Minecraft 1.8 Has Been Leaked

Sometime this afternoon a more-or-less stable version of Minecraft 1.8 was leaked on to these great wide webs. The update, which has been long-awaited by fans of the game, will add several new features to the Minecraft experience. Including new terrain, lighting engines, and the terrifying Endermen.

There is some chatter on Reddit that the leak may be intentional. Considering that the file is available from a Mojang domain, specifically at http://assets.minecraft.net/1_8-pre/minecraft.jar, and that earlier today developer Jens Bergensten said he would be uploading the game for “expert users.” That, and the fact that Mojang founder Notch is encouraging people to report the bugs they find, makes this sound fairly legit.

Regardless of the motivation behind the leak, all accounts are that the game is still buggy. I’ll see if I can resist running it myself, but I doubt that will last.

(via @notch)