by Stone Marshall | Oct 7, 2015 | Minecraft News |
If you’ve been playing Minecraft: Pocket Edition [$6.99] since the big 0.12 update, you’re probably enjoying how the game is now closer to the PC version than ever before with all kinds of new features added and plenty others reworked. Still, the work doesn’t end here since the developers are currently working on the 0.13 update that should add working redstone circuits among other features. One new feature that we now know about is the addition of rabbits, one of the later additions to the PC version. However, these bunnies will be different than the ones in the PC version: they are smaller, will run away from you, can be one-shot with a bow, only spawn in forests, and they’ll eat your crops. Now, that last one is going to be…fun. I can see myself turning into an old geezer with a bow screaming at those bunnies to leave my crops alone.
In addition to the bunny addition, going by developer Tommasso Checchi’s twitter feed, the stonecutter might go the way of the dodo and there will probably be some changes to the UI since he feels there are issues with the UI in the mobile version (he doesn’t specify what issues). He’s also experimenting with dragging & dropping items in the toolbar. Mojang plans to have a live 0.13 developer stream tomorrow at 11:30 EST at its Twitch channel to talk about the upcoming update. They will be answering questions from here, so you still have time to go post some questions.
New Spoilers for ‘Minecraft: Pocket Edition’ 0.13 Update – Adding Rabbits and Probably Reworking the UI
by Stone Marshall | Oct 7, 2015 | Minecraft News |
“Microsoft Monday” takes a look back at the past week of news related to Microsoft. Last week, “Microsoft Monday” included details about Office 2016 for Windows PCs, a teaser about the Xbox One bundles, Minecraft coming to Oculus Rift, etc. This week, “Microsoft Monday” will focus on Windows 10 privacy concerns, the new Xbox bundles, Skype updates, Microsoft’s latest acquisitions, a patent partnership with ASUS and more.
Windows 10 Privacy Concerns
Windows 10 was released globally on July 29th and there have been concerns about privacy in regards to the operating system since then. To address concerns, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Windows and Devices Terry Myerson published a blog post last week titled “Privacy and Windows 10.”
Myerson said information collected by Windows 10 is encrypted in transit to Microsoft’s servers stored in secure facilities. What kind of data does Windows 10 collect? To improve application reliability, Windows 10 collects anonymous “telemetry data” like device IDs, device types and application crash data — which does not include content or files. Windows 10 customizes your preferences like your favorite sports teams to give you scores and updates. And Windows 10 also remembers the common words you type into text messaging conversations to provide completion suggestions. Privacy advocates may be thrilled to hear that Windows 10 does not scan the content of your email, files or other communications for targeted advertising purposes.
Fortunately, you can change around your Windows 10 privacy settings by going to Settings > Privacy. And you can adjust the privacy settings for each specific app through the Settings area within that app.
Myerson added that Windows 10 was designed with two privacy principles:
1. “Windows 10 collects information so the product will work better for you.”
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2. “You are in control with the ability to determine what information is collected.”
One of the benefits of information collection is quality control. For example, Microsoft noticed that a graphics driver was crashing on some Windows 10 PCs, which caused computers to reboot. So Microsoft worked with the graphics company to turn around a fix for Windows Insiders within 24 hours.
However, there is a feature that some privacy advocates believe is unnecessary. Microsoft Windows 10 has a feature that lets you monitor your child’s device use. Through this feature, you will receive regular activity report emails to your Microsoft account that summarizes how much time your children has spent on the PC along with the websites they visit, the games and apps they use and the search keywords that they enter into search engines.
Here is how Microsoft responded to the feedback about its family features:
“As an example of direct response to feedback we’ve received, all Windows 10 customers will receive an upcoming update to family features, with default settings designed to be more appropriate for teenagers, compared to younger children. Additionally, we’re working on ways to further enhance the notifications that kids and parents get about activity reporting in Windows.”
Windows 10 Activation: “Digital Entitlement”
Microsoft has recently created a website called “Activation in Windows 10” that provides clarity about verification. Windows 10 activation methods includes product keys or “Digital Entitlement.”
The digital entitlement activation method is used when you upgrade to Windows 10 for free from an eligible device that runs a genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 or you bought a genuine Windows 10 copy from the Windows Store and successfully activated Windows 10. Or you bought a Windows 10 Pro upgrade from the Windows Store and successfully activated Windows 10. And finally you’re a Windows Insider and upgraded to the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build on an eligible device that was running an activated previous version of Windows and Windows 10 Preview.
If you bought Windows 10 from an authorized retailer or you bought a new device running Windows 10, then a product key is used as the activation method. Or if you have a Volume Licensing agreement for Windows 10 or MSDN subscription, a product key is necessary.
