Yu-Gi-Oh! fans have a lot to look forward to in 2018 because not only will the first movie be screened in U.S. theaters in a new resolution, but it will also premiere the English dub of the newest series in the franchise, VRAINS.

Fathom Events and 4K media are having a special event where the movie will have an extremely limited run in theaters March 11 and 12.

Here’s the description of the event:

“Fathom Events and 4K Media are excited to bring the 2004 anime hit, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, to cinemas nationwide for two days only on March 11 & 12!

Heroic Yugi squares off against archrival Kaiba in an adventure even more dangerous when the imaginary monsters in their playing cards become ferociously real… and when an old evil enters the fray. Who will win this ultimate smackdown? Whether you’re a novice Duelist or a professional, you’ll want to watch and find out! Recently digitally remastered, this special two-day event also features an exclusive first look of the sixth Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS!”

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS has only been available as a simulcast on Crunchyroll in its native Japanese with English subtitles, but Fathom Events has confirmed that the VRAINS preview they will be showing fans in attendance is indeed the first look at the English dub.

You can purchase your tickets for the event here, and now the event will definitely be a must see.

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS is the fifth version of the series following Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V and started airing in 2017. It takes place ten years into the future, where Duel Monsters is played through virtual reality tech. It follows a young boy named Yusaku who is dueling to defeat a mysterious hacker group that has run rampant throughout the virtual world.

For those unfamiliar with Yu-Gi-Oh!, the series was originally created by Kazuki Takahashi. It ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from September 1996 to March 2004. The series follows Yugi Mutou, a young boy who solves an ancient puzzle and is possessed by the spirit of the Egyptian pharoah. Being skilled at deadly games, the Pharoah goes on to create and solve problems for Yugi based on deadly games of chance.

Two anime series were created for the series, but the one most fans will recognize is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was the first arc in the story to focus on the “Duel Monsters” card game and was the first season licensed for an English language release by 4Kids Entertainment. The first season of the series, which fans often dub as “Season 0,” was more focuses on deadly games of chance with horrible consequences. It’s a darker season of the series featuring many changes from the series’ identity later on.

‘Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS’ Teases English Dub

Fans have spoken, and it seems Dragon Ball FighterZ is the game to beat this year. The much-anticipated title is out now, and its all-out action has got gamers feeling good. Of course, anime fans are also loving the title thanks to its clever anime throwbacks.

So, if you haven’t gotten Yamcha to unleash THAT easter egg yet, then you need to load up your game. You have a treasure to dig up.

If you have played Dragon Ball FighterZ, you know it has a massive roster of characters. Everyone from Goku to Majin Buu are up for grabs, but the game’s top easter egg can only be unlocked with Yamcha and Nappa.

If you set up a match between the two characters, they come into the arena ready to go. Yamcha calls out the Saiyan and tells Nappa is strategy of using Saibamen will not work on him this time. Nappa isn’t phased in the least as he says he will just kill Yamcha himself this time around.

However, the Saiyan eats his words if you manage to beat Nappa with Yamcha.

If you unlock a dramatic finish in this match, Yamcha will get his sweet revenge on Nappa. The baddie will send a Saibaman flying at Yamcha in another attempt to kill him, but the martial artist hurls the creature back at Nappa. The Saiyan freaks out before the Saibaman explodes, leaving Nappa KO’d in a crater just like the one Yamcha died in years ago.

As you will remember, Yamcha did fall for that Saibaman trick back in Dragon Ball Z. The fighter was taken out when he stepped up to Nappa, but he didn’t even get a chance to fight the Saiyan. One of the villain’s Saibaman took him out instead, and Yamcha was killed by the fake out. The sudden death ruined Yamcha’s reputation since he was taken out by such a weak adversary, and his death pose has become on the Internet’s most enduring memes. So, it is time to see how Nappa handles that kind of humiliation…

DragonBall Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.

