Microsoft has revealed plans to bring the Xbox Live online video game platform to the Nintendo Switch, Apple’s iOS, and Android devices.
Details were included in the description of an upcoming panel hosted by Microsoft at the 2019 Game Developers Conference.
Expanding Xbox Live services would allow gamers to stay connected regardless of whether they’re using a video game console or a smartphone, which has been a longstanding barrier in the industry.
Microsoft has revealed plans to bring its Xbox Live video gaming platform to the Nintendo Switch, Apple’s iOS, and Android devices, an effort that will connect players across different devices and bring Xbox games to a new audience.
The tech giant’s plans were revealed ahead of the 2019 Game Developers Conference (GDC), an annual gathering of video game professionals happening in San Francisco next month. Microsoft is hosting a GDC panel titled “Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across Platforms,” and the panel description on the GDC website teased specific details about Microsoft’s Xbox Live gaming service expanding to new platforms.
The description has since been scrubbed from the website, but Windows Central has published the full text of the panel description.
“Xbox Live is about to get MUCH bigger. Xbox Live is expanding from 400M gaming devices and a reach to over 68M active players to over 2B devices with the release of our new cross-platform XDK,” the description for the GDC panel read. “Get a first look at the SDK to enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.”
Expanding Xbox Live services could be the spark of a shift in the gaming industry. Here’s why it’s meaningful:
Xbox Live is Microsoft’s online gaming platform.
Last year Xbox teased a new peripheral to connect smartphones to an Xbox One controller.
Xbox Live encompasses the online components of Microsoft’s video game services. Players use Xbox Live to connect and play games together, download new releases, build their own friend lists, voice chat, and share messages and video clips. Until now, Xbox Live has mostly been exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox One video game console and Windows computers.
The decision to bring Xbox Live to competing devices is a major change for the video game industry, where console makers are often battling for exclusivity and looking for new ways to get gamers invested in their hardware. But recently, Xbox has shown that it’s willing to work alongside its competition.
Three months after tapping Peter Sollett to direct, Warner Bros. has settled on a new release date for “Minecraft.” The video game adaptation will now hit theaters 03/04/22.
Based on the globally popular video game in which players craft buildings, weapons and even environments in a sandbox world, the film will follow a teenage girl and her unlikely group of adventurers who, after the malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, must save their beautiful, blocky Overworld.
Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Jon Berg are producing, with Jill Messick, who died in February 2018, still credited as a producer. Video game developer Mojang, which created the game, is also on board as a producer. And Jon Spaihts will serve as executive producer.
Warner Bros. acquired film rights to the game in 2014, but has seen talent and filmmakers come and go since. The film was previously set to be released in May 2019, but last year Rob McElhenney dropped out of the project as writer and director, and the film was taken off the release schedule.
Since its commercial release in November 2011, “Minecraft” has sold more than 154 million copies on PC, video game consoles and mobile platforms, and is considered the second-best-selling game of all time.
In this edition of the WIRE Buzz, that Minecraft film (finally) gets a release date while Big Hero 6: The Series (quickly) lands a third season and a kinky horror podcast makes its way to the small screen.
First up, we’ve got some good news and bad news for those of you who’ve been waiting for that Minecraft movie. The good news? It now has an official release date! The bad news? It’s nearly three years from now.
Video game developer Mojang, which created the video game and will co-produce the film for Warner Bros., has just announced that the Minecraft movie will be released on March 4, 2022.
“Does it sound distant? We beg to differ!” reads the announcement. “It’s only 1053 days. Or about 34 months, or 150 weeks, or a million and a half minutes. Not that we’re counting, of course.”
The story will focus on a teenage girl and her unlikely group of fellow adventurers who must save their blocky Overworld after the malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction.
After originally being announced in 2014, the Minecraft movie finally locked down its director, Peter Sollett of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlistand Raising Victor Vargas fame, earlier this year. Let us know in the comments if you’re excited to find out his take on the uber-popular game.
Up next, the Disney Channel clearly likes Big Hero 6: The Series(or rather, it sees that its subscribers like the series), as it just ordered a third season ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The show has also brought a bunch of special guest stars on board for its second season, including Nestor Carbonell as San Fransokyo’s newest police chief, Chief Cruz; Isabella Gomez as Hiro’s new friend Megan; Ben Feldman as Liv Amara’s assistant, Chris; Will Friedle as Krei’s geeky scientist, Ian; Jane Lynch and Timothy Simons as grandmother/grandson supervillain duo Supersonic Sue and Supersonic Stu; Jessica Paré as acrobatic thief Sirque; and Horatio Sanz as Mexican wrestler El Fuego.
Based on the Oscar-winning film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Big Hero 6: The Series continues the adventures of 14-year-old tech genius Hiro, his robot buddy Baymax, and their friends Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go, and Fred as they form the legendary superhero team Big Hero 6 and protect their city from scientifically enhanced villains.
