Marvel Games’ new mandate is ‘Make epic games,’ and Spider-Man is just the beginning
Last night, Sony and Marvel dropped a huge surprise: Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games is making a new Spider-Man video game exclusively for PlayStation 4.
According to Jay Ong, Marvel’s vice president of games, Insomniac’s Spider-Man game is just the beginning for Marvel’s ambitious plan to bring its superheroes to consoles.
“When I joined Marvel two years ago, I came in with a mandate to usher in a new era for Marvel Games,” Ong told Polygon in an interview. “We have a treasure trove of the best superhero characters on earth. What can we do with this to create truly epic games?
“Is [Spider-Man] a signal of things to come? Oh, yes. Absolutely. And we can’t wait to tell the world about it.”
Over the past few years, Marvel Games’ output has been primarily on mobile (Avengers Academy, Contest of Champions, Future Fight), on PC (Marvel Heroes) and for Disney Infinity and Lego games. Marvel fans haven’t had their own Batman: Arkham equivalent. But with multiple Marvel console games in development, it sounds like that’s changing.
Ong said there was a lot about Marvel Games’ plans for consoles that he couldn’t talk about. There are existing partnerships with Telltale Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ TT Games to make titles based on Marvel’s properties, but he indicated there’s a lot more in the works, some of which we’ll hear more about later this year.
Marvel wants to work with the best game developers in the business, Ong said, teams that share the company’s passion for its heroes and villains. But it’s being choosy about who it works with, and which teams work on which properties.
“One of the things we really focus on in terms of our new strategy is that we all believe that great games drive the brand and great games are what our fans really deserve,” Ong said. “The question is, ‘How we can get there?’ The thing we landed on is to be really selective with who we partner with. Extremely selective. Right now I would say that out of every 10 opportunities we look at, we maybe do one.”
Ong said Marvel Games has a set of criteria as it looks to work with publishers and developers.
“What we look at first and foremost is the talent level of partner,” he said. “Are they world class in building the games we’re talking about? They have to have world-class talent. They have to be able to invest the resources to make that talent sing. Equally important is, do they have passion for the IP they’re working on? Do they share the same ambition? Do they love the character? We look for passion, that comes through in the first 30 seconds.
“One of our mantras is authenticity; it’s easy to make a game with Spider-Man on the label, but it’s much harder to make it truly authentic in a way that reflects Peter Parker, the character.” Insomniac Games and Spider-Man creative director Bryan Intihar, Ong said, embody that mantra.
When publisher Activision was in charge of developing and publishing Spider-Man games, those titles were often tied to the release of movies or annual publishing schedules. The quality of those games varied, and while they were often successful commercially, Ong indicated that Marvel Games doesn’t want to push games to market just to coincide with a theatrical release. (The upcoming Spider-Man game is “wholly original” and unrelated to 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, the next Marvel feature film starring the web-slinger.)
“We are absolutely obsessed about [quality],” Ong said. “That is our North Star. We always say ‘Great is not good enough. We’re going for truly epic.'”
Ong said that if a future Marvel Games title lines up with the release of a Marvel Studios movie, great, but “in this modern day and age, that model doesn’t work anymore.”
“Things like [games] you cannot under-resource,” he said. “You can’t not give the development time … to do justice to the game. We think, ‘How do we make the game better? How do we help our partners make the game better?'”
It’s not yet clear when Marvel, Sony and Insomniac’s Spider-Man game — or Telltale’s unnamed Marvel game, which Ong says will delight fans — will be released. But those titles represent a new course for Marvel Games.
“Building these franchises, and building these characters [at Marvel Games], this is that first big milestone from this team,” Ong said. “This is a huge ambitious project.”
Marvel Games’ new mandate is ‘Make epic games,’ and Spider-Man is just the beginning
Minecraft for Windows 10 Gets New Skins and Basic Redstone Circuits
The official Minecraft game has been recently released for Windows 10 users, but it is still being marked as “Edition Beta: on the Store. Now the game has received a pretty important update, which adds a couple of new features.
The new update allows players to start creating with basic redstone components, explore new desert temples, collect four types of cute, fluffy rabbits, spruce up dwellings with five new door types, download new biome settler character skins and much more. Here’s how the official changelog looks like:
What’s New in Version 0.13.0 Basic Redstone Circuits, including Redstone Wire, the first set of Redstone Producers (Daylight Sensors, Pressure Plates, Tripwire Hooks, and more), and the first set of Redstone Consumers (activator rails, note blocks, TNT, Trapdoors, and more). The rest of the Redstone functionality is right around the corner…stay tuned. Desert Temples! But maybe stay off the roof…can’t say we didn’t warn you. Keep zombies out with Spruce, Birch, Jungle, Acacia, and Dark Oak doors. Cute fluffy crop-eating bunnies! Biome Settlers Pack, with new skins from the Desert, Tundra & Forest.
The game is available for a price of $6.99 along with other inside-app purchase, so if you’re interested, go ahead and download it. And if you’re a Windows Minecraft gamer, here are some other stories that you might be interested in.
Minecraft for Windows 10 Gets New Skins and Basic Redstone Circuits
Microsoft Updates Windows 10 Movies & TV App with New Useful Features
Microsoft has recently released an update for its Windows 10 Movies & TV app, bringing a couple of useful features especially for desktop users. Let’s have a look at which these are and whether they matter or not.
When it announced that it’s going to rebrand the Xbox Music app to Groove Music, Microsoft also talked about the new Movies & TV app in Windows 10. And the first important update has started rolling out for the service.
Movies & TV App for Windows 10 gets new features
Microsoft representative Ellen Kilbourne said that the app has received the following updates:
- During playback, you can double-click or use the ESC key to toggle in and out of full-screen mode
- Extras that come with bundles won’t flood your collection – they are now listed on the detail page of the main title in the bundle
Those who are members of the Windows Insider program are being further asked to provide feedback on this app, as it allows Microsoft to see what’s wrong and what works well.
So, what’s your take so far on the app, do you like or do you think there are still many features that have to be deployed? Leave your comment below and let us know.
