Fortnite may no longer be able to claim it’s the biggest video game in the world, as interest begins to fall and Minecraft sees a resurgence. EA claim UK Parliament loot boxes are ‘surprise mechanics’ and ‘quite fair’ If there’s two video games every parent, even those that have zero interest in gaming, have heard of it’s Minecraft and Fortnite (with Grand Theft Auto probably in third, even though kids aren’t supposed to play it). Fortnite’s unparalleled success has been due to just a few obvious factors: it’s free, it’s constantly updated, and it’s actually quite good. Everyone plays it but particularly cash-strapped kids, at whom most of the marketing and gaudy costumes are aimed at. But what goes up must go down and at some point Fortnite is inevitably going to see a decline in interest, and that time looks like being round about now. The latest Google search data, as noticed by Forbes, shows that interest in Fortnite has been on a steady decline and Minecraft has seen an unexpected spike – with Minecraft creators Mojang reporting that YouTube views of Minecraft related videos were up 8% last month. Fortnite’s decline is by no means sudden or unexpected but what is surprising is the rise in interest for Minecraft.

It’s probably related to the game’s 10th anniversary celebrations, which have raised its profile, and the annoucement of mobile AR app Minecraft Earth and console-based dungeon crawler Minecraft Dungeons. Although plenty of adults play Fortnite the audience for Minecraft is more predominately children, with most tending to grow out of it in their early teens. The uptick though could show that some are no longer embarrassed by their earlier obsession and are now coming back to the game. Something which Minecraft Earth is likely to encourage even more.

The Fortnite 8.50 Patch Notes are available right now for all players around the world. This long-awaited update comes with the release of the Avengers Endgame crossover event and much more. Without further ado, let’s jump right into the Fortnite 8.50 Patch Notes and see what’s new. For Creative and Save the World, check out the official site.

Fortnite 8.50 Patch Notes

Endgame – Limited Time Mode
Join the battle for the Infinity Stones! Fight as Chitauri and Thanos or wield Avengers items in the Endgame LTM. 

Limited Time Mode: Endgame

Summary
Thanos and his Chitauri invade the Battle Royale island, in search of the six Infinity Stones.

Mode Details

• Endgame features a team of heroes fighting to stop Thanos and his Chitauri from claiming all six Infinity Stones.
• Both teams respawn when eliminated until the other side completes their objective.
• On one side is the Hero team. Heroes respawn when eliminated until the enemy team has found all six Infinity Stones.
• Heroes start with a treasure map that leads directly to a Mythic Avengers item.
• Other Avengers items can be found in Chests throughout the map.
• The goal for the Hero team is to destroy the Chitauri army and defeat Thanos.  
• Team Thanos is comprised of Chitauri Invaders and Thanos himself.
• Chitauri Invaders start with a powerful laser rifle, an anti-structure grenade attack, and a jetpack that lets them briefly leap high into the air.
• The first Chitauri to recover an Infinity stone will be transformed into Thanos.
• Thanos has a powerful punch, a destructive beam attack, and the ability to jump high into the air and then smash anything in his way when he comes back down.
• Each time an Infinity Stone is claimed, Thanos’ abilities grow more powerful and the Chitauri gain health.
  • Reality Stone (Red) = Heath & Shields doubled (1000->2000)
  • Soul Stone (Orange) = Siphon activated (grants Thanos shields only)
  • Mind Stone (Yellow) = Jump height doubled
  • Space Stone (Blue) = Ground Pound AOE size tripled, damage x6
  • Time Stone (Green) = Big knockback added to each hit, damage x3
  • Power Stone (Purple) = Laser damage x6
• If Thanos is eliminated from the match, another Chitauri will become him after a short wait (unless Thanos is the last one standing).
• If Thanos & the Chitauri find all six Infinity Stones, Heroes will no longer be able to respawn.
• The goal for Thanos and his army is to find the stones and then eliminate the remaining heroes.

Weapons + Items

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• The Hold to Swap functionality is now confirmed upon releasing the Use button rather than when initially pressing it.
  • This should help with the issue of accidentally swapping.
• If a player is eliminated by fall damage while inside a vehicle, the player that last damaged that vehicle will receive the credit for that elimination.
• Re-enabled hit markers to be server-side authoritative instead of client-side.
  • This will help prevent instances where players see hit markers but no damage.
• Players that were Rebooted into Rifts were teleporting into the sky but would not enter skydiving mode.
• Vehicles weren’t getting impulsed away from the Reboot Van.
• Collision for the Reboot Van was not affecting some vehicles, allowing them to hide inside of the Reboot Van.
• The yellow “invulnerability” effect wasn’t appearing on players who were revived by the Reboot Van.
• The Reboot Card was still playing its spawn sound even if the player disconnected.
• Dropping inventory items while in vehicles with weapons is now blocked to prevent various camera issues.
• Traps were occasionally being placed in the middle of a tile rather than against a wall when using Builder Pro.
• When exiting vehicles, the equip animation will now always play before weapons can be fired.
  • This will prevent the issue where players would occasionally see themselves fire right after exiting a vehicle before the server had time to register the shot.
• The elimination feed text will no longer display the “eliminated by ally” message if an ally interrupts a player reboot animation.  
• Fall damage was being taken when using a Jetpack (in supported Limited Time Modes) after being launched from the Pirate Cannon.
• Players were not able to negate fall damage using a Flintlock Pistol while crouching.
• Players couldn’t see the nameplates of party member’s Reboot Cards in the UI.
• Players would not drop a Reboot Card if they were eliminated after confirming a Reboot but before their teammate actually spawned.

Gameplay

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• We’ve resolved an issue that was preventing the correct amount of Survival XP from being granted after games and have gifted XP to players as compensation.
  • You’ll receive this compensation via the Gifting system.