Are you glad Yamcha got revenge on Nappa even if it was just in a game? Hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to let me know and talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!

‘Dragon Ball FighterZ’ Has The Best Yamcha Easter Egg

The Xbox One S might not get the same kind of recognition that its other 4K-wielding older sibling might, but the system is still a great addition to Microsoft’s line of consoles, especially for new gamers. With that in mind, there’s a new sale over on Amazon that makes this console a little more enticing, by knocking a huge chunk off of the price and bundling it with the game that turned into a cultural phenomenon: Minecraft.

The 500 gigabyte Xbox One X (with the game) is currently $239.95 on Amazon, down from its usual $299. Games are playable in 4K, and can be played on both the console and PC through Microsoft.

For those of you who may have somehow missed the outbreak of Minecraft when it basically because the most talked-about game on YouTube, here’s a briefer on the legendary sandbox game:

Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs. Create, explore and survive alone or with friends on mobile devices or Windows 10.

FEATURES:

– Skins, texture, and mash-up packs! We have biome settlers, city folk, town folk, and more!

– ADD-ONS! Learn more at minecraft.net/addons, where you can try some examples for free or learn to create your own.

– Realms! Play with up to 10 friends cross-platform in worlds that exist anytime, anywhere. Try a free 30-day trial in-app and learn more at http://minecraft.net/realms.

– Xbox Live support, including achievements

– The Nether and all its inhabitants. Fight Ghasts and make friends with Pigmen

– Cross platform play for up to five players between Pocket Edition and Windows 10

– Redstone! Pistons, comparators, repeaters, dispensers, droppers, and more!

– Spooky witches and their huts, complete with cauldrons filled with random potions and the ability to dye armor

– Ocelots! And bunnies!

– Slash commands to let you tweak how the game plays

– you can give items away, summon mobs, change the time of day, and more.

Minecraft is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox One S, and more.

Get the Xbox One S Bundled with Minecraft for a Huge Discount

‘Minecraft’ is a microcosm of Microsoft’s gaming strategy

Build your own adventure with the $23 Minecraft Explorer’s Pack on Xbox One

Minecraft hits new monthly player record, 74 million in Dec

Correction: Sony reached out to tell us that the Twitter account allegedly belonging to SIE CEO John Kodera in this story was actually an elaborate hoax. I apologize deeply for the oversight!

Original story: The new boss of Sony’s PlayStation division took charge late last year and he made one thing clear at the start of this one: the change in leadership does not mean a change in direction for the company’s biggest games. Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO John Kodera made the pronouncement in a humbly-worded Twitter response to a PlayStation fan’s concerns.

I will do my best to continue the excellent work done by Mr. @AndyHousePS . About the issue of “Games as a Service”, do not worry about it. @PlayStation’s vision is totally different.January 10, 2018

A clarification of terms: “games as a service” is a broad concept encapsulating games that keep you playing for months or even years with regular content updates (as opposed to a set campaign or multiplayer experience). It’s the difference between the original Halo and Destiny; they’re both built on similar shooty-shoot play experiences, but Destiny added stuff for years after launch to keep players coming back. Also to keep players spending money on DLC expansions and microtransactions, which is the part that tends to rankle.

While PS4 is home to many such games as a service, the big titles Sony publishes tend to keep that element secondary or not use it at all: Horizon: Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, and Bloodborne are just a few examples. Looking ahead to God of War, Days Gone, Spider-Man, and Ghost of Tsushima, the same seems to be true of Sony’s currently announced slate of games. And judging by Kodera’s tweet, we can expect similar plans far further into the company’s future, even as former CEO Andrew House’s press conference voice becomes a distant (but still pleasantly Welsh) memory.

Horizon: Zero Dawn probably would have made more money if it sold you crafting materials in loot boxes, but it also may have eroded some of the good feelings players have about it and the system as a whole. By emphasizing traditionally crowd-pleasing games in its own portfolio, Sony keeps fans happy, sells more PS4s, and cultivates a thriving platform for all kinds of titles. That includes games as a service, from which Sony happily collects a portion of the microtransaction purchases. Such is the unique, hard-earned joy of being a platform holder!

