they are doing this in the hope of getting the projected long-term financial return when Microsoft had acquired Mojang. It might also explain why the two divisions within Mojang (Bedrock and Java) seem so diametrically opposed in their approaches in how they manage the game and how they operate.
Also, it's funny how the actions of the marketing team appear to have the opposite effect in pleasing those who already play it. Perhaps Mojang should stop being so contrived in how they come across?
As demonstrated when they had to delay an update over covid, the community are more than happy to wait for an update, so doing it annually is just for business/shareholder reasons.
I love how valve just casually added my gamemode to TF2 as I have been galavanting around in the Minecraft space this whole time.
Great to see Hatfilms mentioned. they were one of if not the first minecraft/gaming youtube channel i ever actually kept up with.
Well said. I agree that many of the problems and disagreements started after regular updates became a thing instead of updating when updates are done.
I miss Hat Films' trailers so much! I'd love for them to make some more in the future!
I clicked on the video and was startled by Xisuma's voice in Spanish 😂. The translation is great, the only issue is numbers not translating. For example, it says 2011 as "twenty-eleven" instead of the spanish number. Same happens with the update numbers. But other than that it's a very good video!
It's just regular game company marketing. The hype around the product is always more important than the product itself. It's not meant to be sustainable in the long term, a newer, bigger, shiner thing is supposed to show up every couple of years to replace the old. Of course, Mojang can't replace Minecraft, so it has to rely on hype cycles to drive merch sales, the real moneymaker.
Like all companies, Mojang is also legally obligated to its investors to maximise profits or go to court. As a result, Minecraft becomes more of a product than a community.
I would love nothing more than a quality of life or inventory management update. Not every update has to be some overwhelming new thing which I think marketing it, pushes for bigger, when better may be the more preferred option. A simple update such as birds and bugs, adding a few new mobs that there are not really like any others, but at the heart is about sorting out some of the underlying inventory and QOL features would be a nice compliment.
I play hours of minecraft every day and I feel like I am always an update behind. I am still enjoying and exploring 1.19 features when this update came out. I dont think they need to rush new content at all. I almost feel overwhelmed when they add a million new things too often.
german xisuma isn't real and he can't hurt you
german xisuma:
This idea makes a lot of sense im surpised i havent noticed some of the recent trends you've mentioned
All I want is to be able to explore without needing to get a shulker farm. Look at the trail ruins. Three double chests of stuff I will use one day, but 5k from my house
For what it's worth, there's a very simple two-shulker farm by Mod Stop out there. I was avoiding a shulker farm for a long time after watching those beautiful but crazy complex ones on Hermitcraft, but I made this Mod Stop one and let it run overnight to great success. I did add some safety features to make it easier to AFK, but it was really easy.
Why would you need a shulker farm to explore????
@@arcticcmonkeyTo be able to move stuff?
There's no early / mid game option for moving items*.
You have to run the same decade old progression curve of nether -> stronghold -> dragon -> end city.
* Bundles sort of help for stackable low quantity, high variety loot, but not much else, and that's only on java with experimental features enabled..
carry items
@@arcticcmonkey
theyre even easier on bedrock and i have one in the overworld, but i shouldnt have had to make one justy to carry the stuff i got in the first 30 minutes on the world@@ProjectKhopesh
thanks for adding audio tracks xisuma :D
Phantom likely has so few views because its already in the game, hence new players would watch the others to see what they would have been like after the fact.
I will mention that it does not surprise me that the phantom mob vote has the lowest. Views are probably including the many many people who watched the other three just to see "what could have been" without bothering to watch the phantom one, as phantoms are already in the game.
Always a proponent of game companies prioritizing community experience and quality of life over big flashy new stuff for marketing reasons. A longer dev cycle as needed and more focus on fundamental features like inventory management would make long-time player happy I'm sure, but I must admit that the younger, newer players tend to respond very well to flashy marketing and quantity-over-quality marketing strategies. Is this good for long term stability? I kind of doubt it, but it probably does look good in terms of player-base growth statistics. I would be very interested to see Mojang's behind the scene systems for deciding update features/focuses.
