by Stone Marshall | Feb 5, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news |
4J Studios, the Scottish game studio who developed the Minecraft console ports, has announced last week a new content update for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Minecraft: Xbox One Edition. The sandbox video game has received some new bug fixes and gameplay improvements as well as additional achievements for Survival and Tumble.
The changelog is identical for both versions of the game and you can find it below:
- Fix for Horses not jumping to the correct height.
- Re-entering a tutorial area while the playing the Tutorial will reset the chests.
- Fix for Slab blocks not blocking light.
- Fix for Chickens not dropping Cooked Chicken when they die on fire.
- Fix for Blazes not dropping Glowstone Dust when they die.
- Fixed the drop rate of Gold Nuggets.
- Fix for Zombie Pigmen not dropping Gold Ingots when they die.
- Fix for tamed Ocelots remaining hostile to anything they were attacking before being tamed.
- Fix for crash when spawning too many Shulkers.
- Fix for Enderman not taking damage from rain while in a Boat.
- Improvements to framerate when throwing a lot of Lingering Potions.
- Fix for Wither Skeleton being able to walk through two block high spaces.
- Minor changes to Battle Mini Game maps to close off areas that should not be accessible.
- Fix for lighting issues when digging down in spawn area.
- Fix for rename Record losing its name after being in a Jukebox.
- Added chance of Melon, Pumpkin, and Beetroot Seeds, and Jungle Saplings spawning in the Bonus Chest.
- Fix for a range of tooltips that would appear when the action was not available.
- Fix for Mob Spawner error that occured after using a spawn egg to change what it should spawn.
- Fixes to End Gateway generation.
- Fix for End spawn location being in the wrong place.
- Added a particle effect and sound effect when a mob spawner fails to spawn due to spawn limits.
- Fix for crash when placing a Sign on top of Tall Grass.
- Stop End Crystals exploding when “TNT Explodes” is disabled.
- Fix for Hoppers not collecting items above them.
- Added new 11 achievements for Survival.
- Added new 7 achievements for Tumble.
The content update should download automatically on your Xbox 360 or Xbox One. Sound off in the comments if you think these various improvements will make your gaming experience better.
Get Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition ($19.99) / Get Minecraft: Xbox One Edition ($19.99)
Minecraft gets a big update on Xbox One and Xbox 360
by Stone Marshall | Jan 30, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Egmont will this year release four new Minecraft titles, created to replace the original ‘handbook’ series.
John Packard, publishing director for brands and licensing at Egmont Publishing, said: “We are tremendously excited to be launching the Minecraft Guides this spring as they represent a real landmark in our Minecraft publishing plans. These new titles will explore new topics in depth for players at different stages in their Minecraft journey [and] will form a key plank of our publishing for the next three years.”
Two books are scheduled for release on 1st June; Minecraft Guide to Creative (which is about building structures in the game) and Minecraft Guide to Exploration (which shows players how to defend themselves). The next two books, Minecraft Guide to Redstone (about engineering) and Minecraft Guide to the Nether and the End (about a new terrain in the game), will follow in September.
All four titles were created with input from Minecraft’s developer Mojang and will be released in hardback, priced at £9.99.
Egmont said there are also “further titles planned” for 2018 and 2019.
Minecraft is one of the most successful children’s publishing tie-ins of recent years. The series launched in 2013 with four handbooks: The Official Beginner’s Handbook, The Official Redstone Handbook, The Official Construction Handbook and The Official Combat Handbook. A fifth title, Blockopedia followed in December 2014.
By February last year had sold 620,152 copies for £2.96m to date, according to Nielsen BookScan, whilst Blockopedia had sold 187,070 copies for £2.86m.
According to Egmont, total sales of the game (across all editions) are in excess of 107 million units.
Raft of new Minecraft publishing coming
by Stone Marshall | Jan 29, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news |
Minecraft is one of the most popular games ever made, and it appears to be just as beloved in classrooms as it is at home. Looking to continue that trend, Microsoft and Mojang have been working hard at further developing Minecraft Education Edition, and at the start of 2017, the two firms have announced that this version of the game has now hit 1.0.
Minecraft Education Edition is the same Minecraft world you know and love, but with specific features aimed at students and teachers. It has NPCs for tutorials, simple multiplayer server setup, camera and portfolio recording, in-game chalkboards and downloadable lesson plans for educators.
While all of those features have been present since the early days of Minecraft Education Edition in late 2016, now that it’s hit version 1.0, there are a number of new features to enjoy, too.
There is now a global pause button, which brings the whole world to a quick halt in order to give children a break, and which also lets the teacher control when and how the lesson ends. Text-to-speech and other accessibility features have also been added and they make it easier for those with disabilities to join in, too. A newly arranged UI makes interaction easier, and an increased world height to 256 means bigger and better projects.
Added features from the main game’s v1.0 update, like The End dimension, are now included and there are also igloos and polar bears in snowy biomes. To top it all off, there’s a new, streamlined uploading process with support for .mcworld files.