New PlayStation boss reassures fans on Twitter (UPDATE: it was a faker!)

Money, as we all know, can’t buy you happiness. So by the same logic, a lot of fun things must be free. And lo and behold, they are! And we’re not talking about the obvious, weak-ass options here, like sunsets, love, or the sound of children’s laughter. No, we’re hitting the good stuff. Video games.

Free games have come a long way since the old days of mindless XP clicking and endless pay-to-win options. Now you’ll find the full spectrum of gaming experience, from full-bodied action-shooters, to RPGs, to narrative adventures, to competitive fighting games, just begging you to make them part of your life in exchange for exactly zero money. So read on, and we’ll break down the best PS4 games you can get started on right now, with not a single thought for your wallet. Some of them are even PS4 exclusives…

Probably the hottest, free multiplayer game right now, and for good reason. Taking Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds’ basis of a vast, 100 player, last-man-standing shooter as its basis, and then evolving it with natty, on-the-fly, tactical construction, Battle Royale is an instantly accessible hoot with serious long-term depth. Parachuting into a huge, open-world island map – initially completely unarmed and entirely devoid of supplies – the opening minutes of any match are a giddy, tense scramble as you attempt to glide to a spot free of competition (but hopefully bountiful of resources), search for a weapon, and quickly smash up the environment in a bid to accrue a few of the building resources you’ll need as things heat up. As the map boundaries close in, player numbers dwindle, and base structures become ever more elaborate, a different kind of tension ramps, as the game’s demands dynamically evolve. It’s an unpredictable joy every time, and with developer Epic updating Battle Royale at a heady pace, one that’s only going to grow over the coming months.

Download Fortnite Battle Royale now on PSN

Brawlhalla

Forget PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Actually, forget that instruction. No-one remembers PlayStation All-Stars. Sony’s mascot-touting, Smash Bros. ‘homage’ made a splash akin to a pea in the Pacific back in 2012, and the light, breezy, platform-brawler fighting game genre has (mostly) remained the sole preserve of Nintendo ever since. But no longer! A decidedly slick, accomplished, and even slightly more energetic take on the Smash formula, Brawlhalla presents a nonsensically eclectic cast of mythical and historical warrior archetypes – taking in Valkyries, Vikings, medieval knights, and er, ‘30s gangsters – and lets you go wild. With an increased focus on empowered air-control, and bigger scope for epic, high-flying ‘off-stage’ duels, Brawlhalla also does a good job of standing (somewhat) distinct from it inspiration. And its free-to-play model is rather friendly too, offering a limited selection of the character roster on free rotation, with earned in-game currency or real money buying the rest.

Download Brawlhalla now on PSN

Smite

Download Smite now on PSN

Let it Die

A hectic, borderline-sadistic hack-and-slash, you should only play Let it Die if you have a penchant for getting your ass handed to you. Or thrown over the other side of the room as one of its many insane bosses rips you in half in ways you didn’t know existed. No, I’m not going to compare it to that game about darkness and souls. Grinding your way through its many levels, you’ll have to beat boss after boss to make it all the way to the top of a tower that’s mysteriously risen up through the earth. On your way you’ll meet characters that look like someone pitched them based on random word combinations. The most memorable by far is the skateboarding Uncle Death. Who wears spiral sunglasses and biker boots. He’s… interesting. There is a slim monetisation aspect to Let it Die, but you get a ton of ‘death metals’, its currency of choice (*metal horns gesture*), thrown at you after completing special events so you don’t have to drain your wallet to play. Plus each time you die your player will appear in someone else’s game as an additional enemy. So we promise all those deaths mean something. Promise.

