Following months of testing and free trials for early adopters, Microsoft announced this morning that its learning-focused version of the popular Minecraft game, Minecraft: Education Edition, is now available for purchase. The game is available in 50 countries and in 11 different languages, the company said, and will include the Classroom Mode companion app that lets teachers manage settings and interact with students in the game.
Microsoft had first announced its plans to develop a version of the game for educators at the beginning of the year, after acquiring the learning game MinecraftEdu for an undisclosed sum. The company then built upon that library of lessons and activities to develop programs for teachers across a variety of subjects, including STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), history, language, and art, for example.
At the time of the deal, Microsoft had said it made sense to move in this direction given that Minecraft was already being using in over 7,000 classrooms in over 40 countries worldwide, even without Minecraft’s official involvement.
With that market in mind, Minecraft: Education Edition got off the ground, and now offers lessons for kids as young as five up to teens and even college students.
Teachers were given free trials during the testing period, ahead of today’s official launch, in order to offer feedback and try Minecraft in their classrooms. The company in September said that, during these trials, over 35,000 students and teachers have used the software.
The companion app Classroom Mode was previously announced, along with the November launch date. This new app lets teachers change the variables for the world, offer up items to students, communicate with students, and transport students virtually from a central interface.
Now live, Minecraft: Education Edition is no longer free, but will instead cost $5 per user. Volume pricing will be available for larger institutions.
The software will also continue to be updated over time, notes the company, to include new game features from other editions of Minecraft. At launch, the official version includes all the latest updates previously available in the Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition beta, says Microsoft.
In addition to the software, Microsoft offers a dedicated website for educators at education.minecraft.net, where they’ll find lesson plans, tutorials, starter worlds, and collaborate with others. There’s also a more structured program called Minecraft Mentors available, which will team a teacher new to Minecraft with others with experience to learn how to use it in the classroom.
Five years ago, danrharvey wanted to “get stuck into a creative mode build” in Minecraft. Looking back on it today, he’s built something that’s not only original, but beautiful.
“It was fairly aimless at first”, he says, “I just started building a castle, with tunnels beneath, then about three or four months in, during an electrical storm my computer crashed and the save game corrupted. Disheartened, I stepped away from the game for a while, but it began to stew in my mind to start a new build, but it had to be big, and cool. Then one morning I awoke from a dream with an idea fully formed in my head. I’d build a castle with four different sides, because Minecraft is on a square grid. Each side would be similar, especially around the central tower, but as you moved out, the four sides would take on their own personality and function.”
The “Fortress” side.
Those four are a “Fortress” side (with defensive ramparts), a “Residence” side (with housing and gardens), a “Town” side (with stores and churches) and a “Factory” side (with farms and the buildings that power the rest of the build).
The level of detail borders on the obsessive throughout the castle, but then, that’s what makes it so amazing. The more little nooks, crannies and quirks, the more it comes across as a real place.
He even made his own custom resource pack for the build, whipping up his own mossy stone, glass and castle decorations.
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today that Microsoft is planning to bring Minecraft to the Apple TV. While it was a brief mention on stage at Apple’s event, Cook did reveal you’ll be able to build worlds straight from the Apple TV. It’s likely that the app will be similar to the existing Pocket Edition for iOS, allowing you to play with other Minecraft players across multiple platforms.
Following an E3 tease earlier this year, Minecraft’s “Boss Update” for the Pocket version and Windows 10 has finally arrived. The most exciting aspect of this update has to be the add-on system, which allows players to edit various values in the game to create their own modified Minecraft experience.
It’s not full-on modding, because Minecraft players can only tweak existing values. Even so, the update represents a big step forward for the game, which has had no official mod support at all so far. So far the only entities that can be modified are mobs and NPCs, but presumably if this roll-out goes well, we will see the add-on capability extended to other areas of the game as well.
One add-on I sampled was a castle attack/defense map with wacky mob changes, like attack rabbits and witches riding wolves. Another add-on I experimented included a city under attack by aliens, which naturally you have to save.
These maps were thoroughly underwhelming. Castle Siege was an unplayable confusion of glitching and teleporting mobs that chugged so badly, it threatened to brick both my phone and my tablet. Actually, this is apparently a common occurence with other players: reports around the web say that the update is very taxing to mobile hardware, to the point of crashing on some older devices.
Alien Invasion was little more than a thin coat of paint on the base game—the aliens still sound and behave like zombies and skeletons (because they are). As usual, Mojang tapped some very talented builders—in this case, YouTuber Sethbling—and the maps are lovingly crafted, with tons of small details, decorative flourishes, and clever builds that show off Minecraft. Even so, add-ons still need work.
