Minecraft feature freeze - The end of Beta but the countdown to going gold begins

So, after a several frantic months of pre-releases and weekly updates we've got our first Minecraft feature freeze and it's going to be a cold couple of weeks!! That's right, no more new versions of Minecraft, no more Beta pre-releases until at least November.

So what will Notch, Jeb and the rest of the team work on now?

We'll the game is technically still in Beta and there are a large number of bugs still to wrinkle out of the game. Minecraft also needs a much welcomed performance optimization and sound overhaul. The sounds (SFX) have served the game well but it's time to put the finishing touches on a great beta and make it a RTM candidate. More help options and friendly error messages make the difference between a beta and the final release.

If you haven't already got yourself a ticket for Minecon then you can still head over to the Mojang ticket site and get a late entry. Minecon will be the place where the release version of the game is officially unveiled by the creator himself – Notch.

What version did we get up to?

We're up to Minecraft 1.9 pre-release 4. This gave us our first insight into dragons, even more potion options and some great little baby animals.

What features will appear at Minecon?

Minecon isn't until November so Jeb and Notch might have a few surprises to show us. It's unlikely that they'll just release the game with improved performance, sound and optimizations. A lot of gamers have hinted at a boss mob that you'll need to fight. This has also been confirmed by notch, although he warned that it sucks at the moment! Could there be a hidden boss in the End or maybe a new Nether boss? We'll just have to wait and see..

Roll on November and Minecon..