At E3 today, DICE revealed several big updates to Star Wars Battlefront II. Players will be able to play during the Clone Wars era, and the game will introduce several new playable characters, including Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. There’s no release date yet for the DLC.

While Battlefront II has allowed you to play as a clone trooper, it’s largely focused on the latest series of films: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Rogue One. This is the first time that Battlefront II players will be able to play as characters from the the prequel era, or to visit the planet Geonosis, where the Clone Wars began in Attack of the Clones. Design director Dennis Brannvall says that it’ll also include “the largest level we’ve ever built for Battlefront.”

In addition to the Clone Wars era, EA announced that it will introduce new content to its Han Solo season next week, including a new squad system and a new starfighter mode, as well as new environments on Kessel. It will also bring back the Extraction game mode. These updates will be released on June 12th.

During its presentation, EA acknowledged it had a “rough start,” after a heated controversy over loot boxes last November, prompting it to backtrack and overhaul its progression system.

In addition to the updates with Battlefront 2, Titanfall developer Respawn teased its own Star Wars game, which will be set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It’ll hit stores next year and will be titled Jedi: Fallen Order.

Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch is about to get a lot bigger with a new update that brings the universal Minecraft Bedrock Engine to Nintendo’s portable console on June 21st, enabling cross-play between the Switch and the PC, Xbox One, and mobile versions of the game.

The cross-platform update is actually pretty late in coming to the Switch — it was announced back at E3 last year, and hit the other platforms last September. The Switch release was then promised for later in the winter, which, based on the June release date, it obviously didn’t quite hit. The updated Minecraft will also support Nintendo’s new online service for the Switch when it launches later this year.

Along with the new update, a physical version of Minecraft for the Switch is getting released for $29.99, should you prefer to own hard copies of your games instead of digital downloads.

All public school students will now be able to play Minecraft in class as the government foots the bill for the popular game.

Education Minister James Merlino announced today that all public school students will have access to the game.

“And in this game you can build digital worlds, but in some versions you can also do things like fighting zombies with swords,” Tom Elliott said.

Rebecca Martin, digital technologies coach at Fitzroy North Primary School, told Tom Elliott that aspect of the game isn’t used in her school.

“The benefit of the education version is that you can actually turn that off,” Rebecca said.

“We’ve been using Minecraft in the classroom for about eight years.

“For example, our 5/6 students have been looking at space and whether life can be sustained on another planet, so they jet off on a new planet that they have to colonize.

“They have to learn about sustainability, energy choices, economics and citizenship.”

Tom Elliott then spoke with an avid player, a captain, in fact, of the Minecraftables at school – his daughter Ava!

“I like it so much,” she said.

Minecraft fans downloaded fewer pieces of content from the game’s marketplace last month, but the top-10 lists for most downloaded and top grossing are both still excellent reminders of the variety and fun that players can find in that store. The Minecraft Marketplace had 285,816 downloads in April, which is down from 321,317 in March and 372,509 in February.

Welcome! You’ve once again found yourself reading GamesBeat’s monthly analysis of the Minecraft Marketplace, which is the block-building phenomenon’s platform for extra content from the Minecraft team as well as external developers. If this is your first time here, you can see the results from past months right here. We do have some new names on the charts, but once again, developers like PixelHeads are dominating.

But we can also see that teams that specialize in roleplay content like InPvP are also thriving with the No. 2 and No. 3 spot on the most-downloaded top 10. Maybe we’ll see developers chasing that trend, or maybe we’ll see some new fad break through in May.

Let’s do the charts.

