Minecraft is helping Microsoft employees get familiar with the company’s upcoming campus revamp well before it’s completed. As first reported by CNBC, Microsoft used the popular blocky sandbox game to construct a preview of the overhaul, intending to give employees a way to check out the campus’ new layout before its expected 2022 opening.
To get the project started, Microsoft tapped Blockworks, which specializes in leveraging Minecraft’s digital world to preview real-world projects. While Microsoft already has plenty of detailed renderings that show off the shape that the finished project will eventually take, Minecraft offers a unique opportunity for employees to explore the changes ahead of time – albeit with compromises due to Minecraft’s signature blocky style.
Microsoft announced its planned Redmond campus overhaul in November of last year, revealing 18 new buildings and 2.5 million square feet of new office space. The project will also involve tearing down older buildings that no longer fit Microsoft’s needs. In total, the revamped campus will end with a net increase from 125 buildings today to 131 buildings once things wrap up in 2022.
Today, Microsoft announced that Minecraft is joining Xbox Game Pass on April 4. According to the company, Minecraft allows players to “discover limitless ways to play and create anything you can imagine.” You can try to survive the night alone or share your adventure with friends. You also have the ability to build anything you can think of, explore your own unique overworld, and interact with various creatures.
Microsoft added that since its 2009 launch, Minecraft has attracted over 91 million active players of all ages from virtually every country in the world. The game supports cross-play, so Xbox One owners can play with their friends on Nintendo Switch and other devices. There’s also a major update coming soon which adds raids.
Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service which costs $10 every month. It gives you immediate access to over a hundred games on your Xbox One or Xbox One X. Keep in mind that many titles rotate in and out, just like Netflix.
The service also offers players a discount on the titles available in Xbox Game Pass, if they decide they want to continue their adventures for months to come.
Minecraft is an incredibly popular sandbox game which is played by around 91 million gamers every month. It has no only revolutionized the genre, but continues to thrill users with constant updates. A few months ago, Minecraft recieved an overhaul of underwater exploration which gives players even more reasons to explore the depths. Now, the team has set its sights on adding other highly-requested features.
Have you ever wanted to use a lantern instead of a torch? A crossbow instead of a traditional weapon? Well, you’re in luck because this update does just that. On Twitter, the official Minecraft Twitter account said, “Lanterns, shields, crossbows, and an already-famous feline named Jellie. Today’s Minecraft update is packed with content and will be rolling out on Xbox One, Windows 10… iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch today!” Unfortunately, it seems like the PlayStation 4 won’t be receiving these benefits due to lack of cross-play.
Today, Minecraft is much more than just mining for resources and building structures. The in-game store allows you to not only purchase skins and texture packs, but also adventures developed by community members. The fact that it features cross-play across a variety of platforms from consoles to mobile means that you can play with everyone, whenever you are.
Hopefully Minecraft will continue to grow in the coming years. It has not only benefits gamers, but also teachers in schools. There are a lot of academic institutions out there that rely on Minecraft to teach students about topics like geography. The game is coming to Xbox Game Pass in April, too.
The director of the Zero Escape series, which are some of the best visual novelsyou can play, has a new game in the works called AI: The Somnium Files, and it’ll arrive on PC on July 25, developer Spike Chunsoft has announced.
Director Kotaro Uchikoshi told Gematsu this week that the game will have less cutscenes than what we’re used to from Zero Escape, and is made “mainly for adventure game fans”, suggesting a focus on puzzles. You play detective Kaname Date, who is on the hunt for a serial killer in Tokyo after a women is found dead on a merry-go-round, her eye gouged out. You’ll have a prime suspect straightaway: a girl found nearby with a bloody ice pick in her hand, but all is not as it seems.
It sounds utterly surreal. As well as real-world investigation, Date can enter people’s dreams thanks to an artificial eye, hence why the trailer above shows a polar bear about to saw a woman in half. She’ll also have an AI assistant called Aiba, and the cast includes a light novel author and a teen internet pop star.
The Steam page is live here, if you want to give it a look. Katharine’s 90/100 review of Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is here, in case you want to know what all the fuss is about.
Minecraft players have turned the hub area of a once-popular server into a tribute to the server’s founder, who recently lost his battle with cancer.
Players have left tribute signs all over the hub of the Emenbee Minecraft server to Bryan, known in-game as Pendar2, who started the server back in 2011. At its peak, Emenbee contained 10 separate servers and had more than 1,500 concurrent players. More than one million players logged on during its lifespan. Pendar2 shut most of the server down—save for the hub—in October of last year.
“You built bonds that will last a lifetime, and there’s no way to repay or express…how much you’ve done for us,” reads one tribute at the hub. “Your server gave me memories I won’t forget…rest in peace,” says another. The image above was posted on Reddit by user remydesp.
In a post on the official Emenbee website, friend Mod_masta paid their own tribute to Pendar 2, who “influenced more people than most others have throughout their lifetime”.
“For years, he dedicated his life to creating a Minecraft server that many of us called our home for a while. It started out as a survival server, and eventually grew to have up to over 10 different servers and 1,500 concurrent players. For the last couple years of the server’s life, Bryan was not very active and many of you thought he had given up. The truth is that he was diagnosed with cancer. He endured chemo and surgery for several months, and eventually we thought he had been cured. But towards the end of last year, it unexpectedly came back. Recently, Bryan passed away,” Mod_masta said.
“To me Bryan was a partner, a friend, and an amazing server owner. Working with him for several years, I learned how much of a genius he truly was, in both his knowledge that allowed Emenbee to become so popular and in how he excelled at developing with so little experience. Our time spent together on Emenbee together were some of the best years of my life. It was truly an honor to have a friend like him. He did so much more for the server than most players thought he did. I could not have done anything without him.
“Without Bryan there would never have been an Emenbee, and so many of us would have been deprived of so many fun and exciting experiences. Bryan will be remembered as a genius, a compassionate person, and our hero.”
