The menu screen added in 13w09b for accounts that have access to Minecraft Realms.
Minecraft Realms, also known as Realms, is currently a work-in-progress feature that allows for public servers.[1] Realms provide an easy and faster way to create Minecraft servers and allows more control for the creator. Realms were added in snapshot 13w09b.
This feature was not noticed until when the few selected players noticed the Texture Packs button in the Menu Screen were replaced with a Minecraft Realms button. About 100 players were selected by a computer algorithmCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag However, it is speculated that only very active or high profile accounts were among the random choosing.[2]
The chosen players can create their own Minecraft worlds, and can invite any other players into the world, whether or not they were originally chosen to test. Players that are invited will have the Realms option appear on the screen, which then the invited players can enter and explore the world they were invited in.
Possibility of Minecraft Realms Being a Paid Feature
In the snapshot 13w09b, by viewing the language files[3] in Minecraft via an editor, these lines can be seen:
mco.configure.world.buttons.subscription=Subscription
mco.configure.world.subscription.title=Subscription Info
mco.configure.world.subscription.daysleft=Days Left
mco.configure.world.subscription.start=Start Date
mco.configure.world.subscription.extend=Extend
Also, players chosen to be tested have a subscription that expires in 90 days.[4][5] These information suggests that people might have to pay in order to use this feature when it is fully released.
Trivia
- The Mojang blog closing signature is signed "// The Minecraft and Minecraft Realms teams" instead of the usual "// The Minecraft team" in the blog Minecraft Snapshot 13w09b.[6]