The staff of Mojang addressed why fireflies will no longer be included in Minecraft's upcoming The Wild Update. The Wild Update is a massive update that is slated to be released later this year. The Wild Update is themed around nature and spooky things and will be adding new biomes and many types of flora and fauna to the world.
Mojang developers have been keeping fans up to date on the progress of The Wild Update through various means such as live events and their YouTube channel. From these updates, players already have plenty of details on what's to come. Minecraft's swamp will get a major overhaul, there will be new creatures such as frogs and Wardens, deep dark biomes that contain ancient cities. Mojang will also add quality of life improvement items such as boats with chests and compasses that point to the last place where the player died so they can retrieve their items easier. Fireflies were originally part of the update, but have since been cut.
In an episode of "Ask Mojang" on the official Minecraft YouTube channel, developers reveal why the fireflies were cut from Minecraft's The Wild Update. Mojang's original plan was to include fireflies as a food source for the new frogs, but fans reached out and told developers that, in real life, most fireflies are poisonous to frogs and toads. To accommodate this. the frogs' food source will now instead be tiny slimes. Lundgren continues to discuss the possible, yet unlikely, chance that fireflies will be in a different update. Although Minecraft fireflies might be added in the future, they are not planned for a comping update.
Considering that one of the new biomes The Wild Update will include is called "deep dark", it feels like a shame to lose something that could have potentially provided even a small amount of light to the area. Seeing fireflies in the new swamp areas or dark ancient cities would certainly have been an atmospheric experience for Minecraft. However, the only truly known purpose of fireflies was to be a food source for the frogs, so this seems like a small loss. Perhaps if fireflies are used in a future update, players could catch them in glass bottles to use as a portable light source.
While the fate of fireflies may remain uncertain, The Wild Update is still in progress and promises to add plenty of carefully crafted content. While the fireflies have been cut, there will still be other creatures like the frogs, allays, tadpoles, and the intimidating Wardens. Minecraft's The Wild Update will be released later in 2022.
Minecraft is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source: Minecraft/YouTube