Download Let it Die now on PSN

Life Is Strange, Episode 1

Bewitching players for two years now, finally you can see what all the fuss is about for free. Everything changes when lead character Max discovers she can rewind time, saving the life of her rebellious best friend Chloe in the process. Life in their home of Arcadia Bay gets dark when the pair start using Max’s power to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Amber, one of their school friends. Rachel’s absence causes ripples in the town, and they find themselves drawn deeper into the uncomfortable goings-on that have remained in the shadows until now. Altering the past creates its own problems, though. The game as a whole has multiple endings, so there’s a huge replayability factor. Episode 1 is a good sampler of the entire saga though, so there’s really no reason not to give Life is Strange a try.

Download Life is Strange EP1 now on PSN

Paragon

Ready for some outlandish mental images? Here we go: a tiny imp riding a warbeast with a mouth big enough to swallow a walrus whole. An angelic white-and-gold angel android. An engineer with one extra robotic arm clinging to her back. I assure you each one of these characters exists. And you can find them in Paragon, a multiplayer battle arena game bursting with havoc. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, everything looks beautiful, which you’ll want to focus on when you’re trying not to get shot to bits. Building your deck (no cards here: it’s a fancy name for perk cards) will help to delay the inevitable, as you can select different perks or items to suit your playstyle. But wait, there’s more! Different items will pop up during the game depending on the cards you chose, so you can easily vary each session by dropping some different perks into your loadout. These cards are earned through gameplay too, so you won’t have to face people who have bought their way to the top of the game. It’s all very fair, and is a good stop-gap while you eye that Overwatch purchase hungrily.

Download Paragon now on PSN

Trove

PlayStation’s attempt at Minecraft feels a little more like Dragon Quest Builders, with hours of building fun in store. In between bouts of piecing together your house/castle/lair of choice in Trove there are vastly different landscapes to be explored. Yes, there’s the usual forest, desert, and arctic sections. Scattered into the mix is also a bright pink, saccharine-sweet candy realm, and a futuristic tron-like world with high-tech enemies. Slashing your way through levels of each dungeon is surprisingly tough at points, yet it gradually gets easier. Each boss drops a variety of weapons and masks, which you can equip to give yourself some skill boosts. Perhaps you think you can guess what kind of characters you’ll be playing. No offence, but you’re probably incorrect. Choose between Chloromancers who control the plants that spring from the ground to deadly effect, or a Candy Barbarian who gives the phrase ‘sugar rush’ a whole new meaning.

Download Trove now on PSN

Warframe

Cyberninjas. Does that word alone not sell you on Warframe instantly? With your main aims being assassination, looting, and trying out as many frames as possible, at first the amount to do is intimidating. You see, ‘frames’ are loadouts (in the form of different sets of armour) that determine your abilities, and therefore your playstyle. To amass different frames to try you’ll first need blueprints, which will be splurged out of bosses you defeat. Use these to buy the frame you’ve got your eye on. One will be able to teleport, another will be able to summon a frost nova or a sonic boom. Encouraging you to play the game however you want and try out new approaches, it helps that each frame has an eye-catching design for you to yearn after. It’s outperformed usual free-to-play expectations by making it entirely possible to get to a high level of expertise without paying a single penny, though expect to grind quite a bit in the process. With over 26 million users, there’s a very active community to play too.

Download Warframe now on PSN

Hawken

Similar to Warframe, Hawken gives players the option to hold onto their hard-earned cash and instead grind their way to the top. Stomping around in a giant mech is exciting enough, but the main attraction of the game is the fact that ammunition is unlimited. Of course, there is a catch. Your guns will overheat, turning you into the equivalent of a squishy damage sponge, so you’ll have to retreat to recover your energy and get those guns firing again. Don’t expect to be lumped with a specific mech loadout either, as you can customise the weapons, equipment, and select different mech upgrades to suit how you want to play. Lumpy movement is to be expected from giant robots. To be as nimble as a ballerina the giant buckets of metal can side dash and boost their way across the arena, and turn around speedily at the cost of a draining fuel tank. If you want to see how a massive mech could be that elegant, give Hawken a go.