Microsoft Updates Windows 10 Movies & TV App with New Useful Features
Fix: Unable to Download Minecraft From Windows Store ‘Error 0x803f7003’
Minecraft is probably the most popular game in the world, and Microsoft did the right thing when it included the game into Windows Store. But, some players are reporting that they’re unable to download the game due to an error 0x803f7003, so here are a few tips if you’re facing this problem, too.
Can’t download Minecraft from Windows Store? Follow this
Solution 1 – Try to refresh the download multiple times
I know this sounds like a dumb solution, actually it doesn’t sound like a solution at all, but some users reported that they were able to download Minecraft normally after hitting the download button a lot of times, so before you do anything else you can send a few minutes repeatedly pressing the download button again and again.
If this really proves to be the wrong ‘solution,’ then problem probably lays in the Windows Store, so you should do something with it.
Solution 2 – Reset Windows Store
As I said the problem probably lays in the Windows Store, so the first thing you can do is resetting the Windows Store, and then try to download Minecraft again. Here’s how to reset the Windows Store:
- Go to Search and type wsreset.exe
- Press Enter and let the process reset your Windows Store
Now, login to your Microsoft Account once again, and try to download Minecraft. If the problem is still present, you should check out our article about solving Windows Store problems for more solutions.
If you’re still unable to download the game from Windows Store, you should look for additional solutions on Minecraft and Windows forums, hopefully these guys figured out some other solution.
If you have any other Windows 10-related issues you can check for the solution in our Windows 10 Fix section.
Fix: Unable to Download Minecraft From Windows Store ‘Error 0x803f7003’
Super Mario theme comes to Minecraft for Nintendo Wii U
Minecraft was released for the Wii U back in December 2015 via the Nintendo E-Shop and made a perfect fit for the Wii U, probably more so than any other video game console available today.
Compared to the likes of the Windows 10 version and Xbox version, the game is mostly the same but Nintendo wants to change that with a recently released Super Mario theme pack for the Wii U version. This is no doubt going to become very popular, and will be the envy of Minecraft players on other platforms.
The new content is set to launch on May 17, 2016, bringing with it a Super Mario themed world. Furthermore, 15 pieces of Mario-related music and 40 themes to spice up your Minecraft world are also included. This is definitely the best Minecraft theme packs we have ever seen, but unfortunately, it is only available on the Nintendo Wii U — a console on its way to the graveyard. Still, we’ve already seen several individuals claiming they are prepared to purchase a Nintendo Wii U just for this version of Minecraft, and why not? It’s the type of experience that can’t be found anywhere else.
The Super Mario theme pack is freely available via the E-Shop. Furthermore, those who purchase Minecraft for the Nintendo Wii U come May 17 on disk for $29.99 can also get it from the disk itself, so there’ll be no need to download it. If you’re interested in grabbing the digital version of Minecraft for the Nintendo Wii U, then jump to the E-Shop right here and pick it up.
Minecraft recently celebrated its 4th birthday on the Xbox. To celebrate, Microsoft made sure to gift players with several theme packs to help spice up their world. The packs are available for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles only. You can also grab the Minecraft Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack come June 7 from the Xbox Store. As the name suggests, this will not be available on the Xbox 360.
Crown and Council brings the geopolitical drama to Windows 10
If you like empire-building games, then this piece of news will catch your interest: Crown and Council has landed on Windows 10 PCs. Expand your luxurious kingdom, divide and conquer all your enemies and if they refuse, crush them all with no mercy.
Wrench havoc in all 75 available maps and show everybody who the leader is. This is a fast-paced strategy game, there is no time for rest when it comes to conquering land and obliterating rival monarchs. If you are not fast enough, others may get there before you.
The strategy is simple: click adjacent land tiles to subdue them with your army, then pile their gold to fund further expeditions, defensive forts, naval attacks, build universities and other essential structures. Alliances are not tolerated in a worlds where there can be only one ruler.
It’s simple to play, but it’s not so easy to win. Pay attention to the depletion of your resources, if you spend all your money on universities, your army won’t be strong enough to subdue your enemies. Don’t attack too quickly either, hoping to put enough boots on the ground to give you an irreversible early advantage. Recovering after a defeat can be more difficult than expected.
As much fun as this game may appear, players have already encountered issues:
Surprisingly good, casual, easy to learn, free game which gets harder and more satisfying as you progress with new units and ways to increase turns. At this point, there are many problems with the interface: click area not responding, window sizing, minor Engllish errors, but hopefully Mojang will fix these in an upcoming patch. Though the game saves progress and continues at the highest level you’ve completed, I don’t see a way to reset progress or any interface options to adjust sound or screen size. The only serious drawback is the random level creation which makes some levels either impossibly difficult or incredibly easy.
There’s no reason to not try this or give it a bad rating since it’s free and delivers what it promises.
And another player adds:
There is a list of things wrong with it however: Window is not resizable, controls are somewhat obfuscated, they’re only really relayed by the loading screens between games, and the game has no real menus, including no start menus.
Maybe all these issues will be fixed in the future, but for the time being, Crown and Council is an excellent game to kill time on your commute way back home after a day’s work.
Crown and Council brings the geopolitical drama to Windows 10
The 12 worst video game movies of all time
Take any popular and addictively playable game franchise and, chances are, there’s a nearly unwatchable film adaptation. Movie studios regularly mine comic books for their built in audiences, merchandise tie-ins, and action-friendly storylines. They’ve routinely turned to games for the same opportunity. There’s just one problem. Many of them are terrible. Uniformly terrible.
Players, critics, and audiences are all routinely disappointed by video game movies. With the latest addition to the genre, “Warcraft,” in theaters this weekend, we’ve looked through the worst of the worst video game adaptations.
Was your favorite game dragged to the big screen for an unwelcome adaptation? Check out our list and see.
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10. “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 19%
Lara Croft is a gaming icon. A wealthy heiress fulfilling her daredevil dreams of exploring the world, both the game and film are generalized as starring a “female Indiana Jones.” Really nothing in the movies work against that except for the gratuitous shots of Angelina Jolie breathless and gasping directly into the camera. The games were updated with a more feminist, humanizing perspective for Lara and a rebooted adaptation, presumably with the same perspective, was announced starring Oscar winner Alicia Vikander.