To continue encouraging teachers and educators around the world to use Minecraft Education Edition, Microsoft has also announced a new mentor system. This will see some 60 educators from 19 countries around the world posting blogs, lesson plans, live-streams and videos on a regular basis as part of a “Mentor of the Week” ongoing series.
Microsoft and Mojang aren’t stopping there though. They plan many more updates to the educational version of Minecraft throughout 2017, so keep your eyes peeled and make sure you know your granite from your redstone, as chances are your kids will be playing it before long, if they haven’t already.
BLOCK OUT SOME CLASS TIME: MINECRAFT EDUCATION EDITION HITS V1.0
by Stone Marshall | Jan 29, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news |
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]
A festival celebrating one of the most successful video games will help North East parents to keep their youngsters safe online.
Nethermined – an unofficial event around the game Minecraft – will be held in Newcastle for the third time on Feb 11-12 at Northumbria University Students’ Union.
And along with giving fans of the game the opportunity to be involved in a wide range of activities including playing Minecraft, meeting some of the top YouTube gamers and taking part in workshops, special sessions have also been put in place for parents.
A special Parents Zone has been set up as part of this year’s event, where parents can get valuable tips about protecting their children who play games online, as well as learning more about their youngsters’ favourite games.
Organiser Michelle Poller, who set up the festival three years ago for her daughter who was too young to go to official Minecraft events on her own, added that Nethermined also has a strong educational value.
“It’s not just about playing games for fun,” said Michelle, from Newcastle.
“Minecraft is now widely recognised as a virtual reality educational tool and we have brought in a number of experts, including IT Educator of the year 2015, Joel Mills, who will be showcasing the way virtual reality can be used in education.
“We are hoping that this will also attract schools from across the region who should find it extremely useful.”
To allow more people to attend organisers have also now released a family ticket for £60 which can be used by two adults and two children, or one adult and three children.
NORTH EAST MINECRAFT FESTIVAL WILL TEACH PARENTS COMPUTER SAFETY…
by Stone Marshall | Jan 28, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Apple’s October event was most known for the introduction of the 2016 MacBook Pro with its new Touch Bar input device. As usual at such events, however, Apple rolled out some other, lesser products and announced some things coming from partners and even competitors.
One of the latter announcements was that Microsoft would be releasing Minecraft for Apple TV. Apple indicated Microsoft’s popular open-world sandbox game would make it to its media server by the end of 2016, and Microsoft made that promise real on Monday, MSPU reports.
Minecraft runs on a host of different platforms, from PCs to Xbox One to smartphones, and it is used for fun by millions of players, as a business endeavor by YouTube celebrities, and as an educational tool by teachers and institutions around the world. Minecraft allows for open exploration of a massive world and the ability to recreate real-world sites and technologies inside of the game.
Apple has been pushing its Apple TV product as a sort of poor man’s gaming console for some time now and Minecraft will be a welcome and important addition. At this point, Minecraft support on Apple TV is a bit limited. For example, support for Microsoft Realms or Xbox Live are omitted, but developer Mojang promises support for those features and more in an update. The Apple TV version does support both Creative Mode, which offers unlimited resources, and Survival Mode, for some in-game combat action.
You can buy Minecraft: Apple TV Edition for $20 from the App Store. The Apple TV version of Minecraft supports the various DLC that’s been released for the game and some editions ship with Holiday 2015, Town Folk, City Folk skin packs and Plastic, Natural, Cartoon, and Festive 2016 mash-ups.
Microsoft releases ‘Minecraft: Apple TV Edition’ just in time for the holidays
by Stone Marshall | Jan 28, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
With more than 25 million sales on the PC/Mac platform alone, and over 100 million total copies sold as of June 2016, the blocky virtual world is more populated than most countries on Earth. It’s moved beyond “popular game” and into “major cultural influencer” for the next generation of creative young minds.
In the recent past, Minecraft: Education Edition added thousands more users, giving teachers the chance to tap into its boundless potential for engaging students in the classroom. With 1.0, the toolset is now feature complete and ready to move into even more schools.
Teachers can use pre-made Minecraft worlds for everything from learning about windmills or ecology, to the function of the human eye. If they’re uncertain how to begin, Microsoft and developer Mojang have them covered. 60 educators from 19 countries have been recruited for regular blog posts, lesson plans, and other supplemental help for those looking to implement Minecraft into their teaching strategy.
The 1.0 version also brings some mechanical and quality of life features. The game world can be built twice as high to accommodate complex projects, teachers can pause the game across their whole classroom, and the worlds in which the children work can be much more easily uploaded and shared.
Minecraft has a great track record as an educational asset, and it’s only getting better. In addition to the robust feature set already implemented, Minecraft is positioned to be a truly valuable tool in the hands of teachers looking to engage the most connected generation in history.
Minecraft: Education Edition’ Adds Features for Teachers to Use with Students
