by Stone Marshall | Dec 9, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Minecraft is coming to Nintendo’s Wii U console. Better late than never!
Mojang and Nintendo said today that Minecraft: Wii U Edition will be released for $29.99 via the Wii U’s digital store on December 17. The Wii U version of the game will include some of the game’s more popular content add-on packs that have been released over its life on other platforms, and additional content packs, mostly with branded content like The Simpsons and Dr. Who, will be available for in-game purchase.
Great, great. So what took Nintendo so long?
Minecraft really shouldn’t have taken Nintendo by surprise. The block-building, survival-themed, creative kids’ masterpiece was already incredibly popular in the spring of 2012, when Microsoft and Mojang released the game for the Xbox 360’s download store. Nintendo at that point should have aggressively pursued a similar deal, working alongside Mojang to craft a unique Minecraft experience for Wii U’s GamePad controller, which would lend itself quite well to Minecraft‘s creative building gameplay.
Currently, there are disc-based versions of Minecraft for Xbox 360 and One, PlayStation 3 and 4. Combined, these games were the 10th-best-selling retail title in the United States in September, even though they were released months or years ago. And that’s not counting digital sales, or the mobile versions, or the original PC game.
Finally, Wii U gets to join the party. And this release does indicate that Microsoft, which acquired Mojang in 2015 for $2.5 billion, plans to be platform-agnostic with its Minecraft property. It could simply cancel any other versions and require you to own an Xbox or Windows platform to play it, but instead it’s expanding Minecraft‘s reach. (Microsoft and Nintendo have historically been buddy-buddy anyway; other Microsoft properties have appeared on Nintendo platforms in the past.)
Would a more timely release of Minecraft have saved Wii U? It’s impossible to know, but in 2012 a well-executed version of Minecraft would have been a killer app. Too bad Nintendo at the time seemed more interested in chasing ports of Call of Duty and Mass Effect that ultimately sold nothing.
But that’s a bunch of pixelated water underneath the blocky bridge.
What can Minecraft do now? Well, Nintendo should get a disc version out as soon as possible, and then release a console bundle with Minecraft packed in and prominently displayed on the box, assuming its deal with Microsoft would allow such a thing. This would be at least a minor boost to Wii U’s fortunes.
The real question, though, is what Minecraft could do for NX, Nintendo’s next dedicated game device. If a Wii U version of Minecraft now means that NX can play Minecraft on day one, then perhaps this should be seen as less of a hail-Mary for Wii U and more of Nintendo getting all its blocks in a row for a real run at its next generation.
Minecraft Is Finally Coming to Wii U. What Took So Long?
by Stone Marshall | Dec 8, 2015 | Minecraft News |
If you have children, you will know about Minecraft. If you have children and know about Minecraft, the chances are you will have heard of Stampy Cat too.
Stampy Cat is a YouTube star (real name Joseph Garrett) with over six and a half million followers worldwide. Kids love him and the videos he makes and will happily sit in front of a computer screen and watch him for hours. He got famous making Minecraft videos, where you can follow the exploits of Stampy Cat and his friends. Most of them have their own YouTube channels too you know.
Anyway, back to Stampy and some important news for the youngsters among you. He is going to be on the BBC today (December 3 2015). The RSE’s (Royal Society of Edinburgh) Christmas lecture broadcast by BBC Scotland, will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Stampy is giving the one off lecture to 2000 Tayside schoolchildren, where he will talk about his career, how he makes the videos and will be making one in front of the kids too.
Now to put things into perspective, I mentioned that Stampy has over six and a half million subscribers to his YouTube channel. Compare that to a prime time TV show like East Enders, which regularly gets between seven and seven and a half million viewers and you start to see how big services like YouTube have become.
Is it really surprising though, when the gaming industry is larger than the film industry, that the two should start to blend together? We have seen films based on games, rather than the other way around and there is even a dedicated YouTube service just for gamers at https://gaming.youtube.com/ where players can upload games they are playing for their avid followers to watch.
In case you are worried about your kids spending too much time in front of a computer (it used to be TVs right?), then think about this. The success of people like Joseph Garrett and his Stampy Cat channel can give kids something to aspire to and demonstrates that anyone can become a star. All it takes is a little imaginating, dedication and above all practice and you too could become the next big thing.
Anyway, I am off to watch my kids’ favourite YouTuber on BBC iPlayer now. Byeeeeeeeeeee.
Stamp of approval for gaming star
by Stone Marshall | Dec 8, 2015 | Minecraft News |
So, Nintendo is making a big announcement of some sort on Monday, Dec. 7. We do not know the nature of this announcement, but it’s supposed to be a big one, according to Nintendo World Report and Nintendo Life. And really, there are a few possibilities that stand out—announcements we’ve been waiting for. While it could be anything, four choices stand out. Let’s take a look.
Big Nintendo Announcement: Four Possibilities For What It Could Be
Pokémon Z
Nintendo is teasing a big announcement on Monday. Separately, the Japanese magazine CoroCoro, which often spills big Pokémon news, is promising a big Pokémon-based announcement in December. A big Nintendo announcement… a big Pokémon announcement… it all adds up! And we’ve been waiting for news of more Pokémon for a while now.