From USA Today’s review: “This film, directed by Simon West (Con Air), is like watching a novice (like me) fumble about while playing a video game. There are quick bursts of frantic activity followed by long, enervating lulls. The digital effects sometimes impress, such as the massive stone monkeys that come to life and a spinning gizmo made of huge rotating spheres. But the look of the movie is unduly muddy.”
9. “Doom” (2005)
Universal Pictures
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 19%
The “Doom” series, just recently revitalized with its latest entry, is one of the most well-known horror-shooters and stars marines taking on hordes of violent, brain-dead monsters. The movie, starring The Rock, is such a monster. The explicit gore and violence tries to trick audiences into forgetting there isn’t any discernible storyline. But neither fans of the games nor uninitiated movie audiences cared. The film tanked and, thankfully, The Rock’s career escaped unscathed.
From the Orlando Sentinel review: “The movie based on that best-selling body-count game is ugly, stupefyingly stupid and gross. It has a back story ripped off from a half-dozen sci-fi movies, a Z-list cast that exists only so we can see them impaled, decapitated and worse. It has zombies beheaded by bullets, gratuitous autopsies and the Rock. And that last bit is the saddest note of all.”
8. “Super Mario Bros.” (1993)
Buena Vista
Rotten Tomatoes: 15%
Probably the most popular gaming characters of all time, the “Mario” games revolutionized the medium and gave Nintendo its esteemed position as the major innovators of the gaming world. The movie, however, was blasted as everything the games are not: generic, predictable, visually disappointing, and boring.
From the Philly.com review: “So much like a theme-park ride that you wonder where the security bar is, Super Mario Bros. is a movie whose idea of a peak experience is to be on a derailed train as it falls off a trestle. Scenery rushes by, noise blares, characters pop up wearing new costumes that they couldn’t possibly have had time to change into as they eluded their adversaries.”
7. “Street Fighter” (1994)
Universal Pictures
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 12%
“Street Fighter” is a legendary fighting game series with a highly enviable pedigree. Nearly 30 years after its original release, the game is a tournament mainstay and considered among the very “top tier” of fighting games. The movie adaptation starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile is considered an unfortunate “we don’t really talk about that” misstep in its past.
From Variety’s review: “Electronic videogames, with their built-in audiences, present an alluring challenge for filmmakers, though they are obviously not easy to translate into exciting feature-length presentations. In fact, “Street Fighter” suffers from the same problems that impaired “Super Mario Bros.”: It is noisy, overblown and effects-laden and lacks sustained action or engaging characters. Like the 1993 picture, “Street Fighter” is too disjointed and far less captivating than the videogame that inspired it.”
[TIED] 5. “Hitman: Agent 47” (2015)
20th Century Fox
Rotten Tomatoes: 8%
The “Hitman” series is an action franchise where players are almost always given the same goal (assassinate a target) but with dozens of ways to do it: steal a guard’s uniform and sneak into their mansion, pretend to be a waiter and poison their champagne, make pleasant conversation and overhear a lethal food allergy. Or you can storm in guns blazing and kill everyone in sight. The movie, starring well regarded English actor, Rupert Friend, is visually appealing and sleek but never bothers with a plot and doesn’t deliver on the reason people love the franchise: the macabre thrill of cat-and-mouse and choosing how to kill someone.
From the New York Times: “No amount of killer good looks can save a project with only an echo chamber of destruction where a story ought to be. A grab bag of random notions lifted primarily from the “Terminator” and “Matrix” universes, “Hitman” is a sexless, virtually bloodless chain of preposterous battles rendered in a two-dimensional gloss.”
[TIED] 5. “Double Dragon” (1994)
Gramercy pictures
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 8%
The “Double Dragon” arcade games were a series of two-player side-scrolling action games. You could either play with skill and patience, memorizing enemy attack patterns and honing your reflexes, or you could “button mash,” gracefully slamming attack buttons and hoping to finish teh level. Looks like the film adaptation chose the latter, throwing overwrought, boring and unexplained action scenes at the audience. Alyssa Milano shows up as well, as the damsel in distress.
Taken from the New York Times: “The director James Yukich, who comes from the world of music video, has given the film a jumpy nonstop energy that overrides the script’s incongruities and the amateurish performances by the two leading actors. Every once in a while, the film pointedly reminds the viewer of its source by momentarily turning into a video game. If “Double Dragon” doesn’t look or feel as if it were set in Los Angeles, despite its use of scale-model Hollywood landmarks, that’s because it wasn’t filmed there. It was made in Cleveland.”
4. “Silent Hill: Revelation” (2012)
Open Road Films
Rotten Tomatoes score: 5%
“Game of Thrones” actor Kit Harington co-starred in this adaptation of the third “Silent Hill” game. The “Silent Hill” horror games are brooding, atmospheric, and as psychologically probing as they are scary. But the film adaptations rely on boring, predictable jump scares and spend way too much time trying to decipher the games’ cryptic mythology. Acclaimed actors Carrie-Anne Moss, Sean Bean, and Malcolm McDowell all puzzlingly find themselves trapped in the murky, boring film, but critics and audiences both thought it was beyond saving.
From Entertainment Weekly’s review: “As it stands, there’s plenty of exposition, but not much explanation. The dialogue is clunkier than Pyramid Head’s enormous polygonal noggin, and the frights don’t ever get more complex than the fake-out snake-in-a-peanut-canister variety. (In one scene, pop-tarts explode out of a toaster like a car backfiring.) Bean and Malcolm McDowell slum it enjoyably in their brief roles, although they spend most of their scenes in chains, which makes it seem as if they were forced into the movie against their will.”
3. “BloodRayne” (2006)
Boll KG Productions/YouTube
Rotten Tomatoes score: 4%
The “BloodRayne” series follows Rayne, a half-human, half-vampire assassin who kills vampire nazis in World War II. The games were known for their bloody action, and Rayne usually wore some implausible black-leather dominatrix style getup. As the design of female characters became a more and more contentious part of the video game conversation, Rayne’s character design quickly became outdated. There’s nothing even resembling a similar stance on depictions of sex or violence in the movie and critics trashed it for the over-the-top objectification of Rayne, not to mention the nonsense plot.