Here are the top-10 most downloaded pieces of content from the Minecraft Marketplace in April 2018:

Click to view slideshow.
Here’s the top 10 in list form:

City Life
BrightStart Daycare
Prison Escape
Dinosaur Island
K-Pop: Teenage Rebellion
Wildlife: Savanna
Oropia
Summer Mini Games Festival
Chroma Hills HD
Steampunk Castle
And here’s the top-grossing list for April 2018:

Click to view slideshow.
City Life
Dinosaur Island
Wildlife: Savanna
BrightStart Daycare
Chroma Hills HD
Prison Escape
Relics of the Privateers
Lapis Lagoon
K-Pop: Teenage Rebellion
PureBDcraft
The Marketplace is already growing, and we can see that new content always causes download numbers to pop from month to month. But as the Marketplace hits new platforms as Bedrock launches on devices (like Nintendo Switch on June 21), content creators will have a chance to hit entirely new audiences. That’s a big opportunity for a group of Marketplace devs that are already making a living doing what they are doing.

Minecraft Marketplace creators have seen a lot of success this year as more players get into the Bedrock version of the game, which is the universal build of Minecraft that is available on Windows 10, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and mobile devices. Minecraft Bedrock is coming to Switch on June 21, and this will give the creators in the Minecraft Marketplace access to a growing audience of engaged gamers who are spending money.

While the classic version of Minecraft lives on with full support from Microsoft, it is the Bedrock version that is the future of Minecraft as a platform. When this version hits the Switch, players will have the opportunity to sign in with their Xbox Live handle (on a Nintendo device) to enjoy cross-platform play with friends on PCs, Xbox Ones, or smartphones. And if players have purchased content through the Bedrock version on other platforms, those will carry over to the Switch.

For Microsoft, the benefit here is that it has one Minecraft code that it needs to update and maintain, and then it can make additional revenues from the Minecraft Marketplace. And players are potentially more willing to invest in the Marketplace since Microsoft is doing the work to guarantee that content purchases will carry over to future devices.

And all of this is a significant opportunity for developers building content for the Minecraft Marketplace.

“I do think the extra growth will be significant. Nintendo gamers, if you treat them right, will reward you with lots of love and, here’s hoping, high sales,” Minecraft Marketplace partner Jigarbov told GamesBeat. “Minecraft is one of those games that transcends platform boundaries and feels right at home on the Switch, so I think the user base will flock to the well-made content the Marketplace offers.”

One of Jigarbov’s fellow creators echoed that sentiment.

“Having Minecraft, the most popular game in history, with the largest community of creators of any game ever, put on one of the most-sold consoles in the world is an amazing opportunity for growth and the creation of new playstyles and experiences,” Minecraft Marketplace partner Mariana “RazzleberryFox” Graham told GamesBeat. “I am really looking forward to seeing how the Marketplace is going to perform on this platform and what we will be able to do with it.”

But even beyond the potential to sell more creations on the Marketplace, these developers are excited by the prospect of seeing their work on a Nintendo platform. Both Jigarbov and RazzleberryFox say they are lifelong Nintendo fans, and so the Marketplace opening up on the Switch means a lot to them.

“My first console was an NES,” said RazzleberryFox. “Since I was a kid, Nintendo has been the household name for gaming consoles and handhelds, more than any other brand. I owned every single one of them. Being able to release something on a platform carrying this name is a huge achievement for me. It’s literally a dream come true.”

Jigarbov said he always dreamed of “making Nintendo games,” and now through Minecraft, he has.

“Just seeing Jigarbov there on the store list, something I built for sale, on a Nintendo platform is extremely exciting,” he said. “The success of the Marketplace and the multitude of platforms it has been on has been wonderful, especially when I want to explain to someone what I do for a living. Just being able to whip out my phone and navigate to the store, now I’ll be able to do it when I’m travelling with my Switch. It’s a great feeling.”

Minecraft partner relations boss Todd Stevens says this is exactly the kind of response the Minecraft Team wants from its partners when Bedrock expands to a new platform. Because Bedrock is a unified version of Minecraft, creators only have to build and submit their content once, and those creations will appear on all Bedrock platforms from that point forward. So when the Switch version goes live, Marketplace partners won’t have to do anything to see their content on Nintendo’s device.

