The End Is Nigh for 'Minecraft' Windows 10 and Pocket Edition

Hum a little R.E.M. with me as you read this, because it's the grandest thing to happen to Minecraft for Windows 10 and mobile devices in years -- the end, as it were, of Mojang's blocky, do-it-yourself imaginarium as we know it. The End is coming, as in the main version's olive, ebony and vermillion hued terminal alt-dimension. The place where compasses and clocks go haywire, and where upon beating the Ender Dragon, of all things, you're treated to a poem written by an Irish novelist. Not only is The End coming to the Windows 10 and mobile versions of Minecraft, but Microsoft says it'll bring us to near feature parity between these platforms and the original Java PC one. In the forthcoming still-free-for-owners shift, dubbed the "Ender Update," Microsoft will add both The End (including the outer islands and End Cities with Shulker mobs), the Ender Dragon, purple building blocks, chorus plants, the Elytra glider (flying!) and, critically, 256-block world height.