From the Variety review: “Gamers, girl watchers and gore hounds are the target auds for “BloodRayne,” yet another vidgame filmization by the frightfully prolific Uwe Boll (“House of the Dead,” “Alone in the Dark”). But it’s doubtful that even the least discriminating genre fans will storm into megaplexes before this anemic action-fantasy fast-forwards to homevid.”
2. “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” (1997)
New Line Cinema
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 3%
“Mortal Kombat” is a fighting game series that debuted in 1992 to immediate controversy. Few games at the time were that bloody and video games were still largely considered a toy. As the graphics improved over the years, the game’s explicit violence made it a large part of the “do video games cause violence?” conversation of the late ’90s and early ’00s. The series remains popular, however, and fans regularly cosplay as the characters and upload elaborate fan films. The movie adaptations have become a running joke among fans and the games themselves occasionally toss in well hidden references to the films.
From the Entertainment Weekly review: “There are lots of special effects — in fact, there are way too many of them. The clawed monsters, liquid fireballs, and gelatinous purploid skies ooze by in a visually synthetic sludge. Fragmented and monotonous, without a semblance of the gymnastic cleverness that at least made the first Mortal Kombat film into watchable trash, Mortal Kombat Annihilation is as debased as movies come.”
1. “Alone in the Dark” (2005)
Gramercy Pictures
Rotten Tomatoes score: 1%
Unlike most action-horror fare, the “Alone in the Dark” entries were slower paced, puzzle and plot heavy games that focused on solving paranormal mysteries. The only thing the film keeps from this template is its protagonist Edward Carnby. Heavy handed, exceedingly violent, and barely coherent, the movie adaptation of “Alone in the Dark” is the worst video game movie. Christian Slater, experiencing a career revival with “Mr. Robot,” gets a nod from critics for trying to do what he can, but overall they agree: this is the worst video game to movie adaptation of all time.
From the Variety review: “…helmer Uwe Boll should put down his joystick — quickly, before anyone else gets hurt. Derivative bloodbath jettisons the games’ atmospheric suspense and Lovecraftian sense of the macabre in favor of slasher movie mayhem, wit-free dialogue and endlessly protracted and gory shootouts. Fans of the source material probably won’t be switching platforms to catch this bizarre Lions Gate pickup, and non-fans definitely won’t.”
‘The Conjuring 2’ levels disappointing ‘Warcraft’ at the box office
The good news for the movie business this weekend was that a sequel did better than projected at the box office after weeks of them earning less than the originals (“Alice Through The Looking Glass,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows”).
The bad news: The $160 million “Warcraft” crashed and burned.
“The Conjuring 2” took in an estimated $40.3 million to win the weekend at the domestic box office, according to Exhibitor Relations. Coming in second was “Warcraft” with a dismal $24 million on 3,400 screens.
The summer blockbusters are struggling at the box office this year and “Warcraft,” based on the popular video game, is the latest example. However, the movie has earned over $280 million already overseas, showing that audiences abroad who are fans of the game came out in droves.
However, “The Conjuring 2” proved that sequels are not completely being ignored this summer. The beefy opening (for a horror) is just below the $41.8 million the original had its opening weekend in 2013 (the second largest all-time opening weekend for a horror).
In third was “Now You See Me 2” with around $23 million, which didn’t slip much from the illusion-heavy original that opened with $29.3 million in 2013.
So talk of audiences being burnt out from sequels might have been a little premature.
Another sequel will definitely take the box office next weekend, as the much-anticipated Pixar movie “Finding Dory” opens and is projected to earn some major coin.
‘The Conjuring 2’ levels disappointing ‘Warcraft’ at the box office
Minecraft competitor Roblox now available on Windows Store
While Minecraft competitor Roblox isn’t as popular as Minecraft, that doesn’t mean that the game isn’t a real threat to it.
Roblox is a massive multiplayer online game created with children and teenagers between 8 and 18 years old in mind. In this game, you are able to create your own virtual world where others players can enter and socialize within the blocks of varied colors, sizes, and shapes. In addition, the game in Roblox can be scripted using Lua 5.1, allowing you to create different in-game scenarios. Speaking of which, if you encounter issues with Roblox, here’s how to fix them.
Robux is a virtual currency that the company is using in order to gain revenue from this game. The players can purchase Robux with real money which they can use to get Builder’s Club access, a status that gives some virtual benefits to the gamers. In other words, Roblox is a FREE game, which is not the case for Minecraft.
As you can see, aside from the virtual currency that can be purchased with real money, Roblox is quite similar to Minecraft. However, Roblox is also focusing more on creating games as many users have already created millions of games accessible for free from their website or from their mobile or desktop apps. These games are usually for multiplayer and include racing, combat, or paintball.
We are not sure yet why Microsoft is allowing Roblox onto its Windows Store as this could tempt many Minecraft fans into testing out this game. In other words, Minecraft might actually lose user because of this addition.
Are you a Minecraft fan? Have you played Roblox yet? Tell us your thoughts about games and which one you prefer most!
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition on Oculus Rift in the Works
It seems that VR is the next big thing, with such big companies as Facebook and Microsoft heavily supporting it. Gaming is definitely going to be amazing and here at WindowsReport everybody is excited where this is going to lead in the near future.
Minecraft Windows 10 Edition coming to the Oculus Rift
Microsoft recently made quite a couple of gaming announcement, and one of them involves Minecraft, which is also their game since they’ve acquired Mojang a while back.
Microsoft and Mojang are teaming up with Oculus in order to provide the first-ever demos of Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition on Oculus Rift. Thus, users will be able to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition in Creative or Survival mode in full 3D using the Xbox One controller that ships with every Oculus Rift.
We’ve known since the beginning of last summer that Oculus Rift will ship with an Xbox One controller in the beginning of 2016, and now it seems that Minecraft is among the first games you will be able to play. However, you should know that Minecraft is one of the 100 games which will be made available by the end of 2016 for the VR headset.