Competitive

• New Tournament – April 27 & 28: Fortnite World Cup Online Open Week 3 ($1,000,000 total prize pool!)
  • Top performers in each server region will qualify to the Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York City.  Full Fortnite World Cup details and official rules can be found here: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/competitive/events/world-cup
• Solo Game Mode
  • Participation in this event requires players to reach Champion League in Arena.
  • Region Lock is in effect – players may only participate in the qualifier for a single server region each week of the Online Opens. The server region of the first match entered for that weekend’s tournament will be the one the player will be locked into for that entire weekend.
  • Format:
    • April 27 – Round One: All Eligible Players.
    • April 28 – Round Two: Top 3000 Players from Round One.
• Streaming Replays – Currently only available on PC & Mac
  • Added tournament Match History, which can be viewed by selecting a player on the leaderboards.  
    • Replays can be viewed from each match that player has played.
  • Added the ability to spectate live matches during tournaments by selecting a player on the leaderboards.
    • Note: Match must have been running for 10 minutes for live replay to be available.
  • Added the ability to view a specific match by game session ID using the “View Streaming Replay” button in the Replay Browser.
• Arena & Tournaments will now record profile stats to Solo/Duo/Squad categories rather than as an LTM.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Players in Arena were incorrectly seeing themselves demoted to a lower division after losing Hype.
  • This was strictly a visual issue and all Hype values and division unlocks are once again being displayed correctly.
• Tournament posters in-game were incorrectly showing certain events as starting in ‘2 Days’.
• Tournament posters and the Arena Panel were not loading properly on mobile devices.

Performance

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Resolved a cause of significant hitching during skydiving. and during late game combat.

Art + Animation

• We’ve added a unique animation for petting the dog and other Pets.

Audio

• Added Sound Visualizer without Spatialization (panning) of sounds in-game.
  • By introducing this mode, if you are a hearing-impaired player, then you will now be able to play the game with audio and the visualizer turned on simultaneously!
  • Drop in and give us your feedback about these changes either in-game or on our social channels to help us continue to make improvements for the future!

​​​​​
Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Various gameplay sounds (gunshots, walking, reloading) will no longer retrigger at incorrect/random times.
  • This was causing “ghost” sounds to be heard when nothing was causing the actual sound effect.
• Fixed an issue that would cause certain things to not have looping audio when they should.

Replay

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• When healing with foraged Banana or Apples, the full visual effects weren’t playing when viewed in replays.

Mobile

• The reactive effects were not working properly for the Marshmello Outfit.
• MSAA anti-aliasing enabled on P30 Pro, Mate 20, Mate 20X.
• The interact button now has context-sensitive icons.
• You can now move while the map is open by providing input on the left side of the screen.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Made improvements to stability and to resolve some crashes.
• Made performance improvements on the iPad Mini 4 and Air 2.
• The movement joystick wasn’t appearing on the HUD for certain devices.
• Push notifications were not being sent after updates finished downloading.
• Blocked players on player’s friend lists were not appearing as ‘Blocked’.
• The fire button and right fire-stick would not function after anchoring the Baller grapple with tap to fire.
• The right fire-stick was not allowing camera movement while in the Baller.
• The Baller grapple was not releasing on the first tap.
• Players could get stuck in an infinite fire loop after exiting the Baller while it was anchored with the grapple.
• Double tapping was required to detach the Baller’s grapple when using tap to fire.
• There were visual issues on the Back Button in the menus.
• Voice Chat icons from players set to “sit out” were not appearing.
• Ammo boxes weren’t opening.
• The Confirm and Cancel buttons in Squad Management were difficult to touch/interact with.
• The Option menus were closing the unapplied changes was closing the entire menu instead of just the popup prompt.
• Menu icons could be removed from the HUD Layout Tool.
• Vehicle boost icons were appearing different between viewing them in a match vs in the HUD Layout Tool screen.
• The Score Tracking widget can now be removed from the Mobile HUD
• Score Tracking widget can now be removed from Mobile HUD
• It was difficult to see character and weapon animations while using the Boom Bow.
• The Map widget was setting its anchors inappropriately when moved in the HUD layout tool, making some attached game mode UI push the Map widget off the screen.
  • You may need to reset the Map widget in the HUD Layout Tool to resolve this issue.

The Fortnite Week 9 Challenges are finally here after last week’s decent challenges and a super awesome patch today. As always, there are a ton of challenges to complete including dancing between three ice sculptures. In this guide for Fortnite Battle Royale, we are going to let you know how to complete this fun and quick challenge.

For starters, as always, the Fortnite Week 9 Challenges are now available. There are seven challenges in total per usual. Three of those challenges for all players but four of them are only for those who own the season eight battle pass, but you might already have that if you did the overtime challenges last season.

But for the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on the dance between three ice sculptures challenge. This is a multi-part challenge but we’re going to focus on the first part. It’s not super hard to do as all you need to do is find the location, dance there, and that’s it. Well, if you do it three times at least.

The location of the three ice sculptures are, thankfully, right by each other so you won’t have to go far to find the right spot to dance. But where are they? Well, as you’d probably expect, they are found in the snowy biome from the start of season seven. They are directly east of Frosty Flights and southwest of Polar Peak.

You can find the three ice statues in a small forest just at the base of the mountain where Polar Peak is. They’re really close to one another so all you need to do is head to the middle of them and do any dance emote and you’re good to go. That concludes the first part of but one of the Fortnite Week 9 Challenges.

It is pretty hard to imagine a world without Fortnite, isn’t it? But it turns out that if former Epic Games director Rod Fergusson had stuck around, the world might have been very different indeed. According to Fergusson, had he still been in charge later than he was, it is possible that Fortnite never would have been completed.

The Former Epic Games Director Would’ve Killed Fortnite

While chatting with Game Informer, Rod Fergusson was none too impressed with Fortnite when it was under development and he was still the Epic Games director. In fact, he actually tried to stop it from moving forward.

Fergusson said the game “would not have passed bar” by his standards. He explained, “Before I left, I tried to cancel Fortnite. When it was Save the World… that was a project that had some challenges. And as the director of production at the time, that game would not have passed my bar for something we should continue to keep going… So when people look at me and say ‘don’t you feel bad [that you left before the game succeeded]?’ I say no, you should feel really good, because that game you love – that worldwide sensation – would not exist had I stayed at Epic.”