Windows 10 Hits 100 Million Installations
As a free upgrade, Windows 10’s growth has been rapid. Windows 10 already has 6.63% of of the worldwide desktop operating system market, according to Net Applications. And Windows 10 is the fourth largest desktop operating system behind Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 8.1. As a whole, Windows has 95.37% of the desktop operating system market. Mac OS X has 4.91% of the market and Linux has 1.74%
About a month after Windows 10 was released, Microsoft reported that it was installed on over 75 million devices across 192 countries. Now it is running on more than 100 million devices, according to Petri’s sources. Microsoft said its goal is to have 1 billion Windows 10 installs within three years.
Microsoft recently rolled out a new By The Numbers website, which highlights company milestones. Some of the numbers that stand out includes more than 1.2 billion people use Microsoft Office and the company donates an average of $2.6 million in software each day.
“We’ve tallied some of the ways Microsoft is helping people all over the planet achieve more each day — and we’re keeping tabs on some less momentous stuff, too,” said Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Communications Frank X. Shaw.
Microsoft Monday: Windows 10 Privacy, Minecraft: Story Mode, Lumia 950 Leaks And Skype Updates
by Stone Marshall | Oct 6, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Update: We released a ‘b’ snapshot to fix a crash that affected some users on launch.
This week’s snapshot brings you the ability to smash out of the window of a high tower building, fly past the bad guys who are all shooting you with surprisingly bad accuracy, swoop down and land flawlessly into a strategically placed boat and then paddle away at moderately high speeds with the stolen prize pig in the back.
I’m not really sure what it all means, though.
Notable changes:
- Fixed boats.
- Added reward to End Cities.
- Broke boats.
- Improved cheat detection in multiplayer.
- Fixed boats again.
- Swoosh.
- Splash.
- Oink.
Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com. If nobody reports a bug, we can’t fix it!
To get snapshots, open your launcher and press the “New Profile” button. Call it “snapshots” and check the box saying “Enable experimental development snapshots” and save. To switch to the normal version, you can select it in the dropdown at the bottom left corner of the launcher. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (See the “new profile” dialog).
Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.
Cross-platform server jar: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/15w41b/minecraft_server.15w41b.jar
Report bugs here:
Minecraft snapshot 15w41b
by Stone Marshall | Oct 6, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Minecraft will have several updates to the original game on desktop, console and smartphone, Mojang revealed. The company also premiered a trailer for the new “Minecraft: Story Mode” game. Telltale Games
Minecraft will undergo some hefty improvements and additions in the next year as the Microsoft-owned gaming company, Mojang, works to please and maintain its community. At a panel on Sunday during Minecon 2015, a Minecraft convention held in London over the weekend, Mojang developers announced several upcoming features for the console, desktop and mobile versions of the game.
The hourlong panel featured Mojang’s Owen Hill, Daniel Wustenhoff, Tommaso Checchi, Jens Bergensten and Nathan Adams, and the audience was about two-thirds adults and a third children, The Guardian reports. First released in 2009, the game involves building worlds out of virtual bricks. A creative and an adventure mode focus on constructing and exploring lands, while a survival mode allows for battling opponents. Below are several of the main updates coming to the game, with accompanying videos from Twitter user and Minecraft player @FoxyNoTail.
Dual Wielding With Shields
Minecraft players will now be able to equip their characters with two items, one in each hand. That could mean weapons or other tools. For example, a player could hold a pickaxe and a set of torches, IGN notes. Another update will add shields and custom-made banners to a player’s collection.
Tougher Mobs and Monsters
The Ender Dragon, a monster players must beat at the end of the game on Minecraft’s desktop version, will become more difficult. Players will also have the ability to respawn the dragon. But don’t expect a baby version. “A baby dragon would be too cute to kill,” Mojang’s Adams said. Mojang will also introduce a new mob called the Shulker that will shoot projectiles.
New Game Areas and Levitation
Mojang revealed a new game area with a purple and yellow color scheme at The End of the game. In this land, players can levitate and avoid the projectiles sent by the Shulker mob. That levitation effect helps players reach the top of cities, outside of the typical ladders found in other areas.
The Pocket Edition, Minecraft’s mobile version on iOS, Android and Windows, will also undergo some revamping with the addition of regions and items found on the console and desktop games.
Earlier this week, Mojang revealed that Minecraft has hit over 70 million sales since its first PC version was released in 2009, Polygon reports. Microsoft took the hint about the company’s growing popularity and acquired the Stockholm-based game studio and thereby the rights of Minecraft in November for $2.5 billion.
Other major updates for the company include a spin-off game called “Minecraft: Story Mode.” Mojang premiered a trailer for the upcoming game at the convention on Saturday. There is no official release date.
Virtual reality with Minecraft is also on the way as Mojang works with its owner, Microsoft, on developing the game for the company’s holographic headset HoloLens. A Minecraft feature film is expected by 2017.