More Super Smash Bros DLC
Supposedly, Super Smash Bros still has at least one character slot available for DLC. And that’s the kind of announcement that would immediately capture the full attention of the Internet, as it always has in the past. Personally, I don’t think this is super likely just yet. Cloud Strife was revealed less than a month ago and isn’t even out yet. Why would Nintendo announce more Super Smash Bros DLC just yet? It could happen, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Nintendo NX News
Nintendo has promised that it will unveil the Nintendo NX in 2016 and no earlier. But more details about the system keep leaking out. First, the WSJ reported that it will in fact be a console and handheld hybrid. Next, we learned that the company is, in fact, going to distance itself from the Wii name. Who knows what other leaks will come out before Nintendo unveils the system? … unless they get ahead of the game and pop the big surprise on us early. But I wouldn’t count on this either. No, I think the announcement is going to be Pokémon… unless, of course, it’s…
Minecraft Wii U
Ah, Minecraft Wii U, a perennial subject of late. Tales told that you’d come out in November, based on a leaked PEGI rating, but it was not to be. Still, the game seems to have been rated, and we had rumors that it was being developed for a long time, even before Minecraft Story Mode was announced for Wii U.
Pokémon or Minecraft, Minecraft or Pokémon? The big announcement could really be either. If it is Minecraft, don’t be surprised if the Minecraft Wii U release date ends up being… right away. Nintendo has hinted it has extra games in store for 2015 that haven’t been announced, and a surprise Minecraft release date would really help liven things up here at the end of the year. And if it’s Pokémon Z instead? Either way, we’d be pretty happy.
by Stone Marshall | Dec 7, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Nintendo is gearing up to make an announcement very soon. Fans should keep an eye out for news sometime on Monday.
Damon Baker, Nintendo of America’s senior manager of licensing and marketing, shared a tease about what’s to come during Nintendo World Report’s podcast in support of Child’s Play. He said earlier today:
“Speaking of announcements, I wish I could tell you guys, but stay tuned for Monday. Monday there’s going to be something… something happening on Monday. It’s going to be big.”
Baker closed off his comments by stating: “Stay tuned, it’s going to be good.”
As far as what announcement is planned, it could be anything. Baker has been known for his involvement with indies so something in that area is one possibility. Maybe it’ll be news about the Smash Bros. presentation airing this month. Ultimately, we really don’t know!
Some sort of Nintendo announcement coming on Monday
by Stone Marshall | Dec 7, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Riot released huge updates for League of Legends this week aiming ultimately to reduce game-time and to accelerate the speed of matches. Instead of expecting things to feel different, players were instead more surprised by the minions update.
According to
Kotaku, Riot has not previously made any comment on the impending changes to the League of Legends minions in its announcement for the 2016 pre-season. The news only appeared this week when the lengthy 5.22 patch notes were released. The Summoner’s Rift, the main map in League of Legends and the one that all pro tournament games are played on, Riot dropped a few bits of info about how they’re making changes on the turrets and minion waves to try and shorten the overall pace of League games.
Turrets are the team’s defensive structures, hindering enemy minions and champions from getting into the player’s base and destroying everything. Riot’s Patrick “Scarizard” Scarborough expressed that the turrets are now “more vulnerable to enemy damage” at the beginning of the match. As long as the turrets are taken out quickly, the turrets will be easier to take out. The team that’s able to do so early on will be able to increase their forward momentum more rapidly than they could in the 2015 season.
The minions, on the other hand, are given a big performance boost, although situational. The team with a level advantage over their opponents are awarded combat bonuses for their minions. In effect, the leading team’s minions are expected to be stronger and stronger as long as they maintain their lead. Minions are now also able to respawn fifteen seconds earlier at the beginning of the game.
A strong factor that led to these changes are the long standing issue of the online game’s long match times. Earlier comments from players were very skeptical saying that these changes may lead to a snowballing- giving a leading team more and more advantages and making it more difficult for the other team to catch up. MonteCristo, eSports analysts tweeted that although the changes are good, the minions are likely to create “brutal snowballs.”
As gamers continue to adjust to the many big changes to League of Legends, it is more likely they will soon get into the groove of things as they get attuned to the new meta.
Riot Games’ ‘League of Legends’ Minions Update Surprises Gaming Community
by Stone Marshall | Dec 6, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Minecraft players will no longer need to close their game whenever a call is coming or an urge to take a selfie occurs. Verizon Wireless, one of the largest wireless telecommunications providers in the country, developed an app that lets players create a phone that actually works inside the game.
Before this new update is released, Verizon said that even if players built a phone they wouldn’t be able to use it to call, text or take a selfie. Verizon, together with Wieden+Kennedy and BlockWorks, developed a function that gives Minecraft players the ability to browse the Internet, make video calls, and send MMs selfies to their friends by creating a selfie stick.
SethBling and CaptainSparklez, both Minecraft experts, conducted the beta test of this new Minecraft update. They showed how the phone functions during the game through video demos
“Users can open up websites, take an MMS selfie using a selfie stick, and even make a video conference call to a cell phone-all visualized within Minecraft’s standard blocky interface of course,” Verizon stated.
Verizon explained how they came up with the new changes. “In the world of Minecraft, almost everything is made of blocks. We’ve created a web application, Boxel, that translates real web pages and streaming video into blocks so they can be built on a Minecraft server in real time. Our server plugin uses Boxel-client to handle the communication between Minecraft and the real world as translated by the web application.”
The codes behind the stunts created by the game experts are posted on a special Verizon page in Github. These libraries were open-sourced so that everyone can try it out, even those who only have a little knowledge in coding.
Kelsey D. Atherton of Popular Science posted his own explanation about the new Minecraft feature. According to the post, in order to make a cellphone call, one must first plant a cell tower tree in the Minecraft’s “blocky” soil. After a few seconds, the planted tower will rise which will provide players an actual cellular service. To complete the tower, the user should just switch it on, and the Minecraft phone will then connect to the Internet.
‘Minecraft’ Updates & News: Verizon Develops an App That Lets Users Create a ‘Working’ Smartphone