It is rare to get such a frank assessment of a short-sighted decision by someone in the industry. It just goes to show that sometimes it can be really hard to tell what the next big thing could be, and what is worth pursuing. It makes you wonder what Epic would have worked on instead had Fergusson successfully cancelled Fortnite.

So given that he was dead wrong about Fortnite, how does Fergusson feel about what the game has achieved since? He does say that he “doesn’t lose sleep” regarding his decision. But he is “supper happy” for the success of the team with the game.

There are signs that Fortnite’s popularity has been waning. Nonetheless, the game holds pretty strong. And some decline is expected, given that Fortnite is no longer the hot new sensation. Want to make sure you don’t miss out on any Fortnite news? Be sure and check our Fortnite news section regularly. While the game has been around for a while now, the creative team over at Epic continues to innovate fresh experiences for the Fortnite player base!

A few months ago I wrote a story about ray tracing-style effects through the use of path tracing in Minecraft with incredible results, but I feel like the game has taken another gigantic leap in the graphics department with a new video below combining the Stratum 2048×2048 textures, ‘ray tracing’ at 4K, realistic graphics mods and oh-so-much more. Check it out:     Modder ‘Hodi’ has a Patreon page where he concentrates on making textures only, and to goo effect – I mean, that video above sells the entire thing easily, right?! Powered with an Intel Core i7-6700K, 16GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti we have the results above, a glorious-looking Minecraft that seems out-of-this-world good.   Hodi used the following mods, textures, and tweaks:   Minecraft 2019 – Stratum 2048x POM/PBR | Continuum Shader – Ultra Realistic Graphics – Ray Tracing – 4K tratum 2048x POM/PBR minecraft realistic graphics minecraft photorealistic textures minecraft raytracing minecraft ray tracing minecraft Continuum Shader minecraft 2019 minecraft ultra textures minecraft ultra graphics minecraft texture download minecraft resource pack     Another video I found on my hunt for the Stratum 2K Photorealism + Continuum 2.0.2 mods for Minecraft led me to the above video by ‘Ultimate Immersion’ and it looks f***ing wild. I mean, seriously – this is just Minecraft with mods and it looks absolutely mind blowing — especially when you consider how barebones basic Minecraft actually is in the graphics department.

You know all those jokes about building a version of Minecraft inside Minecraft? Well…

YouTuber SethBling has plenty of cool Minecraft videos on his channel. He’s made a Katamari Data Pack, which lets him roll up animals into a ball. He’s made what is essentially a 3D printer that creates Polaroids.

Perhaps most impressively, he made an Atari 2600 emulator within Minecraft back in 2016. And now, he’s made…well, Minecraft. But in 2D.

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When SethBling opens the chest, the squares inside it are now populated by different Minecraft elements that ultimately make up a playable 2D version of the full game, complete with a playable Steve would can move and jump through it.

When Seth clicks on a ‘tree’ enough times, it gets added to his inventory, which is a whole separate screen. He’s built a house in there and everything. Early on he encounters a ‘lake’ (the blocks are blue to indicate water) and needs to use wood he has collected from trees to make a crossing. It’s wild.

Obviously it’s fairly restricted, but it’s also pretty damn impressive, and SethBling takes time to go over how he did it in the video. There’s a download link included on the YouTube page if you want to check it out for yourself. It’ll only work with Minecraft on PC, of course.

The creativity of the Minecraft community knows no bounds. Not content with the usual 3D version of the game, YouTuber SethBling has created his own, playable 2D version set entirely within a Minecraft chest, complete with crafting, jumping, and flowing water.

As you can see in the video above, blocks from the game are replicated inside the chest, and you can walk left and right across the world, breaking blocks as you go. You even have a separate inventory—a chest within a chest—where you can store blocks you’ve mined from the world and craft new tools.

What’s essentially happening is that a slice of the normal Minecraft world is being rendered inside the chest. When you move the player inside the chest, an armor stand teleports around the world. Breaking blocks in the chest breaks them in the world, too. It’s all done via a /loot command that figures out what blocks are around the armor stand and then renders the correct, corresponding block into the chest. 

“It’s a very limited system, but it’s enough to look pretty cool,” says SethBling in the video, and I can’t help but agree. He says he might expand the system with new crafting recipes and, potentially, even mobs. The system was inspired by this Reddit post, which is basically the same idea but doesn’t seem to have any moving parts.

If you want to download the world within a chest, you can do so here (clicking that link will immediately download a .zip file). 

Mojang is making some notable tweaks to Minecraft: Education Edition to help make the learning tool even more accessible. 

Designed specifically for classrooms, Minecraft: Education Edition was created to help educators teach a variety of subjects including computer science, chemistry, mathematics, and coding. 

An upcoming update with bolster the game with the addition of an Immersive Reader, which will help readers of all abilities understand in-game text such as character dialogue, settings, and boards. 

As the video above shows, the reader will break down sentences word-by-word and even read them aloud to students. It also contains Minecraft-specific images such as ‘Creeper’ and ‘Mooshroom’ to ensure aren’t left baffled by the game-specific lingo. 

The dev team has also improved multiplayer and classroom management with a Single Sign-on (SSO) option to allow for one-click authentication. It should make for a more simplified and faster class login experience, and was implemented to streamline the process for younger students specifically. 

Finally, new educator resources and free training programs will be added to help teachers properly get to grips with the title, allowing them to more effectively impart worldly wisdom.

The new features will arrive as part of the Back to School 2019 update. Those interested in the Education Edition can find out more on the official Minecraft blog.

At E3 2019, we had the opportunity to learn a ton of new stuff about Minecraft Dungeons, a Diablo-like action RPG from Microsoft. Here’s everything we know so far!

Microsoft unveiled Minecraft Dungeons’ gameplay at E3 2019, showcasing Diablo-like action RPG gameplay atop a gorgeous, blocky 3D-isometric world.

We learned a ton of stuff about the game while we were at the show, including its planned Spring 2020 launch window.

