India, Sept. 17 -- Mojang has just released Minecraft 1.21.9 Pre-Release 1, which is an update focused on stability, bug fixes, commands, and launch prep. Testing is now open so players and server operators can see how the patch runs before release candidates lock down the code.

Pre-releases are the final stage of public testing by Mojang before a version is released. Pre-releases are the last stage after the snapshot phase is complete and most new features are in. Pre-releases don't have big new content drops like snapshots do. The focus is on refinement, bug fixing, and tweaking the technical things.

A pre-release is Mojang's safety net. The pre-release phase is the final way for players to stress test the update on different setups (...