Minecraft fans have been going into space for years now courtesy of mods, but reaching it in the vanilla game is a different story. Currently, players enjoying an unmodded or lightly-modded experience are confined to the Overworld, the Nether, and the End. While the End certainly has some space-like characteristics, Mojang did offer fans a taste of what playing around in space might be like.
Specifically, they debuted the ability to travel to the moon with the Minecraft Java snapshot for April Fool's Day 2023. Fans absolutely loved the implementation, and many clamored to ask the developers to make the moon the next playable dimension.
Although this has yet to happen in Minecraft, fans are continuing to push for including the moon as a playable dimension, and there are many reasons why this would be a great move.
Why adding the moon as a Minecraft dimension would be a win for Mojang
Although adding the moon to Minecraft was essentially considered a joke by Mojang since it was placed in the April Fool's snapshot (AKA The Vote Update), there's no doubt that the developers saw a huge positive response to the move. Although the moon doesn't exactly fit the theme of recent updates, it has potential in the future.
Considering that a large contingent of Minecraft creators have made space mods that allow players to go to the moon, and the fact that a ton of fans have outright asked Mojang to keep the feature after The Vote Update, it's hard not to see the signs. It's been years since a new dimension appeared in the game, and the moon would be a very fitting addition.
Obviously, adding the moon would require quite a bit of development for Mojang, but the groundwork has already been laid with the April Fool's Minecraft Java snapshot. Theoretically, Mojang could build off of this "joke" dimension and make it a fully-fledged one, complete with more blocks, biomes, and mobs to explore and encounter.
Considering that fans were very impressed with something as barebones as a gag moon dimension, it would be a shame for Mojang to simply waste the moon's potential, and most players would undoubtedly consider it a hit.
To go above and beyond, Mojang could even implement an entire cosmic update that would see players visiting the moon, the stars, and everything in between. It would have to be a major update that would take some time, but fans are willing to wait for something so deeply desired and transformative for the sandbox game.
Sure, the End does seem pretty similar to the moon in a certain sense, so would there be an issue with the two dimensions being too similar to each other? Maybe, but months of development could easily address this potential roadblock. With enough diversity with biomes, mobs, and more, both the moon and the End could be very separate locations within Minecraft.
It goes without saying that the moon being added as a dimension would need to be thoroughly planned out and executed, as fans would likely feel underwhelmed otherwise. Regardless, while players have been split about recent updates like The Wild Update or Trails & Tales, it would be hard to imagine the same occurring for a space or moon-centered update.
An update such as this wouldn't necessarily even clash with other spacefaring mods created by the community. If anything, they would be capable of supplementing a vanilla moon dimension, and more mods may even pop up to enrich the experience as well.
While it may be quite some time before another major update is announced (though Minecraft LIVE is not far away), it would be a shame for Mojang not to take advantage of one of the sleeper hits that it introduced earlier this year.