We’ve compiled all the biggest questions and answers for things we know so far into this article. If you have more questions, be sure to drop them in the comments and we’ll try and get them answered in the near future.

Smash and loot

Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft meets Diablo

Minecraft Dungeons is an upcoming action RPG set in the blocky worlds of Minecraft! Team up with three friends and get your dungeon crawl on.

What is Minecraft Dungeons?

Minecraft Dungeons is a 4-player co-op action RPG from Mojang, set in the Minecraft universe. Built by a small team on Unreal Engine 4, Minecraft Dungeons drops the creative construction gameplay found in Minecraft’s core game, instead emphasizing looting, character progression, and action-packed combat.

Classes and progression in Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft Dungeons doesn’t have a traditional class-based structure. Instead, you will build your playstyle based on what items, enchants, armor, and weapons you use.

For example, if you want to play a defensive “warrior” type class, you’ll likely want to pick up heavy plate armor and wield defensive artifacts and traits. Someone who prefers using spells might prefer using lighter armor that reduces your cooldown speeds so you can use abilities more frequently, instead of smashing things with a hammer or sword. You’ll also be able to play an agile archer, focusing your abilities on your ranged weapon slot, which can include bows and crossbows.

On top of itemization, you will also be able to enchant gear with special effects. One enchant might produce a chain lightning spell, which can also be upgraded through the game’s leveling system.

Mojang told us that there are around twenty different types of enchants for your melee weapon slot, another 20 for your ranged weapon slot, and a roughly similar number of unique artifacts that produce special abilities. Some of the examples we’ve seen so far include a horn that knocks back enemies in an area, a firework rocket that you can attach to your bow to create explosions, and a spell that looks like a giant purple lazer beam. All of those artifacts can be modded further. One enchant we got allowed us to shoot two firework rockets instead of one.

Does Minecraft Dungeons have a story?

Minecraft Dungeons does have an overarching narrative, but it was described to us as being very “light,” with the emphasis falling on co-operative fun instead.

The central antagonist is the Arch Illager, who is kidnapping innocent villagers and sacking towns, much like the Illager behavior in the base Minecraft game. You’re the hero that is supposed to bring an end to his dark reign. Beyond the overarching story, each level has a specific objective, which might be to defeat one of the game’s new boss monsters, or rescue a specific NPC.

Does Minecraft Dungeons have an end game?

After you complete the main story, Minecraft Dungeons’ difficulty tiers will unlock, giving access to more procedurally-generated dungeons with increasingly difficult enemies and traps, with even better loot. Mojang doesn’t want Minecraft Dungeons end game to feel “grindy,” instead it will focus on the fun of battling giant monsters and getting awesome loot.

There will be a central camp where you decide which missions to undertake, and the game will alert you to the difficulty based on your Power level, which is effectively your gear score. More difficult dungeons will provide better loot.

How does loot work in Minecraft Dungeons?

Loot is randomly generated in Dungeons, along with its maps. There may be chests, bosses may drop unique weapons, and there may be light puzzles to solve for additional loot, off the beaten path. Each item comes with a power level, which accumulates into a gear score for your character.

Some of the weapons we know about so far include swords, bows, crossbows, two-handed weapons like hammers, shields, pickaxes, and you can even use a fishing rod to hook mobs and stun them.

What mobs are there in Minecraft Dungeons?

Minecraft Dungeons seems to have every mob that we know and loathe from the base game, including Creepers, Skeletons, Zombies, Spiders, and so on. Some mobs, like the Endermen, have taken on more of a “boss” role, turning the screen fuzzy with psionic power when they show up.

Beyond the usual creatures, Minecraft Dungeons will have a range of new enemies to battle, including a Necromancer which can resurrect defeated mobs, and a Wraith which can set huge areas of the map on fire, forcing you to dodge and stay on your toes.

We asked Mojang is the Ender Dragon might show up, and they basically told us with a wink and a nudge “wait and see.”

Can you build stuff in Minecraft Dungeons?

Minecraft Dungeons has no building mechanics at this time. Dungeons’ focus is entirely on the RPG combat experience.

Does Minecraft Dungeons have loot boxes or monetization?

Mojang told us that Minecraft Dungeons will follow the wider Minecraft ethos for monetization. There won’t be any pay to win, nor will there be any loot boxes. They did say that they might sell DLC expansions down the line, similarly to Diablo III.

Can I play Minecraft Dungeons with my friends?

You can play Minecraft Dungeons with up to four friends either in local or online co-op play. Minecraft Dungeons will support cross-play between Xbox and PC, but other platforms, like the Nintendo Switch, are still being considered.

Which platforms will Minecraft Dungeons be available for?

Minecraft Dungeons will launch on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

When will Minecraft Dungeons launch?

Minecraft Dungeons is aiming for a Spring 2020 launch.

How much does Minecraft Dungeons cost?

Minecraft Dungeons will have two editions. The base game costs just $20, but a $30 special “Hero” edition will come with two DLCs, in what was described to us as a mini-season pass. Mojang plans to release further DLC, both free and premium if the game takes off. It will also arrive as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Minecraft Dungeons seems awesome!

In our hands-on with Minecraft Dungeons, we were incredibly impressed with the way the game felt. Building on the Unreal Engine seemed like the right decision, as the game has truly stunning lighting and physics, that gives combat a really satisfying feel, very close to the likes of Diablo III. New mobs like the Wraith, Necromancer, and the impossibly cute Key Golem should make exploration feel fresh for even the most hardcore Minecraft fans, and the procedural nature of the randomly-generated maps should help stave off feelings of repetition.

Even if you’re not a fan of Minecraft itself, Dungeons looks like it’s shaping up to be a rock-solid action RPG entry to the wider Minecraft universe, and frankly, we can’t wait.

I played some Minecraft Dungeons earlier today and, without wishing to state the obvious, I think this game is going to be a big hit.

First announced at Minecon last year, it’s an overhead-view, Diablo-like game featuring characters and other stuff from the world of Minecraft. Given Minecraft’s reach, and this game’s attractive competence, it’s possible that Dungeons will introduce monster-crawling to a larger audience than all the previously games in this hallowed genre, combined.