You want to make a huge part of the user base happy with an update you do 2 things. 1. Make a game rule for PvP. That way people & servers can decide with ease what type of PvP they want. 2. Vertical slabs. Builders have been asking for that for a long time, and it would be a big change allowing for some creative builds.
wowwwwwww. this is the first time ever i saw the option for different audio tracks. watching in German right now :D because i can
Not sure if focusing on technical changes to the game would be well perceived by the community, even though they are very much needed.
Still a lot of people are mad that there wasn't much added in the busy bees update (that focused mostly on fixes)
I have been working on a video about issues regarding Minecraft and this was one I did not consider! I will make sure to put the proper citations as you bring on some very good points.
Regarding deadlines:
In my personal opinion, I see deadlines as a development tool to make sure the Minecraft team actually delivers on the content they want to. Without deadlines, there's no end goal, and feature creep steps in
In my personal opinion, if the result of a deadline is cut or split content, that's a symptom of bad planning and scoping, and the deadline has done its job of highlighting that and from there the development team can figure out how to better plan & scope the next update
^- Just my personal opinions
If it were used that way, then sure. But it's not being used that way.
It’s the over promise, absolutely. I feel like if the devs had more control over the marketing, they wouldn’t be having mixed reviews at all.
The devs should absolutely have control over setting the deadlines and expectations, when and which announcements are made.
The marketing machine is pushing the devs by over promising what can actually be delivered.
Marketing only works if you deliver what you promise.
You risk losing the trust of your community otherwise.
The marketing machine is not what any of the longtime viewers or players are here for.
We are here for the game, which means we are really here for the devs.
It's pretty cool that you're trying to make your videos more accessible. I hope you get the kinks worked out so it's not only accessible, but enjoyable. My video played in English like it was supposed to. I'm not sure that it played in a different language for so many people is on you though. Maaaaybe it's location related, but i lean toward it being a setting issue on thee people that had that happen. Idk.
While I know it's not the point of the video I wanted to address a small thing that is worth considering. You mention the Phantom having the fewest views of the Mob Vote options as being 'curious'. These view counts are from years after the Phantom was added, every player learns about the Phantom first hand in the game but might be curious to learn more about the other proposals.
Smart thinking!!!
When the video started in French, it scared the life out of me! I wasn’t expecting that 😂
I think when it comes to 'major added content' the ideas are long in the making i.e caves and cliffs. They know long term the game direction but not x realeased on z year. So it makes sense if deadlines impact how much can be developed to give a good update theme but still head in the goal direction
Please I beg they release an update to the server files to improve performance. Multithreading has been a feature request for years and would seriously help in getting more players to venture away from 1.12.2 for modded minecraft, arguably the main reason the game is still popular.
One issue that is often missed is that there's multiple versions of the game. (Java & Bedrock) This itself can cause issues with the sorts of features that end up being added.
Bundles for example will probably never be available by default due to limitations on other platforms such as mobile. Then there's the combat update, trying to come up with an engaging/balanced combat system that works for both mouse/keyboard and controllers isn't going to be easy and is most likely why we haven't heard anything about the combat rework for a few years.
Another issue is down to the overall direction. I've always seen Minecraft as a survival game but more often than not, the majority of features that get added don't actually enhance the survival gameplay. Don't get me wrong, its nice to have new building materials but it's always been new gameplay that makes me jump back in.
I think they need to focus on new survival based mechanics that can be enabled/disabled via gamerules. These could be a more complex hunger system (maybe even including thirst), perhaps a more complex cooking system to go with it. The proposed changes to the villagers could easily be a gamerule that more casual players can disable.
I am very pro gamerule additions. I think there should be a default so people can just press play, but there should be tons of gamerules for different gameplay.
One reason I liked Ark Survival Evolved was because there were so many things you could tweak. I don't care if there are 1,000 gamerules, I want em all.
minecraft has always been a sandbox game, with a mode that adds survival and resource managament elements. it's never really been a true survival game, because it isnt one.