“We truly believe in our ‘better together’ vision,” Stevens told GamesBeat. “And we are incredibly excited to bring all of our great partner content over to the Nintendo Switch. Many of our partners are big Nintendo fans, so we are incredibly excited to see their creations show up on that console.”

Meanwhile, the Minecraft creators who grew up fans of PlayStation will have to continue waiting to release their content on that platform because Sony doesn’t want the Bedrock version as long as it enables crossplatform multiplayer.

Minecraft has been big business for Mojang and Microsoft, but they’re not the only ones making money off a game that’s almost ten years old. There are others who have grown up with the game, learned its strengths and weaknesses and now found opportunities to make a living doing what they love.

20 year-old Florian Funke is one of those people. He’s the Managing Director of Spark Squared, an outfit that describe themselves as a “Minecraft production company”, and who offer their services—for a fee, of course—to anyone who wants them to build, develop, mod or render anything within the game.

Build worlds, basically.

“‘Building’ means that we create different landscapes, buildings, recreations and more”, Funke tells Kotaku. “We design gaming environments for Minecraft players, educational environments for students or work on recreations for our enjoyment.”

“During ‘Development’ we code custom tools and plugins for Minecraft servers, YouTube series and other. Additionally, we create Minecraft ‘Mechanics’ and ‘Mods’ for minigames and adventure maps, including ‘3D Models’ of monsters, machines and more. And lastly, we render images of all the work in 3D rendering software.”

Spark’s client list is pretty varied. “We work with a lot of the most popular Java and mobile edition Minecraft servers and create various gaming and lobby environments for them”, Funke says. “We have also worked with the mobile live-streaming service Mobcrush on creating products for Minecraft’s official Marketplace.”

“Furthermore, we are working on expanding more into the educational space and have already worked with ‘English Highways,’ an official UK government company that is in charge of building and maintaining highways. We created a world with the goal to get young children more interested in engineering and trying to fill that skills gap.”

While on paper that might sound like basic mod work of an existing game, something that can be handled by a couple of people in their spare time, in reality it’s relatively big business. Since its creation five years ago, Spark has grown from a couple of teenage schoolboys dabbling in a hobby into a company that now employs a range of staff full-time, from management to developers to artists, as well as calling upon a roster of around 40 freelancers.

I came across Spark’s work the other day when an artist I’m a big fan of, Paul Chadeisson, tweeted out some images showing how Spark (as a fun personal piece) had turned one of his works into a massive 3D space in Minecraft.

You can see that creation above (Funke rates is as one of the company’s favourite efforts), but I’ve also included other examples of their work as well, ranging from sci-fi worlds to medieval kingdoms to ancient Rome.

You can see more of Spark Squared’s projects at their company site.

VICKSBURG, MI — When Austin Roberson sat down at the computer and fired up Minecraft, he was not at home playing video games during summer vacation. Roberson was in a classroom on a Thursday afternoon at Vicksburg High School.

Students enrolled in Intro to Design, one of many engineering-type courses offered by Greg Mills, are using a video game most play for fun as educational software in their classrooms.

Using the building game, students created a virtual tour of their entire high school, including classroom spaces and the building’s exterior. Their next project is to create a tour of the old Vicksburg paper mill.

Vicksburg students use Minecraft in classroom
Mills, a teacher with the Education for Employment program at the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, said when this class was first opened to students four years ago, students would try to play Minecraft during class.

“Instead of telling them, ‘You can’t play,’ we gave them projects,” Mills said.

Students are using blueprints, photographs and satellite footage to create, in Minecraft, an exact replica of the old paper mill.

The old mill site will be redeveloped within the next few years into a hub of residential and commercial space. The $50 million project is called The Mill.

Roberson, sitting with 11 other classmates in a large computer lab inside the high school, worked to create a home located on the property. As his eyes moved between Google Maps and Minecraft, he moved his avatar around with his keyboard, placing boxes on top of each other.