I play as a solo adventurer, or as part of a team of up to four players, in online or couch co-op. I venture into an underworld, and am soon fighting familiar foes from Minecraft, such as Skeletons, Spiders and Husks.

I pick up emeralds to spend on upgrades, like weapons, potions and armor. It’s worth noting that the currency is all in-game; there are no loot boxes or micro-transactions. Loot drops also give me random goodies, including health boosts and other consumables.

The rooms are randomly generated, as are drops and enemies. My weapons are melee and range, and they’re all boosted heavily by random enchantments which I spend as and when I feel the need. The game’s upgrade path is all about increasing my ability to use these boosts, rather than statistically upgrading my character or its individual weapons.

I can also collect “artifacts” which are special weapons that cool-down after use. A big part of the fun is equipping stuff that’s appropriate to individual challenges, as well as working with teammates to maximize team effectiveness.

Basic lever-style puzzles break up the combat, as well as dangerous traps. During my play session, I found the game to be pretty forgiving and fun, though it’s worth noting that the last dungeon crawler I played was the intensely challenging Below.

Minecraft Dungeons looks like a family favorite, which kids will greatly enjoy. It’s due out for around $20 in spring 2020, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Mobile versions have not yet been announced, but I wouldn’t bet against their appearance in due course.

While Minecraft Dungeons seems to be limited to beefier consoles and Windows 10 devices at the moment, that’s not to say that mobile phones are left out. Minecraft Earth will bring a new perspective to the vanilla game on iOS and Android devices, and we mean that quite literally.

Hands-on demos of the game were featured at the E3 2019 event last week, which showed off a couple of YouTubers, Strawburry17 and Graser, taking a look at the game themselves. As can be seen in the video below, buildings and other structures can be placed on top of a real-world object, such as a table, and then scaled to real-world size allowing users to move around and explore the virtual blocky world as though they are actually in it.

And if you think this is just going to be some lame AR game with no Survival mode or game challenges, think again. The second video below shows that hostile mobs are no less aggressive in AR than they are inside your phone. Animals will still see you, and the entire mining, crafting, building, and even gardening experience are all included in Minecraft Earth.

If you’re as excited about the game as we are, you can sign up to try the closed beta starting this summer on the Minecraft Earth website. Of course, you’ll have to have a Microsoft account to sign up, as well as a device running either Android 7.0 (Nougat)  or iOS 10 or better. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the game below.

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]
According to Minecraft’s local publisher NetEase Games, 25,000 Minecraft mods created by over 2,100 developers have been downloaded 1.36 billion times in China with its domestic registered players passing a milestone of 200 million, making China one of the biggest blocks of the sandbox legend.

When navigating the world largest and fast-growing game market, many western games are facing cultural barriers. Minecraft’s transcultural success, however, could be explained by how it has become integrated into modern China and also its glorious past. Thanks to a dynamic and creative Minecraft community deeply rooted in the local culture, many projects are currently being built to represent the ancient Chinese architecture in the game.

Minecraft China is being used to revive historic icons, such as the Forbidden City, and to provide the public a more interactive way to cherish them on mobile devices or PCs. The National Architect & Cthuwork Studio spent over three years recreating the Imperial Palace within the Forbidden city which used over 100 million Minecraft blocks in its construction.

The team spent time doing extensive research before building in the city in the game. They went into painstaking detail to accurately recreate the palace interior allowing players to truly explore the city in depth. Thanks to 3D printing, their in-game recreation was printed and displayed within the real Imperial Palace for locals and tourists to see.

It is not the first time that Minecraft is employed as an agent to pay tribute to the world heritage sites. Even before the tragic destruction of Notre-Dame in Paris, an independent development studio named Huanling has built a cyber version of the famous church in high detail using digital technology and art. The team has revived a breathtaking replica of the original by capturing and simulating the natural light passing through its tangible construction at a meticulous level.

Speaking of preserving precious memories, Minecraft China was rewarded last month at International Advertising Awards (IAI) for its 2019 Mother’s Day-themed video. Aiming to show how the world-renown sandbox game helps bring the good old days back to life, the video tells a story about a group of Chinese kids who rebuild their childhood memories with their mothers in Minecraft China.

To view the award-winning video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhBU9Yo9NMc

About NetEase Games

NetEase Games, the world 7th largest game developer and publisher by revenue in 2018, has made some of the most popular games in China and global markets, such as Fantasy Westward Journey, Rules of Survival, Onmyoji, Knive Out, Identity V, etc. It also partners with Blizzard, Microsoft, Konami, The Pokémon Company, Quantic Dream, etc., for global co-production and publishing.

When Telltale Games shut down in 2018, there were questions about what would happen to the games that had already been released. One particular series is on its way out and has seen a big price increase — but for a good reason.

In 2015, Minecraft developer Mojang partnered with Telltale for an adventure game based on the hit creative, open-world game called Minecraft: Story Mode. The game featured the voices of Patton Oswalt, Paul Rubens and Billy West, and had two seasons that came to an end in 2017.

However, Minecraft: Story Mode will no longer be supported on Xbox 360 as of June 25, according to a Facebook post from May. It’s still available to download via the Xbox Marketplace, but to prevent people from mistakenly purchasing any of the game’s episodes, developer Mojang changed the price of each episode to $99.99 from $4.99, or a nearly 2,000% increase.

As explained in another Facebook post on Saturday, due to Telltale Games no longer supporting the game, this means its servers won’t be available after June 25. If someone who purchased a season pass or the episode separately doesn’t download the game to their console by then, they’ll lose access to download it again. The price increase would only affect those who haven’t purchased the game already, and it would not be a smart move to purchase a game now for 20 times the original price.

Microsoft and Mojang didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

One of the bestselling video games of all time has no guns and no blood. It doesn’t keep score. And the graphics make no attempt to look lifelike. It’s called Minecraft, and since its debut in 2009, it has sold more than 176 million copies. More than 91 million people play it every month.

Correspondent David Pogue took Minecraft out for a spin with his 14-year-old son, Jeffrey, who described the game as “a virtual world where you can build and destroy things and play with friends.”