I think it can be fun if made into a survival game, but only fun for a select audiance. you'd lose a lot more than you'd gain by making minecraft's 'survival' more complex or more survival oriented. great for modpacks but terrible for vanilla.
its the same for other directions that the game just isnt. it's not an mmo, not an rpg, not some boss rush game, it's not a progression oriented game at all
it's a casual sandbox with survival and resource management elements
@@Sopsy_Hallow being a sandbox just means the player has the freedom to do what they want in a non linear fashion without any real goal. Most survival games are sandbox to some degree.
I've been playing since the nether was first added back in beta over 10 years ago and I can still remember the feeling of my first few nights. It was scary and terrifying. Survival was the only option.
Survival mode should be as the name suggests, survival.
Thats so cool, i can definitely see my self listening in other languages to learn- can hear your cadence in some languages aswell-nice addition X
I'm not sure it's as clear cut as the marketing deadlines. Pokemon has a problem of marketing deadlines. They have to put out new ENTIRE NEW games every 1-2 years. But the thing is, Minecraft is no where near as complex to develop as Pokemon is. On top of that, Mojang isn't even developing new games, rather just incremental updates. And we have proof that it's not hard to develop because modders have added "new" features in weeks (The mobs from the mob votes were added the very next day from their reveal). Mojang still haven't added any of the vote backlog. It seems their aim is to specifically generate controversy. We need to remember Microsofts core business practices after all.
Pokemon is the best selling video game franchise in history. And the one thing it does have in common with Minecraft is: In recent times, both of their main business strategies is exploiting kids who don't know any better.
Anyone complaining about the updates should realize that this game is over 10 years old and they're not charging you for updates which is nothing like any other game out there. So just enjoy what you get
Always delighted to see a new video from you
I wish big tech companies would learn that time and effort is more effective then crunch
This explains my recent dissatisfaction with the game. I remember Minecraft many years ago when I didn't know anything about when the new update would be or what was even in it. I like the mystery it would bring. Minecraft now is too over-hyped and underwhelming with the features that are delivered. I think it's way too flashy and In your face now. I also feel like there is so much going on that it is hard to even get started without being overwhelmed and not playing anymore.
I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sold on Xisuma’s Team Fortress 2 analogy simply because Valve essentially abandoned the game for YEARS, allowing the casual mode to become infested with bots and providing no real meat with any updates save for new cosmetics. Valve didn’t even do most of the work for the most recent update, instead opting to use a COMMUNITY created game mode as the central focus. If anything, TF2’s success is almost exclusively because of it’s fanbase and enjoyable gameplay, having little to do with the games marketing right now. (not saying the marketing has never helped, just that we haven’t seen a proper TF2 sfm from Valve for a while now)
i remember an old trailer for the patch that introduced desert pyramids and jungle biomes, made by Basherverse i think.
Sadly i think it's been lost to time, can't find it these days. had a whole mini song to it too.
Yes, but IMO the challenge Minecraft is facing is that they can't do things like they used to not only because of marketing, but also the community, and the community isn't one blob, it's a multitude of different communities that have vastly different aspects that they like and want to be taken into consideration with every new feature.
Every single feature they add now has to consider things like creative, survival, hardcore, flat world, peaceful, skyblock, building/redston/combat/adventure - focused players, Minecraft content creators, modded (to a certain extend), compatibility with worlds from the previous version, performance impact, support for all the platforms MC is on, etc. and those are just the hard facts, then there are more soft considerations like accessibility, representation, how appropriate something is for all age groups in all countries that play the game, responsibility, could this feature lead to problems in the future?, etc.
If you look at some things that were added early in the game and view it from todays perspective and ask yourself, would it still be possible to add this today, then I think you'll find a lot of things that you can find good arguments for why it shouldn't be added to the game, considering the aforementioned criteria.
Invisible spider where you can only barely see the glowing eyes? Players wont understand what is happening.
Half slaps and stairs? Complicating the data structure so much.
Creeper? A penis shaped suicide bomber enemy?!?!?
So you have a ton of Mojang developers, Microsoft marketing people, and all these different player types world wide, all wanting to be heard and taken into consideration, and everyone is pulling on Minecraft to try and nudge it more in the direction of their own vision for the game and its future.
