Mojang used its Minecraft Live broadcast on Saturday, September 26 to confirm that The Sift, a fourth dimension first shown at Gamescom, will be added to Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition in 2027. It is the first new dimension the game has gained since Minecraft reached version 1.0 in 2011.
The dimension arrives elsewhere first. Xbox Wire said The Sift will be introduced in Minecraft Dungeons II, the action-RPG spin-off launching on September 29 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Game Pass, as well as Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
What Mojang has said about The Sift
Polygon described the dimension as ethereal and spirit-world-like from its Minecraft Live segment, and GameSpot reported a landscape of red and orange stone, green vegetation, sculk-like elements and pools of a hazardous liquid called icor. Xbox Wire said The Sift contains new biomes including Meadows and Carapace, with other areas held back for players to find in Dungeons II.
Minecraft Dungeons II creative director Mans Olson told PCGamesN the team wanted the dimension to read differently from what Minecraft already had. He contrasted the familiar Overworld with the Nether and the End, which he said "are very hostile and imposing, both in different ways, but they have this threat to them."
We really wanted to make something that felt a bit peaceful - serene, almost - and that gave a very different color palette for players to enjoy.
Olson said The Sift is still dangerous during the events of Dungeons II, where it is under threat from the Illagers, "but it's not evil." Design director Laura de Llorens told PCGamesN the wider Minecraft team was involved throughout so the dimension would fit the game's universe, and in the presentation chief creative officer Jens Bergensten said new dimensions "truly expand the universe."
GameSpot reported that Dungeons II introduces several new mobs in The Sift, among them Sifters, Singers, Neesters and Sprouts, and that Mojang has not confirmed which of them will appear in Minecraft. Xbox Wire said the studio is not yet detailing how players will reach the dimension in the base game.
The Frozen Caves drop and the rest of the show
Before that, PCGamesN reported, the next Minecraft game drop is The Frozen Caves, which enters testing soon. It adds ice caves, a rare underground region found beneath cold biomes and filled with glowing ice crystals that can be collected and placed for light and decoration. GameSpot said the drop is expected around late December 2026.
The drop also adds the Frozen Zombie, a Zombie variant created by exposing a Zombie to powdered snow. GameSpot reported that its melee attacks apply a stacking freezing effect and that it throws ice balls which deal damage and knock players back. The ice balls drop when the mob is killed, can be crafted, and can be brewed into a potion that applies a freezing effect.
Polygon reported that sound effects packs are coming to the Minecraft Marketplace by the end of the year, that Minecraft launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 27, and that the Minecraft World theme park at Chessington World of Adventures will open in 2027 alongside a Minecraft-themed hotel, with a coaster called Escape the Nether.