It doesn’t seem to bother Jeffrey that everything in Minecraft looks kind of crude and blocky – like virtual Lego. “This game just makes everything simple and very easy to understand,” he said. “There’s nothing really complicated going on.”

Minecraft’s simple appeal has made it a phenomenon. Kids come by the thousands to attend Minecraft conventions, like one recently held in Los Angeles, called Minefaire

Lydia Winters, Minecraft’s chief brand officer, has had a front-row seat to Minecraft’s exploding popularity. “I was the eighth employee and the first woman working on Minecraft,” she told Pogue. “Every year, we were like, ‘Is this the craziest year?’ And then the next year was even crazier. So, it’s been an incredibly wild ride the whole time.”

In 2014 Microsoft bought Mojang, the small Swedish company that makes Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. “We were all kind of thinking, ‘What happens now?'” Winters said. “But it’s been amazing because I think what Microsoft has done is they brought a lot of help in bringing things that we’ve wanted to work on, like education, but didn’t have the amount of people to work on it.”

It’s true: From math to chemistry to history, some teachers are seeing the benefits of playing Minecraft in their classrooms. 

Steve Isaacs is a teacher at William Annin Middle School in New Jersey.  His Minecraft game-design class is a required course for seventh graders. “We’re taking kids in an environment that they love – they love games – now they’re making their own games,” Isaacs said.

During Pogue’s visit, the class used Minecraft to build mini-games based on familiar fairy tales.

His students took fairy tales and, as one put it, “Minecrafted it.”

Isaacs says that in his classroom, Minecraft has done more than give his students the basics of computer coding; it’s changed lives. Case in point, student Brian Green. “This is where he’s shining,” Isaacs said. “And the coding, he does things in this game that I couldn’t possibly comprehend.”

Pogue said, “I hear you’re kind of, like, a star in this class.”

“Apparently, yes,” Brian smiled. “I would have to agree with that statement! I think I’m a non-traditional learner. And this class is taught very non-traditionally. It’s very, very hands-on.  In Minecraft, it just clicks for me. It just works the way my brain works, and I love that.”

Brian even sees career possibilities as a game designer, or he might, for example, follow in the footsteps of another former Steve Isaacs student: Jerome Aceti, better known by his online nickname, JeromeASF. You might call him a YouTube celebrity. “I suppose so,” Jerome laughed. “I don’t really like to think of it that way!”

Five-and-a-half-million people follow his videos on YouTube, most of which feature him playing Minecraft as he narrates. YouTube displays ads on those videos, and he gets a percentage of the revenue. “Yes, it’s the complete opposite of what my parents always said: ‘Don’t play video games. It’ll never…!’  But no, it worked out and I’m very happy and grateful for it!”

Pogue asked, “What do you sense is the future and direction of Minecraft?”

“I truly believe it’ll be the first video game of our time to cross the generational gap into future and future generations,” Jerome replied.

Minecraft executive Lydia Winters would probably agree: “We’re gonna be looking towards a lot of future architects and future designers who say, like, ‘Minecraft was what inspired me to actually build this real-life building, because in the game I could use this incredible digital canvas where anything you want, you can make.'”

But are there plans to make it higher resolution, more lifelike, instead of just chunky blocks?  “It’s gonna keep being chunky blocks,” Winters laughed. “We feel like, it’s worked this far, so we should really keep it that way.”

If you really think about it, all video games—dazzling feats of technical mastery assembled over the course of countless man hours—are priceless. But if you think about it even harder, you probably still won’t want to pay $100 for a single episode of the soon-to-be-delisted Minecraft: Story Mode.

Currently, each episode of the eight-part narrative-driven Minecraft series from Telltale (R.I.P.) costs $100 on the Xbox 360. That means the total cost of the whole thing is $700 (one episode is free). If that strikes you as prohibitively expensive, well, it’s supposed to be. A post on the Minecraft: Story Mode Facebook page Friday explained that in the process of removing the series from sale ahead of total de-listing on June 25, the game’s current stewards accidentally disabled previous owners’ ability to re-download it. The sudden price change is a workaround because, as you’re likely aware, the Xbox 360 is very old. It is tired and just wants to sleep. Also, its store backend wasn’t constructed with the sometimes-unfortunate economic realities of modern video games in mind.

“From working with the Xbox 360 platform, the only solution to this situation is to re-list the downloadable content for purchase,” reads the post onMinecraft: Story Mode’s Facebook page. “So, to assist existing customers, all the downloadable Episodes for the two Minecraft: Story Mode titles are temporarily re-listed but, to deter new purchases, they will be re-listed at a very high price!”

The post then goes on to explicitly state that people should not purchase the episodes: “The price shown is a real list price, please do not buy the content, if you do, you will be charged the amount shown. This is simply the only mechanism available to facilitate players being able to download their remaining episodes prior to servers shutting down.”

It’s a pretty absurd situation, all things considered—a funny footnote in the otherwise sad saga of Telltale games vanishing from platforms in the wake of the company’s ugly demise. As for Story Mode, hopefully we’ll be able to buy it again someday for less than $100 a piece. Or for anything at all, for that matter.

Leave it to Keanu Reeves, one of the greatest human beings to ever grace this planet, to outshine every video game that Xbox showed off at E3 on Sunday.

It turns out that Reeves is in the highly anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077, which is being made by the same developer who gave us The Witcher series. And to help hype up the game and the news of its release date, Reeves himself came on stage to deliver the good word.

Someone from the audience clearly yelled out to him that he is breathtaking, which is objectively true, and he yelled back that they, in fact, are breathtaking. And then he elaborated that everyone is in fact breathtaking, including you and me.

What a treasure.

Nibel@Nibellion

Best part of #XboxE3 for me135K5:41 AM – Jun 10, 201944.4K people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

It’s been a lot for the internet to handle.View image on Twitter

demi@_demiwilliams

Keanu Reeves called us breathtaking3426:01 AM – Jun 10, 2019100 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

Sure, Cyberpunk 2077 looks cool and the rest of Xbox’s lineup was good, but Reeves stole the show.

