The newest snapshot for Minecraft on PC is now available, as announced by Mojang.
The snapshot adds in fireworks just in time for New Years. The sound effects aren't implemented yet, but will be coming soon. Now, if this sounds like the Redstone Update, which promises to be pretty massive, you're right, it sounds like, but it's not.
As noted by Mojang, notes in the post, "Thing is, we* suddenly decided we wanted to make sure that you have fireworks for New Year's Eve, so we're working in several parallel branches of the code now. One is for the 1.5 'Redstone Update,' and one is now for a 1.4.6 patch update. This update will be out before Christmas, and 1.5 will wait until January (or possibly February)."
Apart from fireworks, the snapshot fixes "plenty of bugs," and adds in enchanted books, which should make for some new and interesting enchantments for armor, weapons, and tools.
Grab the snapshot from the links below.
Client: https://assets.minecraft.net/12w49a/minecraft.jar
Server: https://assets.minecraft.net/12w49a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)
Once that's done, you can read all about how to make the new fireworks and different effects here.
An open ended sandbox (literally) style game available for less than $30, it's not hard to see why so many people have latched onto the Minecraft phenomenon.
The amount of registered Minecraft players is substantial at over 8 million. Like Angry Birds, Minecraft also has a slew of merchandise including shirts, scarves, magnets, sticky pads, and recently, even Legos. Mojang, is even open to the idea of a movie or television show. It even has its very own convention called "Minecon," and was recently celebrated at Disneyland Paris. With Minecraft now available on XBLA as well, Mojang is set to almost double its profits this year, and is well on track to take in over $17 million this year, as opposed to last year's almost $9 million.