Have a look below at a gameplay of Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition on Oculus Rift and let us know by leaving your comment at the end whether this is something you’d be interested in playing or you’re going to wait for more immersive games.
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition with Oculus Rift support will be available through the Windows Store and Oculus Store this spring, and we’ll make sure to keep you update as to when exactly that happens.
Happy Birthday Minecraft! Here are some free goodies for Xbox players to celebrate
Minecraft on the Xbox turns 4 today and to celebrate, Microsoft is giving away some goodies to all its fans on either the Xbox 360 or the Xbox One.
To commemorate the milestone, the company is offering up 4 Skin Packs to spice up your game. All packs represent the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th birthdays of the game. We understand that outside of the 4th Skin Pack, the others are just an added bonus and will only be available for download until May 16, 2016.
We’re not certain how long the 4th Skin Pack will be available for, but it is not forever. Here’s what Microsoft had to say via its Xbox News outlet:
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since Minecraft arrived on Xbox consoles, and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. We all know birthdays call for a celebration and we want to make sure that you can dress up for the occasion, so starting today through May 16 you’ll be able to download the 4th Birthday Skin Pack for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Minecraft: Xbox One Edition for free.
It still feels like yesterday Minecraft was first released on the Xbox 360, and this is probably due to how successful the game has become since then — and how much successful it still is now. This is a game that is on almost all major platforms with players of every age.
Download all birthday skins from the links below:
Download the 1st Birthday Skin Pack
Download the 2nd Birthday Skin Pack
Download the 3rd Birthday Skin Pack
Download the 4th Birthday Skin Pack
If you’re looking for more Minecraft, we should point out the Favorites Pack for the Xbox One version will be available come June 7, 2016.
Happy Birthday Minecraft! Here are some free goodies for Xbox players to celebrate
Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 6 available now on Xbox consoles
Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 6 – ‘A Portal to Mystery’ is now available on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 for download. This is the first of three add-ons designed to be played by those with the original series.
The original series launched to much fanfare, but did not go on to become that memorable in the long run. The games are good, but not great, though our opinion will no doubt differ when compared to others out there.
Here’s the full description of the title:
As Jesse, you’ll embark on a perilous adventure across the Overworld, through the Nether, to the End, and beyond. You and your friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect; slayers of the Ender Dragon. While at EnderCon in hopes of meeting Gabriel the Warrior, you and your friends discover that something is wrong… something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and you must set out on a quest to find The Order of the Stone if you are to save your world from oblivion.
For those interested, Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 6 – ‘A Portal to Mystery’ will cost games a cool $4.99 for each individual episode. Folks seeking the full experience can purchase the Adventure Pass for $14.99 USD that includes this episode and others.
Minecraft is one of the most played video games around the world today. It came on the scene for the first time back in 2011 as a PC exclusive, then managed to find its way on the Xbox 360 before hitting the current generation of consoles. Versions of the game can now be found on mobile devices, with a much anticipated HoloLens in development now.
There’s also the Battle Mini Game coming to the console version of Minecraft in the future. Furthermore, if you’re a Nintendo Wii U owner, you can enjoy the exclusive Super Mario theme available for Minecraft on that console.
Being the new owner of Minecraft, Microsoft is looking to make as much out of this franchise before. Don’t believe us? There’s a live-action movie in the works, so that alone should be proof enough of Microsoft’s intentions.
The new Minecraft game can be purchased here via the Xbox Store.
Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 6 available now on Xbox consoles
Microsoft’s Minecraft for schools is now available in beta
Microsoft wants to get Minecraft into schools, and it’s starting by trying to get teachers on board. Minecraft: Education Edition, which was announced in January, goes into an open beta today that’s meant to let teachers try it out before the game’s public launch in September. Microsoft’s hope is that teachers will use Minecraft as a way to help younger students engage with lessons, allowing them to, for example, step into a blocky re-creation of a historical world or a scenario from a book.
Minecraft: Education Edition is almost identical to standard Minecraft, but it includes a handful of features designed for the classroom. A couple smaller features were announced in January — like an in-game camera for taking screenshots — and some more substantial ones are being announced today. That includes adding in-game chalkboards that can display large blocks of text and letting teachers place characters that’ll say things when a student walks up to them.
MicrosoftThe biggest new feature won’t come until September, when the game launches. It’s called Classroom Mode, and it’s essentially a control panel for teachers. Teachers will be able to use the interface to grant resources to students, view where everyone is on a map, send chat messages, and teleport people to specific places, which will be useful should students run off or get lost.
Teachers will be able to use Minecraft: Education Edition for free until September. At that point, Microsoft will begin licensing it to schools for anywhere from $1 to $5 per student for a year’s use. There remains a very legitimate question around how effective Minecraft is as an educational tool — teachers have to learn the game and figure out ways to make gameplay educational, largely without Microsoft’s help — but the fact that kids are excited to play Minecraft may be enough to make it worthwhile.
‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ Now Available As Free Trial For Teachers
Microsoft has made the early-access version of Minecraft: Education Edition free for teachers for a limited time, as the tech company prepares for the game’s September release.
The Education Edition of Minecraft bridges the building block game to the world of academia, leveraging a host of new features that facilitate or cater to the learning experience.
Unique to this edition are in-game chalkboards and non-playable characters, both of which can be customized by educators to act as guides and guideposts for students exploring the game world.
The Education Edition also has a “simple, secure sign-in” to ensure the security and privacy of the game’s users, an essential feature for software that works with personal data from minors.
And because teachers just love diaries and portfolios, Minecraft: Education Edition includes tools for creating both.
“Another important aspect of Minecraft in education is being able to collect evidence of learning in the game, and being able to demonstrate student progression,” says Microsoft. “The camera and portfolio features allow students to take screenshots of their work and document the development of their projects.”
Features in the pipeline for the Education Edition include a Classroom Mode user interface, which helps teachers map out their students in the game and provides a list-view alternative. Microsoft is also working on teleporting abilities and a chat window.
To get started with the early-access version of the game, educators will need to sign up for a free Office 365 account on the Minecraft: Education Edition website using a school email address. They will then have access to a digital download of the game, which requires hardware running either Windows 10 or OS X El Capitan.