This year was the fifth consecutive year of a convention specifically dedicated to Minecraft and hosted by developer Mojang. The convention was held at London’s ExCeL London Exhibition and Conference Centre Saturday and Sunday.
Minecraft Updates From MineCon 2015: Three Changes We Know Coming To Console, Desktop And Mobile
by Stone Marshall | Oct 5, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Above: Jordon “CaptainSparklez” Maron makes a living as a game broadcaster.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Jordan “CaptainSparklez” Maron has had a charmed life as a YouTuber and Twitch livestreamer. He quit college to stream games on Twitch and post videos of his Minecraft play on YouTube. And now he makes a living at it, with more than 8.75 million subscribers and 1.6 billion video views.
He has had a great ride for five years, and now, at the ripe age of 23, he is parlaying his fame into making games. Maron leveraged his fame to create a new app company, Xreal, with Activision founder and gaming pioneer Howard Marks. The company created Fortress Fury, which been downloaded more than 2 million times since its recent launch. The game is one of many that aspires to become part of the esport phenomenon on mobile.
Xreal is raising money via crowdfunding to take on even more projects. We caught up with him at last week’s TwitchCon event, which drew more than 20,000 attendees to the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation.
Jordon Maron: I’m from Los Angeles. I’ve been streaming since about 2011. I started on justin.tv, and then when Twitch got created they migrated me over because I did games. I don’t know if you saw the keynote earlier, but Marcus was saying how it started back in 1999. Now I feel like I’m new to all of this. But I’ve been around since the beginning of Twitch.GamesBeat: Did you start with any particular game?
Maron: Minecraft has been the primary one, but I like to use streaming as a way to try out new stuff. I feel like it’s more informal and casual, whereas on my YouTube channel people expect a particular style.
GamesBeat: How big is your audience on both sites?
Maron: On Twitch it’s about 1.2 million followers. On YouTube it’s 8.8 million-ish.
GamesBeat: I try to understand the economics of this — at what point does that audience becomes large enough to support you?
Maron: It’s been full-time for me since December of 2011. I see such of a range of people doing this full time, though. Some of them have 10,000 followers. Some people have half a million followers and they’re still working another job. It depends. Some people, maybe they’re not comfortable with the fact that when you do it full time, there’s no consistent salary. You rely on yourself. A lot of people like the idea of still having a guaranteed income.
GamesBeat: How old are you? Did you have any other career before you started?
Maron: I’m 23. I worked at a Coldstone Creamery for a summer in high school. A long, illustrious career. I was a skate camp counselor another summer. I started doing this when I was a senior in high school, because I wanted to show off the scores I got in Call of Duty. I didn’t know you could monetize anything. Over time that became possible.
When I’d begun there wasn’t a clear understanding between publishers and YouTubers and streamers as far as whether this was something you could monetize. But everyone accepted, hey, it’s mutually beneficial, so it got to so you could monetize gaming content. About a year into it is when I decided to go full time.
GamesBeat: Did you skip college altogether?
Maron: I was in school for a year. I studied chemical engineering. Then I decided, a fair bit through my first year, I wanted to go into computer science. I realized that maybe video games could be a viable career, which I hadn’t thought about beforehand. As I was trying to switch majors – because you’re supposed to know exactly what you’ll do with your life when you first start college – it was a difficult process. While that was going on, YouTube was going pretty well for me, so I decided to take the leap. It’s been a good choice so far.
GamesBeat: Do you view this as entertainment? Are you something like a talk show host? Can you think of an analogy to other kinds of broadcasting?
Maron: I suppose the easiest way to put it is that I’m an entertainer. I still don’t know 100 percent why everyone watches me. I’m me and I guess that appeals to some people.
GamesBeat: What works for you best as far as the kinds of shows that draw?
Maron: Usually Minecraft has been the most popular. Something that you take a lot of time to work on produce, that’s usually the most well-received. I do a variety — just playing the game and broadcasting as I play it with my reactions, and then sometimes a longer-term, more high-production-value project that takes a few months to complete. I mix those in periodically. That combination seems to work.
GamesBeat: Where are you on the YouTube/Twitch competition?
Maron: I feel like it’s two parents fighting. Or not really. Between all of these social media companies – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch – they have to be friendly, on the one hand, and integrate all the sharing between all the different platforms. But on the other hand they’re all trying to beat each other in different categories. I hope everyone does well, because competition is ultimately good for us.
GamesBeat: Do you get offers from either side for exclusivity, to be in a partner program or something?
Maron: Right now I only do my streams on Twitch, for example, and the VOD content is on YouTube. There’s a separation there. That’s how I view my approach right now. But YouTube is trying to push live streaming a little more now. I haven’t personally tried the YouTube game streaming yet. And Twitch just announced the whole VOD thing today. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.