Download Hawken now on PSN

Planetside 2

Lone wolves, step away. Those who yearn to be part of something bigger, to have brothers-in-arms shooting by your side, step up to the plate. The raucously hectic FPS Planetside 2 has you join one of three factions and battle for domination of the planet Auraxis by using foot soldiers, monstrously huge vehicles and air support. The premise will be familiar to anyone who’s played an online FPS match. Each outpost you conquer and retain gives your team extra resources and limits the spawning options open to your enemies. You can only capture outposts that are near ones you’ve already claimed, so there’s no voyaging deep into enemy territory where you’ll become over-familiar with bullets in various body parts. There’s just the right amount of direction to keep Planetside 2 from becoming overwhelming, so it’s ready and waiting any time you want a bit of free sci-fi FPS action.

Download Planetside 2 now on PSN

The 10 best free games to play on PS4

Paragon, Epic Games’ action-oriented foray into the MOBA genre, is shutting down. First teased during PlayStation Experience 2015, it was released as a free-to-play, in-development title for PS4 and PC in March 2016. The game never managed to exit beta despite the addition of several new heroes and other major updates. On the game’s official site, a statement from the Paragon team reads:

“It’s with heavy hearts we’ve decided to close down Paragon.

We truly appreciate everything you’ve put into Paragon. We received many passionate ideas for where to take the game; the outpouring of thoughtful suggestions is another testament to this incredible community. 

After careful consideration, and many difficult internal debates, we feel there isn’t a clear path for us to grow Paragon into a MOBA that retains enough players to be sustainable.

We didn’t execute well enough to deliver on the promise of Paragon. We have failed you — despite the team’s incredibly hard work — and we’re sorry.

To try to make this right, Epic is offering a full refund to every Paragon player for every purchase on any platform. This refund will come directly from Epic rather than your platform provider.”

The statement then provides instructions for how to request a refund.

I don’t know about you, but I find that statement quite sobering to read, and it illustrates just how risky an investment games have become. The risk on the development side is obvious: you never know if your product is going to be successful, and (as is the case here) it’s possible you may never see it grow into the vision you planned for. But there are risks on the consumer side as well, the most obvious being monetary.

Epic is doing right by its consumers to give refunds, but there was always a chance it, or any other studio, wouldn’t. And going forward, there will always bea chance that money spent could end up being money thrown down the drain. That’s the nature of ‘games as a service,’ and it highlights why some are so skittish about getting involved with modern games.

Don’t get me wrong – any game can be a risk, and to varying degrees, that’s always been the case. Did you pick up that SNES game back in the day because your friend at school wouldn’t stop talking about how cool it was, only to be letdown? Did you buy that PS2 game based on a review you read in a magazine, but found you vehemently disagreed with its assessment? Or maybe you didn’t read any reviews or hear any word of mouth, but grabbed a game based purely on trailers and/or box art, only to find it was nothing like you imagined?

It’s the extra layer of uncertainty that comes when games exist as a service – meaning that even if you love it one month, you may hate it the next, or in this case, it could be gone the next – that gives me pause. We already struggle with preserving games, but how do you preserve a game like Paragon? You don’t really, and so players who loved it must now be content with the memories they made during the game’s brief lifetime. There will be no ‘I think I’ll dust off my old copy’ in the future for Paragon’s community, and so it may feel like a gamble that simply didn’t pay off. That, quite frankly, sucks.

And it doesn’t just suck for those who loved the game – it sucks for every developer on the Paragon team who worked hard to make it a reality, every person who assumed they’d get around to it someday, and every believer who told their friends, ‘Hey you should check this out’. Regardless of what you think about the game itself, Paragon’s brief life should serve as a lesson on being careful about where you put your money and your time.