One block in the game equates to 3 feet, so some simple division allows the students to calculate how many blocks should make up the building, Roberson said.

His class is currently working on the exterior of the buildings and grounds of the 80-acre property in Vicksburg. As The Mill is developed in the real world, the students will create a virtual tour of the new space, allowing anyone to visit virtually from hundreds of miles away.

The finished product will be shown on The Mill’s website, said John Kern, community outreach and education coordinator with The Mill.

“The mill used to be a hub of the community,” Kern said. “This is a great opportunity for us to use that space, to do something that is educational and to give these kids the chance to see that there are opportunities available to them here.”

The project is working to help “young kids get excited about something right in their backyard,” Kern said.

“If you’re going to be effective with people, you have to go where they are,” said Kern, who worked as a teacher for 30 years, about using video games in the classroom.

The current generation of students is “extremely digitally savvy,” he said.

“It feels like play, but it’s so deeply layered educationally for them,” Kern said.

“Game-ification” and the use of games to teach is a trend that can be seen from universities all the way down to preschools, Kern said.

Sitting in front of his own computer screen at the front of the classroom, Mills watched live as the students’ avatars moved quickly through the virtual space, dropping red brick boxes to create a wall of one building.

“They want to be here,” Mills said. “And they are getting rewarded for what they do.”

Using high-grade computers and industry-standard software such as computer-aided design, or CAD, software, the high school students are learning a combination of skills including mathematics, science, engineering and even photography.

This allows the students to “take what they learn and apply it in a 3D way,” Mills said.

“We utilize what they know and bring it together for projects,” he said.

But, most importantly, they are learning to communicate, Mills said.

“What do engineers do?” Mills asked the class.

“Communicate,” the students responded in unison.

Mojang has announced that the Bedrock edition of Minecraft will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch in June. This is exciting news but what exactly does it mean?

Previously, practically every version of Minecraft on various different platforms was constructed with its own unique codebase. The differences between each version caused a few problems in the world of Minecraft that needed addressing. First of all, varying codebases made it a lot more difficult to push out updates. When every version lives in its own bubble that means that every version needs to get its own update. Second, differing codebases makes it far more complicated to implement cross-play between different platforms.

The Minecraft Bedrock update will unify all versions under one codebase. This means that when developers want to push out an update to Minecraft, it should prove to be much easier to get it out to every platform at pretty much the same time. Most excitingly, the Bedrock update means that you will be able to play Minecraft on your Switch with friends on pretty much any other platform. That being said, it is no surprise that Sony continues to be a snotty brat who refuses to play nice with the other kids on the playground. That means no cross-play with friends playing Minecraft on PlayStation.

In addition, Switch players will gain access to the Minecraft Marketplace where you can pick up user-generated content like textures, skins, and entire worlds. You will also have access to community servers that will offer mini-games to spice up your Minecraft life.

If you are already a proud owner of the Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition, you will get to update to the Bedrock Edition totally free of charge. If you have yet to dive into the world on Minecraft on Switch, you can pick up a digital version from the Nintendo shop or you can get an actual physical copy. Both will be available on June 21 for about $30.

This is great news for Switch owning Minecraft players who prefer to share the experience with friends. At last, all the platform tribes will be unified! (sidelong glance in Sony’s direction)

We’re just a few days away from Microsoft revealing what’s next for its Xbox One and Windows 10 line-up, but that didn’t stop the new head of first-party games for Microsoft from talking about what lies beyond that in the near future.

Booty recently sat down with MCVUK about potentially expanding its current franchises into new directions. The company has been known to do so in the past, such as Halo with its Halo Wars strategic series and Forza with the less serious Forza Horizon games. But more work is needed, according to him.

“We’re very lucky to have a number of established franchises,” Booty explained. “When you think about Minecraft, Halo and Forza, each has over a decade or almost a decade of foundation underneath them. We need to use those franchises as a home base from which we can expand. That strength lets us branch out and take risks with them.

