We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Minecraft players no longer have to download Realms updates they’re not using

Even Minecraft Realms players are unprotected from witches.

Minecraft Realms is a good idea: a family-focused subscription service that bypasses the fiddly router business involved in playing Notch’s opus online. It’s going to make Mojang more millions – but plenty of us PC types have complained that it’s taking preference over conventional Minecraft updates and clogging our launchers with needless updates.

Well, this is for us. Mojang have published a pre-release version of Minecraft 1.7.10 which shifts all Realms-related modules into a separate library – preventing future updates to the service from disrupting play.

“How does this release affect you? If you are not playing on Realms, it does not change anything at all,” say Mojang, rhetorically.

“The main advantage is that we don’t have to release new updates for Minecraft 1.7.x in the future, if we want to add new features to Realms.”

If you are playing on Realms, you might be interested in some of the latest features – which include improvements to the UI, access to more server settings, and a player activity monitor. Probably more exciting than rideable horses if you’re a busy dad.

The update’s currently only available as a snapshot, though. To download it, you’ll need to click the ‘New Profile’ button in your Minecraft launcher, create a new profile named ‘snapshots’, and tick the box to enable experimental development.

Otherwise, you can wait for the better-tested version of 1.7.10 which should arrive in the coming days. Is that what you normally do?