Dontai@ImDontai

Keanu Reeves carried.1,3505:58 AM – Jun 10, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy103 people are talking about this

Xbox knew to give the people what they want: star of The Matrix and John Wick, Keanu Reeves.

Jenny Y㋐ng@jennyyangat

what companies think gamers want: video games
what gamers actually want: keanu reeves telling you that you are loved38.3K5:42 AM – Jun 10, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy11.3K people are talking about this

Of course, as a character in a game like Cyberpunk 2077, people are wondering if it will be possible for players to develop a romantic relationship with the character. That would be icing on the cake.

BlackOutCosplay@BlackOutCos

But do I get to romance Keanu Reeves, CDProjektRed?

Pls respond8014:59 AM – Jun 10, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy190 people are talking about this

Someone pointed out that Reeves’s introduction to the gaming world means that he could, someday, be in Super Smash Bros. I want to live in that world.

DAIROCKETTO@DAIROCKETTO

keanu reeves is in a video game now so he can be in smash3635:57 AM – Jun 10, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy135 people are talking about this

It’s clear that, between John Wick 3, Toy Story 4, Always Be My Maybe, and Cyberpunk 2077, this is a bona fide Keanu Reeves renaissance.

𝒍𝒊𝒂 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒛𝒂@GLOSSPHOENIX

2019 belongs to keanu. it’s his now. end of discussion.6095:40 AM – Jun 10, 2019184 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

Good luck matching that, other video game companies.

In the years since its release in 2005, Psychonauts has become a cult classic as an early game that was about something much deeper than it seemed. But because it was so ahead of its time, Psychonauts found both critical and commercial success to be middling compared to creator Tim Schafer’s other knockouts like Secret of Monkey Island.

But in 2019, Psychonauts is back for a sequel, its cult following out in full force to cheer its return to the main stage of Microsoft’s E3 showcase. A 30-minute demo for Psychonauts 2and a Q&A with Schafer show the series has found the right time to shine.

You play as Raz, a member of a team of people who use psychic abilities to go inside others’ heads. Through puzzles and Psi-Powers, you battle their inner demons, like the goopy Regret monsters in the demo, who can “weigh you down” and are plaguing Dr. Caligosto Loboto’s mental world. Loboto’s been acting funny lately, so you’re tasked with blasting through his mental blockages to figure out who his nefarious “boss” is, a mysterious new character we only got a glimpse of. 

“We always approach the more serious themes in Psychonauts with a philosophy of, you never know what’s going on in someone’s head,” said Schafer. “Anyone who seems like they’re acting in a negative way or showing divergent behavior, sometimes if you can just go inside their head, you can see what they’re wrestling with. And in this game, you can help them with that. Most of the characters, even the villain in the first game, is redeemed by you helping them wrestle with what’s troubling them inside their head. And that’s also with lots of laughs along the way.”

Despite all the years in the real world since the first one came out, Psychonauts 2 picks up only three days after that game ended. And though a lot of the original design team is back for the sequel (along with some fresh faces), Schafer emphasized that they still have their work cut out for them.

“It takes time, the game,” he said. “You realize even though it’s been many years since the first one and everyone on the team has learned a lot since about how to make games, the process is always just a long journey to figuring what the real heart of the game is.”

In 2017, Double Fine released a VR game in the universe called Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruins. While you don’t have to have played that game to jump in on the sequel, the new game will still pull from the lore established in that one. And when asked whether Psychonauts 2 would support VR as well, Schafer slyly replied, “I think that’s a smart idea.”

The demo showed how the psychoactive and surreal elements of the game world lend themselves to the kind of wacky mind-bending experiences VR is best known for. In Loboto’s mental world, hallways grow longer all of the sudden, or the whole perspective shifts to become like a 2D platformer.

It’s like Inception, if Inception was a colorful comedic video game world.

While Psychonauts might look like kid stuff at first, what made it a favorite among headier game critics was how it tackled issues of mental health and illness through gameplay — long before indies like 2018’s Hellblade did it.

“There’s a lot of topics in the game that can be problematic if you don’t approach them in a way that’s sincere and respectful,” said Schafer. “It’s about drawing from your own personal experiences instead of a stereotype, which makes it actually potentially helpful to people.”

The first game might’ve released a little too ahead of its time. According to Schafer, the re-release on PC made more money in its first five years than the original release ever made.

And as for finding the heart of the game, Schafer seems to have a pretty good grasp on how, “it’s about that sense of empathy, about seeing people from the outside then seeing them from the inside, and realizing you don’t understand what they’re going through.”

Certainly, he said, that’s what’s stuck with people since the first game in 2005, even though many of its saddest and most melancholic bits were hidden inside a game world that emphasized comedy.

“But that’s what’s interesting to me, presenting this slice of life where there’s a full range of human experiences,” said Schafer. “It’s still funny, but it can go to all the places life stories go.”

Psychonauts 2 is slated for release in 2020 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac and Linux

It was only a matter of time, right?

Minecraft is taking a step into the real world later in 2019, and it’s looking to examples like Pokémon Go for inspiration. We’ve seen Mojang’s global sensation flourish in virtual reality already, and now it’s taking aim on a new technological frontier: augmented reality.

The new game is called Minecraft Earth and it’s exactly what you would think, delivering an Android/iOS take on the Minecraft experience. It’s not quite the same as the game you know from PCs, consoles, smartphones, and tablets, but it does embrace the same core ideas.

For starters, it’s free to play. Microsoft isn’t yet talking about how players will be invited to spend money, beyond asserting up front that there won’t be “loot boxes.” McHugh described the monetization philosophy as “player first and player-friendly.” Minecraft Earth won’t be an ad-supported app. My guess is in-app purchases will take the form of resources and other time-savers.

When you step outside your home with the app in hand, you’ll be looking at a map of your surrounding area but re-written in the game’s trademark blocky look. It’s like Minecraft layered on top of the real world, with all the points of interaction you’d expect from the bigger game. You can dig down for resources, chop trees to pieces for wood, or go fishing in bodies of water.