And for those concerned about possible technical pitfalls, take it from Steve Isaacs, a game design and development teacher at William Annin Middle School, who reports that the game was easy to set up.
“Within 45 minutes of the download being provided to me, I was able to get it installed and my students logged in and [started] playing in a world together,” Isaacs says. “No server setup, or networking configuration required.”
The arrival of the early-access version follows the 14-puzzle Minecraft tutorial that Microsoft released last December as part of the annual Hour of Code event encouraging elementary school students to learn code.
The puzzles were meant to introduce educators to Minecraft’s potential in the classroom. Microsoft followed up the puzzles with daily challenges, which would task students with using code to reconstruct challenge images inside the game.
‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ Now Available As Free Trial For Teachers
Microsoft is giving Minecraft to schools for free — here’s why
Some kids like Minecraft so much that they’re willing to get graded on how well they play the game.
Elena Rezac, a 13-year-old at William Annin Middle School in New Jersey, even prefers playing at school to playing at home.
“You have to do your best,” the seventh grader told CNNMoney. “It ends up being way better than what you do at home.”
That’s because there isn’t really a “point” to Minecraft. The video game lets players build virtual worlds out of blocks, and sometimes there are zombie or animal attacks. But at school, students can use Minecraft to create their own games and story lines.
Rezac has spent the past few weeks building a quest-driven maze inspired by “The Fifth Wave,” a science fiction movie about earth after an alien attack.
The main character of her game is Ella, one of 10 human survivors trying to protect the earth’s plants from being destroyed by aliens.
Rezac really wanted to take game design and development as an elective because it would allow her to work on multiple things at a time. She said, for example, that in art, she would only be able to paint a picture. But computer science is “a lot more fun because you can do whatever you want.”
Her teacher Steve Isaacs agrees and says he likes Minecraft because it allows students to be inventive. His class was one of the beta testers for Microsoft’s new program Minecraft: Education Edition.
“They can find an area where they can succeed,” said Isaacs, a 24-year teaching veteran. “That’s why I give so much choice.”
Students who take his elective have to write a design document that outlines the objectives and rules of their MInecraft game. Then they spend several weeks creating the game and get points for what they build. An A+ means 700 points.
Rezac says she doesn’t think too much about how to get a good grade. Competition among classmates doesn’t really exist either because everyone builds their own version. “It’s more fun [this way],” she said.
Microsoft(MSFT, Tech30) is pinning a lot of hope on Minecraft as a way to break into the education sector. The game’s massive popularity with kids (and adults) is one of the major reasons that the software giant bought Mojang, Minecraft’s developer, for $2.5 billion two years ago.
On Thursday, Microsoft announced that schools and teachers can download a special education version of the game for free. The company also added several new features to the game that make it easier for teachers to give feedback, as well as classroom collaboration tools and a simpler setup process.
A full version of Microsoft: Education Edition will go on sale in September and costs school districts an average of $1 to $5 per player each year. About 1,700 students participated in the beta program.
Related: Minecraft just landed a huge deal to expand into China
Rezac has been playing Minecraft since she was eight. CNNMoney met her and Isaacs at a recent Microsoft event promoting the game. Three eighth grade boys we talked to said they have been playing for about five years as well.
Tom Ruggiero, a 14-year-old in Isaacs’ class, said he likes Minecraft because it involves more variables and therefore more freedom to create.
His classmate Ethan Otash, also 14, agreed and said the game teaches skills such as engineering. After learning the basics, students can make the game more complex.
Because Minecraft is so customizable, Isaacs said aging out of the game isn’t likely.
“There’s a sweet spot,” he said. “But that sweet spot is huge.”
Microsoft is giving Minecraft to schools for free — here’s why
Microsoft launches a free trial of Minecraft: Education Edition for teachers to test over the summer
Following up on its promises from January, Microsoft today released a free trial of Minecraft Education Edition – the version of Minecraft meant for use in the classroom – to educators worldwide. This “early access” version of the program includes new features and updated classroom content and curriculum, the company also says.
For those unfamiliar with the Education Edition, the idea is to bring the world of Minecraft to the classroom to be used as a learning tool where students can develop skills in areas like digital citizenship, empathy, literacy, and more. They can use the software as part of a coding camp, study science, learn about city planning, or they can study history by re-creating historic landscapes and events in the program, for example.
Microsoft also notes that this early access release includes more lesson plans, across a range of grade levels and subjects. For example, some sample lessons are: “City Planning for Population Growth”, “Exploring factors and multiples”, and “Effects of deforestation.”
This early access release available now is not the final version of the software – there will still be some kinks to work out. And Microsoft is still interested in hearing feedback from teachers who try out this edition over the summer break.
This is also not the first time that teachers have been able to get their hands on the Education Edition – Microsoft began a beta test in May that reached 100 schools in 26 countries around the world. During that time, it collected feedback from teachers who used the software with some 2,000-plus students.
Thanks to their input, the release arriving now has a few more features that teachers asked for, including things like easier classroom collaboration, non-player characters and chalkboards to provide instruction, camera and portfolio features that lets students snapshot and document their work, among other things.
Up to 30 students from a classroom can play in a world together, without the need for a separate server, and they can work together or in groups. In a future release, Microsoft will launch a “Classroom Mode” interface for teachers that offers a map and list view of all their students, teleport capabilities, and a chat window for communication.
Microsoft didn’t develop this version of Minecraft in-house, but is rather building on top of the learning software is acquired earlier this year called MinecraftEdu. It plans to license the Education Edition to schools this fall, with costs per user ranging from $1 to $5, depending on the school’s size and volume licensing agreements.
