Mojang AB, developer of Minecraft, has changed the block-based sandbox creative game so that it no longer requires Java to run. This will come as a relief to many users who enjoy playing Minecraft on PCs and would rather not suffer with the strange, arcane installation needs of Java and the potential insecurity that it adds.

The change is afforded by bundling a standalone Java into the Minecraft installation that allows the game to run its own Java instance. Not only does this increase the security of users who want to play Minecraft (and lower frustration) but according to tests run by How-To Geek it may also perform better.

The change will allow players to stop worrying about Java (in fact, those people who only run Java to play Minecraft can uninstall it and keep playing fine). It also means that users will not need to remember to keep up with burdensome updates; the Minecraft launcher will keep its own Java up to date.

As a game, Minecraft saw over 1.4 million concurrent users in January this year and exceeded 100 million registered users last year (the Minecraft stats website shows 18 million between PC/Mac). It’s hard to say how many of these players are PC players, but it certainly reveals the reach of the game and how many users may benefit from this sort of change.

Over the past few months Mojang has had multiple irons in the fire, from planning a new Ender dragon fight to new in-game clouds, but most importantly the game developer has been testing out a new launcher for PC. This launcher is already available from Mojang’s Minecraft website and changing over to the bundled version of Java currently is a little advanced, but fairly easy (see How-To-Geek’s instructions).

When the writers at How-To Geek changed their version of Java from the standard 64-bit to Minecraft’s bundled 64-bit Java showed dramatic improvement. The installation jumped to 70 frames per second (FPS) from around 40 FPS.

As many players may even have a 32-bit version of Java installed on 64-bit systems will find an even more significant performance enhancement when the bundled Java becomes officially supported in the Minecraft launcher.

Block pushing players who enjoy Minecraft on Macs need not left out, the OS X launcher with bundled Java is underway and is expected by the end of the year.

Image credit: “Grass Block” top photo courtesy of Mojang AB