What you end up with is a game designed by committee.
( There is the saying "A camel is a horse designed by committee.", so maybe the Mojang devs even hinted at this themselves with the latest update xD )
If they add many cooks that make a terrible broth in the next update you know what's up. 😆
Very interesting and underrated video. Keep up the high quality work X!
Did not expect that Hat Films throwback, wow what a blast from the past
Hmm. I do think either way we have to emphasize their dedication to the backend code they have been optimizing. They absolutely do the work that is nice to have but never will be directly marketed.
It is an interesting question though, I mean how long ago was it brought up that combat was being looked at? iirc there was an experiment branch, maybe I just assumed something would actually come of it but they should know even just mentioning something to your consumers they of course will expect more eventually.
I find it interesting how the feature for the latest update that i have heard most people praise is the improved lighting engine. I really think that a gamplay update would be really good. Just work on combat, inventory management and performance.
I watched your video on german (well the first minute) and I think its great that you try new features as I havent seen this anywhere else! But I think that this technology needs to be refined. It was really weird (but that isnt really bad as everything thats new is weird, like people say "thats not minecrafty") and it sounds very mechanical, like a robot. In general I dont think I will listen to the german versions of videos but thats not only because of quality but rather as a method to improve my english 😅
Bastante decente el audio en el español. Hay detalles que pulir. Comenzando desde como va diciendo las versiones del juego en ingles, ejemplo: "one point twenty" en vez de "uno veinte" como lo diría cualquier hispanohablante. La forma en la que menciona "Mojang" entre por menores. Buen vídeo como siempre X🎉.
The word I'd use for the misdirection in development is "Boutique'ing" ... it's the same problem MOST mainstream media suffers from whether they are pandering to a niche Convenience or a niche Theme. They are in effect: putting "Form" as their 1 and only priority at the expense of all of the "Replayable" Functionality and imagination that their franchise was once built on.
Been playing since 2012 and gotta say, the new updates feel like they are coming at a breakneck speed compared to before and the updates with lots of stuff don't feel as meaningful as before. I remember when they added diorite, andesite, and granite and just how game changing that was. We had a long time to digest and get used to those before another major update like that. Now it feels like I need to reset my world every year or so to keep up with all the new stuff and I haven't even been able to fully digest the stuff that came out before.
I disagree with the idea of longer update cycles. In my view, it's about actively listening to the community and shedding some of the bureaucracy that cropped up following Microsoft's takeover. Minecraft updates were never flawless, but they consistently made improvements. In the earlier days, they didn't repeatedly postpone things or scrap concepts like fireflies.
Opting for longer update cycles could potentially invite more bureaucratic challenges. In the end, we might find only a handful of changes in the game. While I value quality over quantity, finding the right balance is key. It's challenging to maintain quality when processes become too internalized and structured. This situation parallels major social media platforms like RUclips, which also struggle with slow updates and disconnection from the community.
I do recognize that game design is likely more complex than I'm portraying it, but it's interesting that modders, often working solo, manage to create content at a quicker pace, albeit sometimes with slightly lower quality. This suggests that a certain level of agility and responsiveness can be achieved even without massive resources.
In a rapidly evolving gaming landscape, where player preferences and technological advancements can shift swiftly, it seems important to maintain a balance between the intricacies of game design and the dynamic expectations of the community. Shorter update cycles, like the weekly snapshots used to do, could facilitate testing features, gathering feedback, and even experimenting with different branches like the PvP snapshots. Such an approach could offer a more adaptable and engaging experience for players.
The extra audio tracks are nice, but they are really bad quality, and i hate how youtube doesnt have a setting to switch the default
Y thought i was crazy when i heared Xisuma talking in spanish 😂. Really cool add to the video, i think is accurate but i still have to whatch it in both languages to be sure. Nice video like always 😃.
wow you're right about this, consistent updates do not mean they are good, but that's exactly what a marketing plan is built on, highly predictable and consistent updates. it does look like the game is turning more to a marketed experience instead of a gameplay experience. Someone in game development recently talked about how marketing people tend to rise the ranks in game development companies and end up driving features and development at large. Their intentions and experience is entirely counter to real game development. I hope Minecraft won't go down the EA/ Blizzard path and start putting marketing teams in charge of feature development.