Microsoft launches a free trial of Minecraft: Education Edition for teachers to test over the summer
Why The Creator Of Roblox Thinks His Gaming Platform Will Top Minecraft
Roblox CEO David Baszucki, 53, cofounded the San Mateo, CA CA +0.21%-based computer gaming platform in 2006. With 12 million users last month, it lets people create their own virtual immersive experiences, like modeling in a fashion show or making pies at a pizza parlor. Users buy virtual currency, called “Robux,” so they can increase their power in the experiences and games. Game creators, who range in age from 14 to 25, get a cut of the payments, and the popular ones can earn as much as $30,000 a month, according to the company. Baszucki, who studied engineering and computer science at Stanford, chose the name Roblox because it combines “robot” and “blocks.” The company logged revenue of more than $50 million last year. It has 170 employees. In this condensed and edited interview, Baszucki explains why he thinks the company, which had more than $50 million in revenue last year and employs 170, will be worth billions of dollars.
Susan Adams: What did you do before Roblox?
David Baszucki: I founded an educational software company called Knowledge Revolution. We had the first fully animated physics lab on the computer. You could take ropes, pulleys, balls and anything else you’d use in your physics textbook and the program would allow you to build anything you can think of in a physics lab.
Adams: What happened to that company?
Baszucki: It was acquired for $20 million by a public company called MSC Software.
Adams: It sounds like you didn’t need to work again.
Baszucki: That’s fair to say.
Adams: What made you want to start a new company?
Baszucki: Seeing how kids lit up when they were creating things using our physics software made me think of what would be the ultimate platform for our imagination. Also I like construction toys and I saw the direction 3-D rendering was going. It became clear to me that there was an opportunity to create an immersive, 3-D, multi-player platform in the cloud where people could imagine, create and share their experiences together.
Adams: Doesn’t the blockbuster game Minecraft do that?
Baszucki: Roblox was created before Minecraft and today it’s growing much more quickly than Minecraft. It’s very likely that in the next couple of years we will pass their number of active monthly users.
Adams: The creator of Minecraft, Markus Persson, became a billionaire when he sold the company to Microsoft MSFT -0.27% for $2.5 billion in 2015.
Baszucki: I was attracted to this venture out of pure passion. But ten years later, people in the industry are starting to see the potential for the ultimate size of companies in this space. I believe companies like ours are going to be as large as media companies and social networking companies that are valued in the tens of billions of dollars. I don’t know how long it will take but we know the opportunity is huge.
Adams: How did you get the company off the ground?
Baszucki: Another early employee of Knowledge Revolution and I got together and we wrote the first version of Roblox over the course of two years. We were self-funded. Later we raised $11 million from investors but we haven’t needed to raise any money in five years. We became profitable last year.
Adams: For people who don’t play videogames, can you describe what you were trying to build?
Baszucki: Roblox is less a game than a 3-D social platform where you and your friends can pretend to be in different places. You can pretend to be in a fashion show or that you’re trying to survive in a tornado or that you want to go work in a pizza restaurant, or that you’re a bird and survive by catching insects. It’s like when I was a kid and I’d go outside and play pirates. On Roblox people are playing in 3-D environments created by the community.
Adams: What’s one of your favorite Roblox environments?
Baszucki: I really like Natural Disaster Survival. You and your friends get transported onto an island in the middle of the ocean. Every three minutes a new disaster strikes, like a typhoon, a meteor shower, a lightning storm, a tornado. You have to figure out where to run and hide. It’s fun and it gets your adrenaline going.
Adams: Who created Natural Disaster Survival?
Baszucki: One of the members of the Roblox community. It’s been played more than 40 million times.
Adams: How does your company make money?
Baszucki: There are 500,000 people creating things on Roblox every month. Using Roblox is free but the creators are able to charge virtual currency for the experiences. In our bird simulator you can become an eagle for $10. Users can buy virtual currency with a credit card or a prepaid card or through iTunes or wherever they are.
Adams: Do the creators get to keep part of the payment?
Baszucki: Yes. The developer gets 18% of the dollars spent on the eagle. Some of our developers are earning more than $30,000 a month. One developer, Gus Dubetz, a student at Dakota State, paid his tuition and bought a house for $120,000.
Adams: Do you also sell advertising?
Baszucki: From very early on we have had remnant advertising, similar to banner ads. But over the last five years we’ve started immersive advertising partnerships with big brands that want to reach our audience. We’re running a deal with Disney for Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory.
Adams: How much is Disney paying for that deal and do your developers get a cut?
Baszucki: Some of our advertising deals are six figures and beyond, and our developers get some of that money. About a quarter of our revenue comes from advertising.
Adams: What’s the gender breakdown of the people who use Roblox?
Baszucki: It’s approximately 35% female but the ratio of female players is growing. We don’t just have first-person shooting games. We have Roblox Top Model and Pirate Mermaid Neverland Lagoon.
Adams: To create a Roblox environment or game, do your users need to know how to code?
Baszucki: You can make an initial Roblox experience by dragging and dropping. If you want to become one of our top developers, you have to use code. Lua, our coding language, is built into the site. We have tutorials. Hundreds of thousands of people are learning to code on our site.
Adams: You say you played pirate games outside when you were growing up. Do you regret that Roblux keeps kids glued to screens indoors?
Baszucki: We want people to play outside as much as possible. But when our users have screen time, we prefer they use it in an imaginative, creative way, rather than consuming content or following steps in a procedural way.
Adams: How much screen time do you think kids should have?
Baszucki: I have four kids, aged 13 to 19, and they had screen time limits. When they were between 8 and 12 it was in the one to two hour range per day.
Adams: How much screen time do your kids use now?
Baszucki: My three girls use their phones, not computers. They do social media and listen to music. My son is at U.C. Berkeley studying computer science and he doesn’t have a spare second.
Why The Creator Of Roblox Thinks His Gaming Platform Will Top Minecraft
LEGO releases new Marvel and DC Super Heroes sets
LEGO releases new Marvel and DC Super Heroes sets
The LEGO Group has released a selection of new products from its Marvel Super Heroes and DC Super Heroes lines, featuring three Spidey-centric Marvel sets, and two Classic Batman Villain sets; check them out here…
76057 LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes, Spider-Man: Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle (RRP: £89.99)
Swing into a bridge battle zone and team up with Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and Scarlet Spider to defeat Green Protect Aunt May from Green Goblin, who has a flaming pumpkin bomb and a Goblin Glider with stud shooters, along with Kraven the Hunter and Scorpion’s venomous tail! Press the bridge’s flag to launch a net to trap the villains, or launch a Super Hero from the side of the bridge and swing into action to save the day! The set includes a bridge section, trap door, web prison, Goblin Glider, taxi, police ATV and a Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Scarlet Spider, Aunt May, Scorpion, Kraven the Hunter and a Green Goblin Minifigure.