With add-ons, you can only edit existing values, not create new ones, so if you want to build a new mob you have to replace an old one. It’s not a huge problem, but not letting players populate the world with new mobs seems like an oversight.
Though the official offerings leave a lot to be desired and the add-on system is still limited, it shows potential. With add-ons, there is room to experiment in interesting ways: exploding sheep, deadly rabbits, chickens the size of houses, you name it. Small tweaks can be made to mob behavior and values to make the game more or less dangerous, opening up a lot of avenues for experimentation.
The update also allows resource packs to change the look of your game, and comes with four professionally designed packs that can be bought on the store. Players will be able to upload their own resource packs, but it’s easy to be a little cynical about this particular addition. given Minecraft already has a dedicated community of artists and modders who have been creating resource packs on the original Java edition for years, and they are are bound to be frustrated by the addition of support and paid resources for MCPE instead.
Largely because of this, the add-on system is likely to divide the community even further. This update is for Minecraft Pocket Edition and Windows 10, but the mod community heavily favors the original Java edition, and have been asking for something like this for half a decade.
The success and failure of the add-on system will hinge on whether or not modders and creators can be enticed to make the shift from the Java edition to the MCPE edition, and so far there’s not a lot of enthusiasm for that. Without more are better tools, the best minds are likely to stick with what they know.
Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.
There are many users who like to change the look of their Windows 10 Desktop, using all kinds of themes. Next spring, Microsoft will release Windows 10 Creators Update, which will bring Paint 3D and other 3D tools, as well as a new menu under Themes section which will include a color picker and a sidebar on the right side, which will allow users to customize the experience to their own liking. In addition, there will be plenty paid themes that will be purchased directly from the Windows Store.
Windows 10 Creators Update will be launched next spring and it will come as a free upgrade with 3D-focused tools. Microsoft’s plans to bring a new version of Microsoft Paint were leaked a few weeks ago and recently, the company has announced that Windows Insiders are allowed to test out an early version of this application. Paint 3D app was also published in the Windows Store, but it can be installed only on devices running on Windows 10 Creators Update, and this means that’s available only to Insiders who are part of Microsoft’s online community. The modernized Paint app will allow them to export their creations and share them with the rest of the Insiders, or they can download 3D objects created by others.
But Windows 10 Creators Update is not only about creating 3D objects in Paint. Microsoft will introduce many features and users will be given a free hand to customize the look of Windows 10 the way they like. In the 1.14-minute promotional video that Microsoft has posted on YouTube, the company has revealed that soon, users will be able to select from thousands of possible shades of accent colors, as in the Personalization section of the Settings page will be found a new color picker with 50 accent colors.
During an event held in New York, Microsoft unveiled its newest additions to Windows 10 that will showcase a brand new gaming experience and improve user’s creativity.
One of the most noteworthy add-ons that came with the Windows 10 Creator update is the Paint 3D Preview. It helps users turn 2D images instantly into 3D objects with a simple press of a button.
Microsoft is also introducing Remix 3D along with the Windows 10 Creator update that will maintain uploads coming from the SketchUp app. This is one of the company’s initiatives to create an online community that caters to 3D printing fans.
Customers can also purchase new themes for Windows 10 which Microsoft has made available in the Windows Store. A new personalization section is now going to be included on the online store that comes complete with different themes that can transform the overall appearance of Windows 10.
The Windows 10 Creator update also added new attributes to the Xbox with streaming broadcasts and e-sports. A new tournament creation mode has also been generated so that gamers can customize their brackets. This is the result of Microsoft’s recent partnership with Beam that helps the company with the streaming service.
The Surface Studio is Microsoft’s newest all-in-one PC release that has a 28-inch PixelSense display that uses 13.5million pixels, along with a TrueColor quality that makes the colors on the screen vivid. The touch screen is around 12.5 mm, which is the thinnest measurement for an LCD monitor ever made.
Microsoft has included for the PC an Intel Core i5 processor along with an 8GB RAM and 1TB hybrid drive. The Surface Studio monitor can also be swiveled down to a 20-degree angle thanks to a zero gravity hinge. The entire PC unit is priced at around $2,999.
Microsoft also included on the update the Surface Dial that can be used with the screen of the Surface Studio. The dial will be automatically sensed by the system and it will generate tool sets and buttons for users that will help them in editing different designs.
The Microsoft Surface Dial is fully compatible with the Surface Book, along with the Surface Pro 3 and 4. The Surface Dial is priced at $99 and is available for pre-order.
On other tech news, Apple announced that the popular video game title “Minecraft” will be added to the lineup of the fourth-generation Apple TV roster before 2016 is over. Other details were not revealed so fans of the game are unsure whether “Minecraft” Pocket or another version will be made available.