On the note of the AI dubbed voice, I like Xisuma's content for being clear and close to heart, The AI voice for as much as the technology improves (right now it is feels like a fancy voice to speech which soon will take over a more realistic approach for sure) it will never stop feeling unfamiliar and unnerving, I'm sure it will help on the reach out for sure, but I find it hard to feel that human made connection with the content if a robot is going to generate it.
I'm native spanish speaker and I love learning other languages by watching and listening to others, thankfully youtube still allows me to switch it back to english.
Cheers!
Somehow i'f listened to the video and didn't understand a thing. Usually I subconsciously understand you video even when im doing other stuff in the meantime. But the German Versions threw me of so bad i didn't understand a thing if i wasn't listening to it precisely. ( It probably was because the strange robotic voice)
Despite this and the translation of the universal "you" into the polite verion ("Sie" In the sense of: you may sit now.) I find it pretty interesting to see what AI enables us to do now and in the future.
If you plan on using this tool in future videos you could maybe have some people look over the script again (if possible). I understand that that's a lot to ask but i believe it would higher the quality a lot.
Other than that its a nice thing you experiment with these features :)
Now im gonna watch it in english again to understand what you said 😅
I'm pretty sure the marketing team is different from the dev team... But even if that's true, its pretty clear that some of the top devs (such as Jeb and Agnes) are directly involved in a lot of the marketing, as well as the dev diaries. So they're STILL spread pretty thin. I don't think most people even watch those advertisement videos, and most of the hype comes from the snapshot updates on RUclips.
1. i think your right in this video.
2. i think the dead line also can speed up some workflows.
My personal favorite way to get up to date on Minecraft, through RUclips, has to be YourMCAdmin's update songs. Even long after the features mentioned in them are outdated, I still find myself singing them to myself. He's been doing them since 1.3 and has released them the day before each update released when he could, except for 1.4 I don't know why he skipped it. He really deserves more subscribers even though he only uploads for updates nowadays. You should invite him to join Hermitcraft? He's shown interest when I've asked him and the comment got a lot of likes so his fans agree.
I dont play Minecraft anymore....
but still consume content.
I like the behind the scenes stuff Mojang puts out, as well as the update stuff... but because I no longer play, I no longer find lets plays, building tutorials or speed runs enjoyable to watch :/
I think this is just a result of ppls preferences having changed...
Perhapse.... you could do some vids about the marching cubes algorithm???
Or game design and mechanic vids ???
This video is basically saying what I've been thinking for a long time. I would love an update focused on performance, code clean-up, and modding improvements but that likely won't happen since it's easier to market new gameplay than performance. I get the feeling that the yearly release update also puts strain on the devs and doesn't give them the time to implement anything more than new blocks, items, and mobs.
Not to mention the gargantuan amount of features that are sort of obscure nowadays due to how badly they were initially designed or how something new pushed them off. For instance, I keep forgetting that pandas are even in the game, people rarely have horses, horse armour is abundant, frost walker, etc.
Many of those features shouldn't've been in the game to begin with, and some were killed off by newer ones(like horses, which got replaced completely by elytras). I imagine the sniffer will be like that too in a couple of years because it's hard to get and barely serves any purpose
I get the sense that they would kill modding if they could. I doubt they will make it easier.
I just remember the piston update trailer being incredible
You're one of the few to bring up this point, since marketing tactics can be kinda invisible to most people. It can be modified, but it ain't going away. Having a good online presence is super important to Mojang, and the update trailers are great for *showing* what the new stuff will look like, not just *telling* it in a blog post. Also it most likely isn't taking away from development, as the marketing team is smaller. It's just a part of video game culture now.
I don't really get the dissatisfaction. What other game is cheap to start with them keeps giving free new updates and DLC 15 years later? They also do a decent job of involving the community - props to Mojang