Minecraft Finally Lets Players Sit Down After Nearly Two Decades of Standing Around

Nearly two decades into its existence, Minecraft is addressing one of its most quietly glaring omissions: somewhere comfortable to actually sit. The game's latest preview build — officially version 26.40.30 — introduces craftable cushions, giving players a functional piece of furniture that has been conspicuously absent since the game launched back in 2009. Mojang describes cushions simply as 'an item that the player can place in the world and interact with to sit on,' which is about as straightforward a feature description as you'll ever read in a patch note. They come in 16 colour variants to match any build aesthetic and require three Wool Slabs of the same colour to craft.

Alongside cushions, Mojang is also rolling out straw beds, a new alternative to the standard bed that carries its own set of trade-offs. Straw beds allow players to sleep through the night without resetting their spawn point — a handy distinction for explorers who don't want to anchor themselves to one location. The catch is significant, though: straw beds are destroyed after a single use and cannot be used in the Nether or The End. On the upside, three Hay Bales will yield four straw beds, making them a relatively cheap consumable for players on the move.

Both additions arrive as part of a broader update that also expands Minecraft's world-building with new environmental content. Abandoned camps are being introduced to the Pale Garden and Flower Forest biomes, adding atmospheric detail and lore texture to areas that players already spend significant time exploring. The Dappled Forest biome is also receiving improvements in this same update cycle, though Mojang has not yet detailed the full scope of those changes beyond the patch notes.

All of these features are currently live for anyone enrolled in the Minecraft Preview program, which serves as the game's public early-access testing channel. Mojang has confirmed that the full stable release of these additions is planned for later in 2026, though no specific date has been given. The update represents one of the more whimsical but surprisingly meaningful quality-of-life additions the game has seen in recent memory — proof that even after 17 years, Minecraft still has room for small but meaningful surprises.

The lighter news arrives against a much heavier backdrop for Mojang's parent organisation. Microsoft carried out sweeping layoffs this week affecting over 3,200 employees across Xbox-owned studios including Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, and King. Mojang itself was among the studios impacted, though the scale of its losses has not been separately confirmed. Several studios — including Double Fine, Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs — are being spun off to operate independently, while the future of Arkane Lyon remains uncertain.