Epic’s position that anyone who spent real-world cash on the game will be getting a refund is welcome and the right thing to do. But personally, I find that a bit of a hollow victory – I’d much rather there be one more game in the world for people to enjoy.

Epic is shutting down Paragon – here’s what it means for players and gamers in general

The heartwarming success of Stardew Valley has taken on an even brighter note, thanks to its debut on Nintendo’s latest console. According to Nintendo’s official worldwide rankings, the farm-life RPG was the most-downloaded Switch eShop exclusive title in 2017. It beat out the juggernaut that is Minecraft, which took second place, as well as Sonic Mania and Rocket League at No. 3 and 4 respectively. All that despite Stardew Valley releasing later in the year (and thus having less time to rack up sales) than the others.

Both Minecraft and Rocket League were phenomena of their own, though their respective fervors had died down a bit by the time they arrived on Switch. Still, when you remember that Stardew Valley was almost entirely the product of a single person’s labor and deep, deep love for Harvest Moon, it’s all the more impressive (Minecraft started out as a one-person project too, but it’s had a whole studio behind it for many years now).

Here’s an extended list of the top 10 global eShop bestsellers on Switch. Remember that this list only includes download-exclusive titles (or chiefly download, I believe, if they have limited physical versions), so you’re not going to see games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey on it.

1. Stardew Valley
2. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition
3. Sonic Mania
4. Rocket League
5. Snipperclips
6. Overcooked
7. Shovel Knight
8. Fast RMX
9. Kamiko
10. Steamworld Dig 2

The staying power of Minecraft has already been made manifest. Will Stardew Valley hold on to its ranking even as the upcoming Nintendo Switch games of 2018 start pouring in? Whoever wins… we also win, because these games are rad and this system is rad. Nice.

Stardew Valley’s bigger than Minecraft, Sonic, and Rocket League on Switch

Minecraft has now surpassed 144 million copies sold worldwide and currently has 74 million MAUs.

The figure was revealed by Microsoft head of Minecraft Helen Chiang in an interview with PopSugar. The MAU record was set in December 2017. It is unclear how many of these players are on mobile.

Chiang pointed to consistent updates bringing players back, as well as the promise of more to come in the future. This includes the addition of the Marketplace on Switch, which allows user-generated content to be sold to other players.

Setting records

“We just recently set a new record in December for monthly active users, so now we’re at 74 million monthly active users — and that’s really a testament to people coming back to the game, whether it’s through the game updates or bringing in new players from across the world,” said Chiang.

Microsoft partnered with NetEase to launch China back in 2017, which led to 30 million downloads by the end of October 2017. It is available across mobile and PC in the region.

Minecraft’s Marketplace has also seen some popularity, generating $1 million in revenues in the four months following its launch. Minecraft is also almost entirely cross-platform due to the Better Together update launched in September 2017.

Minecraft cleared 144 million copies sold and 74 million MAUs in December 2017

‘Minecraft’ is a microcosm of Microsoft’s gaming strategy

PixArk, an official Minecraft-inspired Ark: Survival Evolved spin-off, is heading to Steam Early Access and Xbox Games Preview this March, developer Snail Games has announced.PixArk was unveiled late last year and is the result of a licensing deal with original Ark developer Studio Wildcard. It’s an open-world sandbox game that takes the core elements of the main Ark series – survival, dinosaur taming, crafting, base building, and co-operative tribe living – and re-assembles them as a more casual, Minecraft-esque experience.

According to its Steam Early Access page, PixArk will feature a robust character creator and progression system (complete with skill trees and customisable stats), a voxel block building system, procedurally generated quests, an “infinite number” of voxel based maps featuring deserts, jungles, caves, and more, plus 100 voxel-ized Ark creatures to tame, train, and ride.

PixArk can either be played solo or by teaming up with friends to work together as a tribe, and there looks to be support for both local and online multiplayer.