“The idea here: Minecraft covers the planet,” Microsoft’s Stephen McHugh said during a recent call. 

“The idea here: Minecraftcovers the planet.”

“So your neighborhood is blocks, you can walk through parks and neighborhoods and have different Minecraft adventures, you can find blocks and hidden chests. You can build everywhere … and go right inside your builds.”

The whole experience begins with “tappables,” the basic resource-gathering process in Minecraft Earth. It works sort of like PokéStops; whenever you venture out into the world you’ll come across interactive nodes in the game that you can tap on to receive resource blocks. It’s quick and easy, rewarding you with resources just for interacting with the game while you’re on the go.

That only covers your basic resources, however. Rarer blocks can be obtained by taking on Adventures. It’s not clear exactly how they’ll work, but McHugh described the mode as a “life-sized experience” that could incorporate things like lava and hostile or friendly mobs in addition to rarer resources. Adventures will also be multiplayer-friendly experiences.

Players will be able to scratch that Pokémon Go itch by collecting, raising, and breeding mobs of your own. It starts with feeding one of the random creatures you encounter and getting from it a spawn egg. You can then drop that spawn egg into your own, personalized building space, where it’ll hatch and give you a new pet.

That personal Minecraft Earth space is your build plate, which McHugh describes as “the core of our experience.” It’s where you can use the resources you’ve collected to put your own creative spin on the game. It’s also a multiplayer-friendly space, so your fellow Minecraft Earthplayers can hop in and behold the glory of your build and even help you add to it — activities that any Minecraft fan will tell you is always a part of the fun.

You won’t have to wait too much longer to find out for yourself. Microsoft is planning to kick off a closed beta for Minecraft Earth sometime during the summer. You can get more info on that from the game’s official Twitter account.

For a game that is fundamentally about the act of creation, Minecraft hasn’t changed all that much.

It’s grown, certainly. Updates over the years have added new animals, monsters, and biomes, additional ways to play and — the most important thing, let’s be honest — pet cats (among many other things). But the core of it all remains the same: build the blocky world of your dreams.

Now, that’s all poised to change.

Minecraft isn’t going anywhere. But at E3 2019, Microsoft showcased two fresh takes on what a game bearing that title can be. They’re both very different experiences, but each taps into different facets of what’s made Minecraft such a powerful force for an all-ages audience.

Dungeon grinding

On one side we have Minecraft Dungeons, which looks and feels like a blocky answer to Diablo. It’s a game of exploration and monster combat that sets aside the main game’s survival elements entirely. Levels are randomly generated and grouped together by biome, but everything you do is driven by a quest for more loot.

I can’t drum on that Diablo comparison hard enough. Your character screen is standard RPG fare, with equipments nodes that correlate to the different types of gear and armor you might equip. You don’t choose a character “class” in the traditional sense, though. Instead, the gear you equip determines what kind of adventurer you are.

Loot rarity is a thing, so progress and tougher foes will eventually bring you gear with different-colored thumbnails, featuring more and better spell-like effects. The enchantments that appear on any given loot drop are random, but there’s some choice involved as you pick which enchantments to actually activate.

Minecraft Dungeons borrows some of its ideas around progression from games like Destiny, which hinge a character’s power level to the numerical ratings on the gear they have equipped. The game isn’t out until 2020, so some details are vague at this point; but there’s a hub town for managing you progress between dungeon crawls, as well as plans for some kind of endgame (i.e. harder content for the most powerful characters).

The thing that struck me immediately about Dungeons was its sense of personality. Yes, it looks and plays like a Diablo-style game. But there are all these little touches that feel distinctly Minecraft. 

Animate door keys need to be beaten into submission and ferried to a locked door, but take care not to let a monster hit you or it might run away. You can acquire wolf companions that follow you around and help out with combat. Bow-wielding skeletons send hails of arrows your way, and the ones that actually land stay where they are for a time, turning your character (and your wolf, when it applies) into walking pincushions.

For all of its trappings as a serious-minded action RPG, Minecraft Dungeons is unassailably cute. Even at a glance, it’s the bright, colorful, and perfectly family-friendly Minecraft world kids and adults alike have indulged in for more than 10 years. Not that I’d expect anything different from a game produced by the team at Mojang, but it’s a refreshing-yet-familiar twist all the same.

It’s a Minecraft world

If Minecraft Dungeons taps deeper into the base game’s exploration and survival thrills, Minecraft Earth — which will launch in beta form during the summer months of 2019 — is more directly about the act of creation and reshaping the world around you. You can read that literally here: this is an augmented reality game.

It’s easy to call Earth a Minecraft game by way of Pokémon Go, but that undersells what the game is actually doing. Yes, there are walk-around elements that see you wandering around your neighborhood in search of “Tappables,” or caches of basic resources of the kind you’d find readily available even just a few minutes into a fresh Minecraft game.

There are also more developed “adventures” that overlay entire scenes on top of the real world as seen from your phone or tablet screen. It might be a situation where a hole opens in the ground beneath your feet, leaving you to contend with an army of skeletons firing arrows up at you (and your friends, if you’re playing in a group).

All of that tapping and adventuring comes together when you visit your build plate. This stretch of virtual terrain is yours to shape however you like, with or without help from friends. It’s where all the resources you gather and animals you befriend can be placed. You can build from a bird’s-eye perspective, but the magic of AR also lets you expand your creation to life-size proportions and actually walk around inside it.

As you build your own little space inside standard Minecraft, you start to feel a sense of ownership over that randomly generated world. Minecraft Earth takes that idea even further by pulling the same vibe out into the real world that you live in every day. The game uses your local road and terrain maps as the basis for all of your exploration and resource-gathering, so playing is meant to be as easy as going out for a stroll.

Minecraft has come a long way since that first alpha version surfaced back in May 2009. Under Mojang and Microsoft’s care, it has grown immeasurably into a fuller version of itself. It may never be “finished” — that’s the whole point — but games like Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Earth prove there’s plenty of room to accommodate different kinds of experiences for different types of players.