New default Minecraft skins bring back Steve’s beard

Mojang changed the default Minecraft skins, Steve and Alex – and Minecraft Steve’s beard is finally back after years of sporting a clean-shaven look. The crafting game’s iconic blue shirt face, Minecraft Steve’s original model, had a brown goatee – which many players thought was a beaming smile – but it was removed to give the sandbox game’s default character a more gender-neutral look.

In 2014, another default skin was introduced in Minecraft – Minecraft Alex. With a green top and longer red hair tied in a ponytail, Alex offers a slightly more feminine look than Steve’s model. Helen Chiang, head of Microsoft’s studio for Minecraft, said in a 2018 interview that the company wanted the Minecraft brand to subvert traditional gender stereotypes by presenting Alex and Steve with identical physical qualities and abilities.

Now, with the two options available to players, a decision has been made to bring back Steve’s famous goatee. A post on the Minecraft subreddit highlighted the new skins – which also improve Alex’s shading to give the second character model a more natural three-dimensional look. The reaction so far has been largely one of celebration, with fans particularly excited for Steve’s original bearded look to return.

Many commenters say they’re happy that Steve has now returned to his appearance as seen in most official graphics – including the character’s appearance in Nintendo brawler Super Smash Bros Ultimate. “I can understand why they originally removed it,” says the most upvoted comment on the Reddit thread at the time of writing, “but it was clearly a big part of Steve’s design, and it seems Mojang agrees. I’m happy to officially see it again after all these years.”

Minecraft lead artist Jasper Boerstra went to twitter to comment on the change and say, “I’m glad you like the return of the beard!” Boerstra also notes that some classic banding and pillow shading techniques are used in the new skins, “to give a add a bit of that OG junkiness,” but asks players for their opinion on whether this decision is a good one or not. The skins also include classic options if you prefer the older looks.

If you still don’t like the default Steve and Alex looks, don’t worry – we have the best Minecraft skins for you. We also have a guide to all those handy Minecraft console commands and our pick of the best Minecraft mods. By the way, did you know that Minecraft Redstone is full of radioactive uranium? Makes you think twice about what goes into putting together your house – but still check out the best Minecraft houses for some cool building ideas.