“Spend your time building a towering fortress or go on a quest in a sprawling cavern”, says Snail Games of PixArk, “Fly on the back of a dragon and smite your enemies with a magic wand, or ride a mighty T-Rex and blast your foes with a rocket launcher. In the world of PixARK, how you play is up to you – as long as you survive!”

PixArk is due to launch on Xbox Games Preview and Early Access this March, according to Snail Games. The full version will release on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, and is expected to arrive later in the year. And speaking as someone that’s played way too much Ark and Minecraft, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit intrigued.

Ark is getting a Minecraft-like spin-off, and it’s heading to Steam and Xbox early access soon

Miitomo, Nintendo’s initial entry into the world of smartphone apps, is shutting down. Nintendo has announced that it will stop selling Miitomo coins, the in-app currency, today, and service will end altogether on May 9th. You’ll still be able to use the app and receive Miitomo coins through login bonuses until then, and Nintendo is also planning to refund players for any purchased Miitomo coins that went unused.

Although Miitomo evidently didn’t set the world alight, it’s a surprisingly swift end for what was a widely hyped app upon its launch just under two years ago. Miitomo made use of Miis, the company’s trademark avatars, and offered several quirky ways to communicate with friends. But with Miis deemphasized on Nintendo’s current smash hit console, the Switch, and with the company’s mobile efforts now focused on adapting more traditional games like Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, perhaps Miitomo was never going to be long for this world.

Nintendo is shutting down Miitomo

The hot console topic of 2017 for the games industry may have been about the mid-generation, but this year the focus is on Nintendo — specifically, the Nintendo Switch. According to the latest annual survey from the Game Developers Conference, now that the Switch is a proven hit, more developers are interested this year in creating games for Nintendo’s tablet.

Organizers polled nearly 4,000 developers, who say they have a growing interest in Nintendo’s newest console. Thirty-six percent of respondents, when asked which platforms they were the most interested in, said the Nintendo Switch. That puts the console above the Xbox One (28 percent), but still below the PS4 (39 percent) and PC platforms (59 percent).

Furthermore, developers say their games sell as well (23 percent) or better (28 percent) on the Switch as other consoles — a point worth noting since the install base for the Switch is smaller than that of its competitors. About 12 percent say they’re currently developing games for the platform (that’s up from three percent last year). And 15 percent of developers say they plan to release their next game on the platform, as opposed to five percent in 2017.

The big caveat to consider with all of this information is how new the Nintendo Switch still is compared to its competition. Whether enthusiasm for the platform will hold in the years to come remains to be seen. As of December 2017, however, more than 10 million consoles have been sold. The company continues to pursue more outlandish avenues than its competitors; just last week, Nintendo announced a series of DIY cardboard toys for the Switch.

The full results are available online. The survey also includes a few other findings to note:

• Despite the controversy surrounding loot crates, 11 percent of respondents, or about one in 10 developers, are working on a game with a monetization strategy that uses loot boxes.
• PC and mobile are still the most popular platforms for gamemakers, but development is slipping in the latter: 32 percent of respondents say their game is headed to mobile, vs 35 percent in 2017.
• Interest in VR is waning. Respondents were asked for the third consecutive year if they believed AR/VR could be a sustainable, long-term business; 29 percent of respondents said “no,” as opposed to past years of roughly 25 percent.

The Nintendo Switch is a hit, and game developers are flocking to the console

Microsoft puts Minecraft boss in charge of Xbox games

The Minecraft Marketplace is the place to go to discover new skins, textures and worlds designed by the community, and a lot of new content has just dropped today. “If you’re a fan of either (takes deep breath) vampires, Vikings, dragons, cowboys, monkeys, outlaws, train robbers, robots, samurai, wildlife or great new mini-games, then we’re bound to have at least something for you,” the Minecraft team announced in a blog post.

Among highlights, Val’Aven from Pathway Studios is a medieval city hiding a cool treasure in a massive dungeon. As you can see in the video below, it’s also guarded by a nicely detailed dragon:

Another cool addition is the Wildlife Artic pack from Pixelheads, which brings two snow vehicles, 20 new wild winter animals (including a yeti and a mammoth) and big mountains and ice caves to explore.

