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Minecraft Bedrock Update Download Available with Improved Cross-Play and Fixed Issues

by Stone Marshall | Jun 17, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

It has been announced that Minecraft Bedrock will be released for Nintendo Switch in June. According to Mojang, with this update the company will address all the existing issues.

Multiple platforms, one codebase
First of all, the Bedrock update will make it easier for future updates to be implemented on all platforms at more or less the same time. This is extremely important because so far every platform had to get its own version of Minecraft, each with a unique codebase. Because of this, it was much harder for Mojang to release updates, as every platform required a separate update for the game.

Improved Cross-Play
Secondly, different versions of Minecraft created for different platforms meant that cross-play between players that were not using the same platform was much more complicated. The Bedrock update will use just one codebase, thus making it possible for gamers to play with each other using distinct consoles. However, not all platforms will be included in this unification. As usual, Sony wants to stay away from the others, so cross-play between PlayStation and other platforms will be impossible.

One update for all platforms
The Bedrock update of Minecraft will not only improve compatibility between different consoles, but it will also allow for any future updates to be released on all platforms, at pretty much the same time.

Also, the Minecraft Marketplace will become available for Switch users. With this feature, they will gain access to additional content created by other users, such as skins, textures and even entire worlds. Additionally, you’ll be offered some mini-games through the community servers.

The Bedrock update will be available for you at no cost at all in case you already have Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition. If not, you can purchase it from the Nintendo shop online or you can buy a physical copy. You can get your own copy for approximately $30, starting with June 21st.

Star Wars Battlefront II updates will let players fight in the Clone Wars

by Stone Marshall | Jun 16, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

At E3 today, DICE revealed several big updates to Star Wars Battlefront II. Players will be able to play during the Clone Wars era, and the game will introduce several new playable characters, including Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. There’s no release date yet for the DLC.

While Battlefront II has allowed you to play as a clone trooper, it’s largely focused on the latest series of films: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Rogue One. This is the first time that Battlefront II players will be able to play as characters from the the prequel era, or to visit the planet Geonosis, where the Clone Wars began in Attack of the Clones. Design director Dennis Brannvall says that it’ll also include “the largest level we’ve ever built for Battlefront.”

In addition to the Clone Wars era, EA announced that it will introduce new content to its Han Solo season next week, including a new squad system and a new starfighter mode, as well as new environments on Kessel. It will also bring back the Extraction game mode. These updates will be released on June 12th.

During its presentation, EA acknowledged it had a “rough start,” after a heated controversy over loot boxes last November, prompting it to backtrack and overhaul its progression system.

In addition to the updates with Battlefront 2, Titanfall developer Respawn teased its own Star Wars game, which will be set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It’ll hit stores next year and will be titled Jedi: Fallen Order.

Minecraft for the Switch is getting cross-play with PC, Xbox One, and smartphones on June 21st

Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch is about to get a lot bigger with a new update that brings the universal Minecraft Bedrock Engine to Nintendo’s portable console on June 21st, enabling cross-play between the Switch and the PC, Xbox One, and mobile versions of the game.

The cross-platform update is actually pretty late in coming to the Switch — it was announced back at E3 last year, and hit the other platforms last September. The Switch release was then promised for later in the winter, which, based on the June release date, it obviously didn’t quite hit. The updated Minecraft will also support Nintendo’s new online service for the Switch when it launches later this year.

Along with the new update, a physical version of Minecraft for the Switch is getting released for $29.99, should you prefer to own hard copies of your games instead of digital downloads.

Teacher defends use of Minecraft in the classroom, so Tom Elliott speaks with a player!

by Stone Marshall | Jun 15, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

All public school students will now be able to play Minecraft in class as the government foots the bill for the popular game.

Education Minister James Merlino announced today that all public school students will have access to the game.

“And in this game you can build digital worlds, but in some versions you can also do things like fighting zombies with swords,” Tom Elliott said.

Rebecca Martin, digital technologies coach at Fitzroy North Primary School, told Tom Elliott that aspect of the game isn’t used in her school.

“The benefit of the education version is that you can actually turn that off,” Rebecca said.

“We’ve been using Minecraft in the classroom for about eight years.

“For example, our 5/6 students have been looking at space and whether life can be sustained on another planet, so they jet off on a new planet that they have to colonize.

“They have to learn about sustainability, energy choices, economics and citizenship.”

Tom Elliott then spoke with an avid player, a captain, in fact, of the Minecraftables at school – his daughter Ava!

“I like it so much,” she said.

April 2018’s top 10 Minecraft Marketplace creations: back to the city

Minecraft fans downloaded fewer pieces of content from the game’s marketplace last month, but the top-10 lists for most downloaded and top grossing are both still excellent reminders of the variety and fun that players can find in that store. The Minecraft Marketplace had 285,816 downloads in April, which is down from 321,317 in March and 372,509 in February.

Welcome! You’ve once again found yourself reading GamesBeat’s monthly analysis of the Minecraft Marketplace, which is the block-building phenomenon’s platform for extra content from the Minecraft team as well as external developers. If this is your first time here, you can see the results from past months right here. We do have some new names on the charts, but once again, developers like PixelHeads are dominating.

But we can also see that teams that specialize in roleplay content like InPvP are also thriving with the No. 2 and No. 3 spot on the most-downloaded top 10. Maybe we’ll see developers chasing that trend, or maybe we’ll see some new fad break through in May.

Let’s do the charts.

Here are the top-10 most downloaded pieces of content from the Minecraft Marketplace in April 2018:

Click to view slideshow.
Here’s the top 10 in list form:

City Life
BrightStart Daycare
Prison Escape
Dinosaur Island
K-Pop: Teenage Rebellion
Wildlife: Savanna
Oropia
Summer Mini Games Festival
Chroma Hills HD
Steampunk Castle
And here’s the top-grossing list for April 2018:

Click to view slideshow.
City Life
Dinosaur Island
Wildlife: Savanna
BrightStart Daycare
Chroma Hills HD
Prison Escape
Relics of the Privateers
Lapis Lagoon
K-Pop: Teenage Rebellion
PureBDcraft
The Marketplace is already growing, and we can see that new content always causes download numbers to pop from month to month. But as the Marketplace hits new platforms as Bedrock launches on devices (like Nintendo Switch on June 21), content creators will have a chance to hit entirely new audiences. That’s a big opportunity for a group of Marketplace devs that are already making a living doing what they are doing.

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