“With games being as large as they are, with the move to games as an ongoing service…it is difficult to pivot quickly and try to chase after trends that might happen even on the scale of a year. In business terms a year can be a long time, but development time being three to four years these days, that’s the span we need to think about. We’ve got to get our strategic long-term bets, our game development cycles and the things our players like to do in sync. And that will set us up for success.”

But the question is if these risks will pay off. There’s a good chance that the company will test out this theory in a few days by announcing three new Gears of War games including a traditional sequel; a strategy-based game like Wars; and a potential Battle Royale title to cash in on the current success of the genre. These haven’t been confirmed just yet but they could be part of Booty’s gameplan, just to see what audiences are hungry for these days.

Let’s just hope that Microsoft doesn’t forget the core fundamentals of each franchise. Sure, some Halo offshoots might be fun but we can’t forget that at the end of the day, there’s still Halo 6 to consider.

We’ll let you know what Microsoft announces when its E3 press conference kicks off this Sunday at 1 PM PDT.

(Hat tip to GamingBolt for the scoop!)

Terraria is easily one of the best values on Steam, offering countless hours of action-packed sandbox gameplay for an extremely fair low price ($9.99—and it goes on sale fairly often). Terraria’s already awesome gameplay is made even better by the incredible mods created by its community, which we’re spotlighting below.

If you haven’t yet picked it up, or if it’s gathering digital dust in your overcrowded Steam Library, now’s a great time to get back into the game and check out all of the awesome additions that have come along in its amazing seven years. Do keep in mind that while Terraria is available on basically everything but your fridge, modding capabilities are available only in the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the game (sorry!).

Unlike many similar games, Terraria does not have Steam Workshop support. Instead, you’ll use an application called tModLoader, which adds a mod browser to Terraria’s main menu and opens the door to the countless awesome mods within. Also, the game’s Vanilla files and Modded files are kept separate, in case you want to keep playing your “normal” game. If you’re a particularly savvy coder (or even just getting started), tModLoader can even be used to create your own mods.

tModLoader
You can find the latest version of tModLoader for download here. Extensive documentation, including a basic usage guide for installing and getting started, can be found here. Once you’ve installed the desired mods, enter the “Mods” menu, select “Reload Mods” then “Enable All.”

All mods mentioned below can be found within the tModLoader browser. Many will play nicely together, but if you need help we recommend checking out the official Terraria mods and tools forum. tModLoader also has a Discord Channel and a dedicated help thread.

Quality of life improvement mods
These mods focus on offering optimizing certain aspects of the gameplay that can typically be considered annoyances while not majorly affecting the overall difficulty.

Magic Storage: Let’s face it: As fun as those items are to collect, they’re a total pain to keep organized. Magic Storage allows you to create an item storage network that allows easy access to your things from anywhere you set up an access point. You can even search, filter and craft!

MaxStackPlus: Pretty simple mod that corrects one of the major annoyances in pretty much every game ever. All items except weapons, accessories, and armor will now stack to 9999.

Recipe Browser: Minimize your time spent scouring wikis to find out how to craft the bare necessities (and everything else) with the help of Recipe Browser. Search every in-game recipe and view exactly which materials are used to craft it, along with the required crafting station, if applicable. You can search by an item’s name or for words in tooltips, even supporting partial search terms. Recipe Browser also features a complete bestiary and item database.

Recipe Browser
Wing Slot: Wings don’t have their own slot, and they should. This mod adds a dedicated wing slot for both equipped and vanity wings.

Boss Checklist: Boss checklist is exactly what it sounds like: an in-game boss checklist mod that shows which bosses you’ve already killed and lists bosses in a recommended progression order. Simple and helpful.

Auto Trash: This mod allows you to specify items to be automatically trashed, reducing clutter (including blocks, materials, etc.) in your inventory. No more manually discarding those unwanted blocks!
Gameplay modifying mods
If you’re looking to take Terraria modification a bit further and don’t mind making things easier, check out these gameplay modifying mods that can help you get the items you need quicker and with less difficulty.