There is a lot of other new content to check out on the Minecraft Marketplace including the Wild West Pack by Blockeption or The Vampire King by BlockWorks, and you can get more details on the Minecraft website. As a reminder, all content you purchase on the marketplace can be enjoyed on mobile, console and Windows 10.

Minecraft Marketplace adds vampires, robots and more

You can visit the Pentagon’s secret nuclear bunker inside Minecraft

Microsoft is upping its STEM game by introducing new chemistry and computer science options for Minecraft: Education Edition. Plus, the tech giant is adding more “mixed reality” products and offers for educators, including an academic HoloLens discount, to its edtech mix.

All of this news (and more) is being rolled out by Microsoft in advance of the largest education technology trade show in the world, Bett, which begins Wednesday in London.

Minecraft may be the biggest news for its legions of K-12 teacher and student fans. Starting in early February, a free Chemistry Update will be available to licensed users. The update uses game-based learning to introduce chemistry concepts.

Jay Paulus, senior director of Windows education marketing, said, “The chemistry add-in actually adds some new kinds of components to Minecraft” including a full periodic table and a “compounding table” which is similar to Minecraft’s crafting table. Students can move from building compounds to hands-on understanding of more difficult concepts, like stable isotopes.

Minecraft: Education Edition is also getting new Microsoft MakeCode for Minecraft computer science curricula which, similar to learn-to-code packages ScratchX and Tynker, can be used in Minecraft’s Code Builder.

Paulus said the continued emphasis on Minecraft is a key part Microsoft’s overall education strategy in light of interest in STEM education.  “I think it’s super important, especially for those age group of kids for which Minecraft is an excellent hook,” Paulus said. “We’ve got 250 lesson plans online already in Minecraft.”

Another area of edtech emphasis — albeit nascent, more pricey, and skewing toward older students — is virtual reality. Microsoft said starting today, it’s offering academic institutions HoloLens commercial and developer models at a 10 percent discount through the end of May. In addition, Microsoft says curriculum for Windows Mixed Reality and HoloLens headsets will be released by educational publisher Pearson starting in March, and Microsoft has a new mixed reality curriculum partnership with WGBH and NASA’s “Bringing the University of America’s Classrooms” initiative.

Among the many other Microsoft education announcements tied to the Bett event:

• Office 365. Microsoft says dictation is coming to Office in February so students can write with their voice, and OneNote Class Notebook pages can be locked by teachers after they provide students with feedback (which Microsoft said is the top teacher request).
• Teacher training. Free teacher training, in-person or virtual, will be available on how to use Microsoft tech in the classroom after schools purchase certain Microsoft 365 Education software licenses, not including the still-free version of Office 365 Education.
• Classroom devices. Four new sub-$300 Windows 10 devices from Lenovo and JP (the latter better known in international markets), two of them under $200, are being announced at Bett to add to more than 40 different school-friendly devices available for Windows that start at $189.

Paulus said this last is important as Microsoft works to counter Google’s influence in K-12 classrooms. Recent market research has shown that while Windows is relatively strong in other countries, inexpensive Chromebooks with Google’s free G Suite for Education are dominant in the U.S., accounting for more than half of new computing device shipments into schools.

With the latest hardware announcements, Paulus said, “I would say we’re at critical mass now” in countering Google.

And what of Apple, one-time edtech darling? “We’ve added the ability to use some of the tools from mobile in Apple” iOS devices, Paulus said. But despite that nod to Apple, Paulus asserted that, “Schools more and more are choosing the Microsoft platform.”

Previously: Microsoft apps to be embedded into edtech powerhouse PowerSchool’s ‘Unified Classroom’

Minecraft gets free chemistry update, schools get HoloLens discounts as Microsoft ups edtech game