GamesBeat: What opportunities does this give you? Have you been able to travel?
Maron: It’s funny. You’re given the chance to travel, and then oftentimes I find it stressful. Part of doing this is keeping up a consistency to your streams and your videos. Because of TwitchCon, it’s probably the most inconsistent major broadcasters are going to be in years. When you have to travel somewhere, it’s double the work for the amount of days you’ll be gone, because you have to get so much content backed up. I find myself trying to avoid travel sometimes.
But it’s still cool to get invited to places and meet people who watch you. You don’t usually get a sense of who’s there when it’s just through the screen. Coming here, you get to meet people in person and that’s always cool.
GamesBeat: And you have people trying to break down your door – “Play my game! Play my game!”
Maron: Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I try to keep my home in a privacy bubble. But I do get plenty of people saying, “Hey, here’s a key to our new launch if you’re interested.” I feel badly, because as someone who’s launched a game in the mobile space, I sympathize with trying to get other people on board and interested in it. With so many people reaching out, though, I can’t possibly get to everything.
GamesBeat: Do you also get some developer content as well, things from people making these games?
Maron: Yeah. I’m pretty familiar with most of the people working at Mojang, which is nice. I get to meet developers at events like this. I’ve toured various offices. It’s very cool, as someone who wants to get my foot in the door as far as game development and creating a studio, which is what we’re working on at the moment.
GamesBeat: Tell me more about that. What are you up to?
Maron: Back in May, we launched a mobile game called Fortress Fury. Long term, we want to do a competitive mobile eSport. That’s a new market. Not too many games are in that category. But as the processing power of phones gets greater and greater and the data networks get more reliable, that will become commonplace. Anyone can jump on their phone anywhere. You don’t have to dedicate a big chunk of time to sitting behind a computer.
We’ll see if that evolves over time. If it does, we’ll be one of the early ones getting into it. We’re on both iOS and Android right now. We’re working on doing an equity crowdfunding round at the moment.
GamesBeat: Are you doing regular updates?
Maron: Right now we’re working on adding more content to increase the longevity of the game, how long you can play it before you’ve consumed everything. That’s a priority right now.
GamesBeat: How many people are involved?
Maron: It’s myself, my business partner, and then up to launch we had a studio we contracted with, five or seven people working since last August. Now we’re bringing the work in-house. The studio’s called Xreal.
GamesBeat: Is that getting help from any sponsors?
Maron: No, it’s been funded 100 percent by myself and my business partner. The crowdfunding campaign will hopefully allow us to expand.
GamesBeat: Did you have any expectations for this first TwitchCon?
Maron: I didn’t, really. It’s the first time, after all. But it’s going well so far. I was impressed by the keynote earlier. That was very good stuff. I’m looking forward to meeting more people. I’ll be playing some Minecraft with people very shortly.
GamesBeat: What’s going to happen there?
Maron: Anyone who wants to show up and play can do that, and then I’ll be walking around with some friends and interacting with everyone and seeing if they want any feedback. Oftentimes I find that the people who watch me are better than me at games, so maybe they’ll be the ones instructing me. We’ll see.
GamesBeat: Are you doing any mobile streaming?
Maron: I haven’t tried Periscope yet. These days there are so many different social media apps out there. It’s impossible. At the moment, in order to stream Fortress Fury, I just hook it up to a capture card and do it on Twitch. That works. But as time goes by, broadcasting directly from the mobile device will become commonplace – again, as the devices become more powerful. Right now part of the issue is, it’s pretty CPU-intensive to stream and play a game simultaneously. Bandwidth-intensive as well. But everything’s making a move to mobile.
GamesBeat: You could come here and keep streaming.
Maron: Yep. Walk around, talk to someone, get friends on the stream. That would work.
GamesBeat: When you look at things like Twitch and YouTube, do you have a vision of how they could help you be more successful? Where do you want to see them go with the development of their platforms?
Maron: Both platforms seem to get more and more hands on as time goes by. It’s been cool to see them evolve from just a platform to also supporting the community in a very direct fashion. That’s happened more and more over time. First and foremost, they’re tech companies, but they see these communities evolve and realize, “Hey, we should foster this and help it out a bit.” I’d like to see that continue.
Both sites will probably stay, at their core, pretty similar to what they are. But hopefully they’ll keep adding more and more helpful features. I have a laundry list of features and feedback I could give to either one.
GamesBeat: Were any features announced today that you were happy about?
Maron: The playlist thing is very cool. I’ve always thought, “Hey, what if I just make a really long local playlist on my computer, capture it, and stream that to Twitch?” They took the hassle out of that. I don’t have to have my computer being screen-capped. I can just assemble that on Twitch and have it pull. That’s a pretty exciting feature.
Jordan ‘CaptainSparklez’ Maron lives the fairy tale life of getting paid to play Minecraft (interview)
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