The show’s voice cast includes Maya Rudolph as Aunt Cass; Ryan Potter as Hiro; Scott Adsit as Baymax; Jamie Chung as Go Go; Alan Tudyk as Alistair Krei; Khary Payton as Wasabi; Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon; Brooks Wheelan as Fred; David Shaughnessy as Heathcliff; and the late Stan Lee as Fred’s dad. Its recurring guest voice cast includes Jenifer Lewis as Professor Granville; Haley Tju as Karmi; Andrew Scott as Obake; and Andy Richter as Globby.
And finally, Deadline is reporting that Blumhouse Television has acquired the rights to Gimlet Pictures’ horror podcast The Horror of Dolores Roachto develop as a scripted TV series.
The Horror of Dolores Roach is a Sweeney Todd-esque story written and directed by Aaron Mark about a woman named Dolores Roach (natch) who returns to her New York City neighborhood after spending 16 years in prison. But upon her return, she discovers that her boyfriend is missing, and her family is long gone. On the quasi-bright side, her old stoner friend, Luis, lets Dolores give massages in the basement apartment under his dilapidated empanada shop.
But when her newfound stability is threatened, “Magic Hands Dolores” is driven to extremes to survive — and things, not surprisingly, get dark.
Mark will write the series adaptation and co-executive-produce. Daphne Rubin-Vega, for whom Mark specifically wrote the podcast, will serve as a consulting producer.
Mojang has set a date for the premiere of the Minecraft movie — and it’s still almost three years away
In a blog post, Mojang set a specific day for the the film’s first screening: March 2, 2022, a commitment that is still almost three years away.
This apparent display of certainty is striking, because the Minecraft movie was first confirmed back in February 2014 by the game’s original creator, Markus “Notch” Persson. So much time has passed since then that Microsoft has now erased all mentions of Persson from Minecraft’s virtual world.
One consistent detail is that the movie remains with its original studio partner, Warner Bros. However, it will now be directed by Peter Sollett — who is perhaps best known for Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, which was released in 2008 — and not Rob McElhenney, who Mojang selected in July 2015.
Mojang described the movie’s premise as: “The story of a teenage girl and her unlikely group of adventurers. After the malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, they must save their beautiful, blocky Overworld.”
The company, which is owned by Microsoft, also seemed very aware of just how far away the premiere date is, joking that it has “only 1053 days” to finish the project.
“Not that we’re counting, of course,” Mojang stated. “Besides, it turns out that making a live-action, full-length feature film is really complicated!”
Videogame sensation Minecraft is on its way to the movies, with a March 2022 date announced and a director chosen.
Since its unassuming debut in 2009, Minecraft has gone from a free PC game to an international merchandising sensation.
It’s available on every modern console, as well as Android and iOS devices, backpacks, pyjamas, plushies and pencil cases.
After a story-driven spin-off of the creative construction game expanded across computers, consoles, and even onto Netflix via a special interactive edition, Minecraft is being prepared for theatrical release on March 4, 2022 in US theatres.
The film will follow a teenage girl and her unlikely group of adventurers, the official Minecraft blog announced, all set on saving the beautiful, blocky Overworld from the malevolent, destructive Ender Dragon.
Warner Bros is overseeing development and director Peter Sollett is also on board, having helmed high school band comedy drama Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
He’s also directed episodes of The Path and this year’s NBC New York apartment block drama The Village, and wrote his first feature, Long Way Home, something that he’s also doing for Minecraft the First Movie.
He’s worked with some of Hollywood’s big names, too, having directed Michael Cera and Kat Dennings in Nick & Norah and then Julianne Moore, Ellen Page and Steve Carell in Freeheld.
Vu Bui, COO at Microsoft-owned Minecraft studio Mojang, is assigned to the project as one of its producers, along with Roy Lee, whose credits range from The Lego Movie and How to Train Your Dragon franchises to It and The Ring as well another upcoming videogame adaptation in Just Cause and a remake of Fortnite and PUBG genre inspiration Battle Royale. – AFP Relaxnews Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2019/04/19/minecraft-the-first-movie-digs-out-march-2022-date/#2LS6AIyXsj584Xc0.99
Across all platforms, Minecraft – and all of its various editions – has sold over 150 million copies, and a tracker on the official site shows PC sales are now over 30 million.
In October 2018, Microsoft’s head of Minecraft, Helen Chiang, told Business Insiderthat the game had accumulated over 90 million monthly active players, and had sold over 150 million units across all platforms.
If you’re looking for a Minecraft-like experience to dip your toe into, you can give Boundless a whirl. It’s a cross between No Man’s Sky and Minecraft, and we got Simon Miller to sit down and play it, and he loved it.
Just kidding. He hated it, just like everything else we make him play for your entertainment.