76058 LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes, Spider-Man: Ghost Rider Team-up (RRP: £19.99)
Stage a street battle scene as Spider-Man and Ghost Rider join forces against Hobgoblin. Dodge the Goblin Glider’s missiles and flaming pumpkin bomb, and use Ghost Rider’s fire chain to catch the evil demon. Knock Hobgoblin off his Goblin Glider or the top of the traffic light with Spider-Man’s Super Jumper! The set includes a Ghost Rider Bike, Goblin Glider, traffic light model and a Spider-Man, Hobgoblin and Ghost Rider Minifigure.
76059 LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes, Spider-Man: Doc Ock’s Tentacle Trap (RRP: £44.99)
Rescue White Tiger from the Octo-Bot’s slippery tentacles! Doc Ock is wading through the water in his weaponized Octo-Bot and has taken White Tiger prisoner in one of the tentacles! Steer Captain Stacy’s speedboat with Spider-Man surfing in on his web surfboard tow and rescue her! Watch out for Vulture nosediving through the air and fend off his attacking claws. The set comes complete with Doc Ock’s Octo-Bot, police speedboat and a Spider-Man, Doc Ock, Vulture, White Tiger and a Captain Stacy Minifigure.
76055 Batman™: Killer Croc™ Sewer Smash (RRP: £69.99)
Help Red Hood™ and Katana™ stop the monstrous Killer Croc™ and evil Captain Boomerang™ from destroying Gotham City. Roll the Bat-Tank into action and fire the 6-stud shooter against Killer Croc’s Battle Chomper. Drop bombs from the tank or deploy the ram weapon to crush Batman’s enemies. Manoeuvre the motorbike out of reach of the Battle Chomper’s movable tail and chomping teeth, and dodge the vehicle’s flying boomerangs.
The set includes Batman’s Bat-Tank, Killer Croc’s Battle Chomper, Red Hood’s motorbike and a Batman™, Red Hood™, Captain Boomerang™ and a Katana™ minifigure plus a Killer Croc™ big figure.
76054 Batman™: Scarecrow™ Harvest of Fear (RRP: £59.99)
Stop Scarecrow™ and Killer Moth™ spreading fear on the outskirts of Gotham City with Gas Mask Batman’s Batcopter, featuring an opening minifigure cockpit, four pop-out stud shooters and a six-blade spinning rotor. Team up with Blue Beetle™ in an aerial battle to protect the frightened farmer. Evade the harvester’s rotating cutters and detachable fear gas stud shooter, and prevent the villains capturing the farmer in its fear gas tank.
The set comes complete with Batman’s Batcopter, Scarecrow’s harvester, tractor and a Gas Mask Batman™, Blue Beetle™, Scarecrow™, Killer Moth™ and farmer minifigure.
Hammer time! Chris Hemsworth to imminently return in new Marvel epic Thor: Ragnarok with three month shoot confirmed for Australia’s Gold Coast from July
The movie is being directed by New Zealand’s Taika Waititi, who has confessed that he’s eyeing a cameo for himself in the blockbuster.
‘I can’t help myself,’ the 40-year-old told the Daily Telegraph after revealing that he will ‘probably’ pop up in the highly-anticipated product.
‘I can’t help myself:’ Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi admitted that he’s hoping to make a cameo in the upcoming superhero film
If Waititi does end up in the film, it certainly won’t be his first time appearing in a superhero flick.
The handsome Kiwi previously had a supporting role in DC Entertainment’s 2011 movie, The Green Lantern.
Waititi previously opened up to the Daily Mail Australia about The Green Lantern’s famously poor box office performance, admitting that it didn’t come as much of a surprise to him.
Star studded: Thor stars Australia’s Chris Hemsworth
‘Being part of it and reading the script and seeing how it all came together, I wasn’t really surprised with how it was received,’ he told the Daily Mail Australia.
‘A classic example was when we were blocking a scene and I said ‘I have one line and it’s not really necessary to the story and it doesn’t further the scene, just a suggestion but maybe I shouldn’t be in this scene?’
‘They were like ‘Shut up Taika, just say your line and do the scene’ and I said okay, and just sat there literally doing nothing and wondering ‘What the f*** am I doing in this movie?’.’
Not the first time! The 40-year-old previous appeared in DC’s 2011 flop, The Green Lantern
‘I wasn’t really surprised with how it was received,’ he previously admitted to Daily Mail Australia
The Academy Award-nominated star has been producing critically and commercially successful films in New Zealand since 2003, and is even behind the highest-grossing New Zealand movie ever, Boy.
Unsurprisingly, he’s also known for casting himself in his own projects.
Waititi has appeared in every single film that he’s written and/or directed, Eagle Vs. Shark, What We Do in the Shadows, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Thor: Ragnarok, which stars Australia’s Chris Hemsworth and Cate Blanchett, is due for release in 2017.
Coming soon! Thor: Ragnarok is set to his theaters in 2017
See what Minecraft would look like in the real world
If there’s a single game that has defined this decade, it has to be Minecraft. Not only has the game sold over 100 million copies since launch, but it also prompted Microsoft to buy developer Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014.
It’s a phenomenon unlike any other in the medium, but despite the fact that players have spent countless hours exploring the game’s infinite worlds, they probably wouldn’t want to recreate Minecraft in real life
YouTube channel Nukazooka released a video this week showing off what it might look like if the popular indie game was suddenly transposed over the real world. At first it looks relatively peaceful… but then the zombies appear:
Who knew that Minecraft could be so terrifying?
The game itself is far more intense than a blocky screenshot might suggest, but zombies, creepers and endermen are truly the stuff of nightmares when they make their way to our world. Still, it would be pretty fun to punch a tree a few times and watch it topple to the ground.
If you liked what you saw, director Andrew McMurry has plenty of other clever videos with impressive visual effects on his channel.
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