Mojang cancels Minecraft's big graphics overhaul after performance struggles

Mojang is officially pulling the plug on Minecraft’s high-end graphics overhaul, announcing today that the Super Duper Graphics Pack it announced at E3 back in 2017 will no longer see the light of day.

The reason for the cancelation, Mojang notes in a post on the Minecraft website, is the addition proved too difficult to implement in the game without having a significant impact on Minecraft's performance. 

The pack aimed to build Xbox One X and high-end PC targeted enhancements into Mojang’s still-thriving blocky builder, including 4K and HDR support, new shaders, and lighting effects.

On any project, it can be difficult to know when to cut your losses when something just isn’t working out, especially when years of resources and work have been poured into the feature in question. For Mojang, the decision comes after rebuilding parts of Minecraft’s Bedrock Engine to work with the overhaul and years of quiet delays.

At the end of the day however, Mojang says that the game couldn’t perform at an acceptable level with the graphics pack running, and made the call back away from the project.

“Super Duper was an ambitious initiative that brought a new look to Minecraft but, unfortunately, the pack proved too technically demanding to implement as planned,” explains the team. “We realize this is disappointing to some of you – there was a lot of enthusiasm for Super Duper from inside and outside the studio – but unfortunately, we aren’t happy with how the pack performed across devices. For this reason, we're stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look.”

Minecraft itself has been around since 2009, and released in earnest in 2011. Despite its age, Microsoft-owned Mojang keeps a steady flow of updates headed to the game and keeps the attention of millions across several platforms. As of this May, Minecraft has sold over 176 million copies and, as of last October, maintained 91 million monthly active users.