Minecraft Update 1.28 Today on PS4, PS3 & PS Vita Adds the Battle Minigame and More

Update:

Update 1.29 was released today, June 23, to fix issues with Battle Minigame public matches.

Original Story:

Adding the Battle Minigame and more, Minecraft update 1.28 is live in Europe and Japan for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita. It will come to North America later today.

Here’s the full list of patch notes for today’s update on PlayStation:

Added the Battle Mini Game.

Updated the Skin Select menu.

Added an option for Safe Sprint in the Controls menu. Depending on the controls layout selected, this option moves either the Change Camera Mode or the Sneak/Dismount away from the stick button, since a lot of people are pressing the stick by accident when they start sprinting.

Enabled Battle Map Pack 1 and Battle Map Pack Season Pass DLC.

Added Caves and Ravines to Custom Superflat options.

Added Distribute Items functionality via toggle button (start and confirm distribution). This allows a stack of items to be distributed by dragging the stack across multiple slots in the Inventory.

Fixed a crash when a client player entered a game where the maximum number of Item Frames had opened Maps.

Fix for Slimes not spawning in Slime Chunks.

Fixed an issue allowing players to use the Armour Stand when the Trust Players option is disabled.

Fixed an issue where items could not be moved from the Furnace to the main Inventory using Quick Move.

Fixed an issue in the Superflat world generation menu with the stem Mushroom Block.

Minecraft was also updated on Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Wii U with the Battle Minigame.

A free-for-all deathmatch multiplayer mode that includes three maps, the Battle Minigame offers up additional map packs for $2.99 USD. As the European PlayStation Store reveals, Map Pack 1 includes Temple, Medusa, and Lair. The description says, “Take arms in Temple, Medusa and Lair and battle against up to 7 players in the Battle Mini Game. Learn the sneaky nooks and crannies! Rain down arrows from the high ground! Set up devastating ambushes! It’s all to play for!”

Mojang adds, “And watch out for more mini games in the future too – we’re hoping to really amp up the variety of Minecraft on consoles, helping players to set up bizarre and outlandish rulesets without the fuss of manual countdowns, refilling loot chests, or score-keeping.”

Will you be playing the Battle Minigame today?

[Source: PlayStation Store, Mojang, 4J Studios, Minecraft Forum]

Essential Reading:

Disappointments From Sony's E3 2016 Press Conference

10 Disappointments From Sony's E3 2016 Press Conference
Ended Weak

Despite having an interesting trailer early on in the show, Sony Bend's Days Gone was a poor show closer. It looks to be a post-apocalyptic shooter without a real hook, and there was really nothing that stood out. Hopefully the game will turn out to be something special, but this gameplay demo just looked like a generic shooter with zombie mutants.
Poor Communication

Sony took a cue from Phil Spencer's playbook, and made the focus all about games this E3. That's a surefire way to have a solid press conference (and it's why Microsoft has had good ones the past two years), but Sony didn't have enough people discussing the games being shown off. Not only does this mean that gamers get less information on big games, it also led to confusion as the PlayStation VR block transitioned right into Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare without anyone stating that the VR portion was over.
Missing

The two big announcements last year were that Shenmue 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake were finally happening after heavy fan demand (at least for the latter). This year, both of these titles were completely absent from the press conference. That's incredibly disappointing, and considering one of the announcements last year was for a Kickstarter of all things, it'd be nice to get an update.
2017 & Beyond

After a sizzle reel showing off a bunch of great PS4 games that weren't shown off (like Gravity Rush 2), the press conference ended with this screen. It was basically a reminder that Sony doesn't have a ton planned for this holiday season in terms of first-party games (just like last year). While I get why Sony wouldn't want to give a year for something so early in development like Death Stranding, it's disappointing to see a gameplay demo of God of War and not even know if it's coming in 2017.
More Vaporware

One of PlayStation's bad habits as of late has been announcing games before there's really a game to show off. We've seen crowdfunding campaigns announced (twice!), and it's time to stop announcing games if there's not even a trailer. The latest culprit was the Crash Bandicoot remakes, which are being done by Activision. I'm hopeful these remakes will turn out well, but there's no reason to get excited when there's nothing to go off of.
LEGO Star Wars, Seriously?

The most baffling moment during Sony's press conference was when they showed off a trailer for a new LEGO game. Yes, the same LEGO games that haven't evolved in a gameplay capacity since the PlayStation 2 somehow got press conference time. I really don't get it (especially since the trailer was unspectacular), and it was filler at best.
No Sucker Punch

Rumors were abuzz about Sucker Punch unveiling their next game at E3 2016. That didn't happen, although the rumors about a Spider-Man game were true albeit developed by Insomniac. It seems like we'll all have to wait a bit longer to know about the inFamous developer's next game.
Where Were The Indies?

One of the great things about recent Sony E3 conferences is that indie titles have gotten time to shine on gaming's biggest stage. That wasn't the case this year, as indie games were barely shown off. It's a far cry from last year where publisher Devolver Digital got an entire sizzle reel for their line-up of games, and No Man's Sky got a gameplay demo.
RIP Vita

The PlayStation Vita got about 6 seconds of conference time last year. This year the console wasn't mentioned a single time besides a copyright at the very end of the show. Talk about another nail in the coffin for a handheld that could've been so much better than it has.
PSVR

By far the biggest disappointment was how poorly a job Sony did trying to sell PlayStation VR. Despite the device coming out this October, most of what was shown were dubbed as "experiences," and not full games. Tech demos really aren't the best way to show off how rad Virtual Reality is, and one of the few games that were shown (Resident Evil 7) received a non-VR demo immediately afterwards basically signalling to players that they don't need virtual reality to play it. That's a poor showing for what is supposed to be the future of gaming.