Today sees the release of a new Minecraft version! Not 1.8 though, rather 1.7.5 with a promised 1.7.6 version to follow soon.

Minecraft version 1.7.5 brings with it some server-side optimisation and fixes as well as a stamping out a few game bugs. The main thing that 1.7.5 brings to the game of Minecraft though has to do with Minecraft Realms. Several of the community’s most popular mini-game maps, such as Survival Games etc. are now available to add to Realms as ‘mini-games’ for the Realm community to try. Mojang are also using this update to pave the way for more countries to have access to the Realms feature, planning to roll it out across the Nordic countries in Europe within the next week.

Mojang are also going to soon release a 1.7.6 version in March which will bring with it support for the new skin system that is currently only accessible if you are running snapshots with your game, as well as beginning to set up the system to change game names (although they say that actually changing names is still a way off). They will also continue to work on 1.8 snapshots as well.

New version announcement is here.