Start with Base: This relatively simple mod starts your character off in a new world with an already-established base. The mod offers a small handful of starter bases that are generated at the end of world creation. These bases are designed with your NPCs in mind and can make it much easier to get started in your new world.

Start with Base
VeinMiner: This handy mod makes it easier than ever to mine an entire ore vein. VeinMiner lets you gather all blocks in a mineral vein by mining single tile while holding the (remappable) hotkey. There’s even a toggle to make it work for other, non-mineral blocks, too!

Alchemist NPC: Vanilla Terraria’s potions are pretty awesome, but can often be difficult to obtain in desired quantities. This mod adds unlockable NPCs that sell most potions in the game, along with select ingredients. These NPCs are unlocked by beating certain vanilla bosses and meeting other requirements.

Reduced Grinding: For those players who don’t have a lot of time to play or just want to have quicker access to all the great things the game offers, Reduced Grinding is where it’s at! This mod adds special potions to help make farming easier by boosting spawn rates, toggling events, etc., and improves drop and catch rates of some harder to earn items. There’s even new recipes!

Bags of Holding: There’s no denying that inventory management can be a hassle, and Bags of Holding is here to help. This mod introduces craftable bags that can be equipped in your accessory slots to automatically collect obtained items of the selected bag type (fish go into the Fishing Bag, wood goes into the Wood Bag, etc.). This mod is great for providing an insane amount of extra inventory space as items in these bags can stack to absolutely insane limits.

Infinity: This mod adds infinite-use versions of consumable items, such as potions, arrows and torches. One less thing to worry about!

Complete game overhaul mods
If you’ve already played hundreds of hours of Vanilla Terraria and are looking for something new, you may consider one (or more) of these awesome overhaul mods. Each mod adds a ridiculous amount of new items, NPCs, bosses, biomes and so much more. Check out each mod’s thread to see what’s in store for you. Additionally, many of these mods have their own wikis, which are linked in the official tModLoader thread.

Calamity

Tremor

Thorium

Spirit

The Split

Creative and sandbox mods
If you’re in the mood for something other than the traditional Terraria gameplay experience, check out these “god mode” style sandbox mode mods that let you have fun and play around with the game’s features.

Cheat Sheet: This mod is basically Vanilla Terraria in sandbox mode, granting the ability to spawn any item, NPC, etc. you want. There’s even in-game TEdit (mentioned below) features, allowing you to paint sections of the map and copy-paste content. This one’s certainly not for a “legit” gameplay experience (after all, it does have cheat in the name), but is still totally fun to mess around with.

Hero’s Mod: This mod focuses more on a server management and administration, adding extremely useful tools that are helpful for anyone running their own Terraria server. You can control time, ban players, spawn NPCs, protect map areas and more.

TEdit: While technically not a mod, TEdit is a standalone map editor that is an absolutely invaluable tool for Terraria players. If you’ve ever seen ridiculously complex pixel art-style creations on Reddit, chances are that some of them may have been created with the help of this program. TEdit lets you load your existing world and make changes to it in a grid-based editor, offering paint-like tools to add and create pretty much anything you want. Unfortunately, this program is available for Windows users only.

TerraMap: Also not a mod, this standalone application lets you view your entire Terraria world. Simply load in your world’s save file and you’ll be able to view all blocks, ores, items in chests, dungeons, NPCs and more. This can be helpful to locate specific biomes and chests, but can certainly take the fun out of exploring the map on your own. The developer is also working on a web-based version of the tool, which you can find here.

TerraMap
You can find your world and character files based on your system here:

Windows: \Documents\My Games\Terraria\Players

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Terraria/Players

Linux: ~/.local/share/Terraria/Players

If you’re using Steam Cloud Sync, the files will be in a different location.

/userdata//105600/remote/players

Happy modding!