The Minecraft Team officially has broken the seal on wide-scale use of its Minecraft Marketplace. Downloads for November were 4,566,013. That’s double the 2,255,888 downloads from October. Once again, free content was a major driver for that growth. But that huge influx of players to the store could spill over into real purchases — especially considering what is launching in Minecraft just in time for the year-end holidays.

Beginning today, December 20, The Minecraft Team is launching the Season of Giving event. Only it is Microsoft, Mojang, and its creator partners doing the giving. As part of this celebration, you will get a bunch of in-game content for free.

Holiday events are turning into a bigger tradition in video games. A big reason for that is that developers that run games as services want to engage with players who are spending Christmas playing on their new consoles, laptops, smartphones, and TVs. For years now, mobile games have capitalized on that by releasing content just in time for December 25. And now Minecraft and Fortnite are doing the same on console and PC.

Did you say free?
The Season of Giving freebies include a new adventure map from the creation team Gamemode One called Catastrophic Pandamonium. While that might sound like a disaster, I encourage you to notice the puns. CATastrophic PANDAmonium is indeed a showcase for the cat and panda animal creatures that got an update (cats) or debuted (pandas) in the latest patch.

But Catastrophic Pandamonium isn’t the only gift The Minecraft Team has in store for you. You can also get special discounts as part of a holiday deals promotion that is running through January 3.

Above: Gifts are only available for a limited time.

Image Credit: The Minecraft Team
Finally, on Christmas Day, the Minecraft Marketplace is getting a free Winter Gifts Bundle with plenty of extra goods.

Top 10 most downloaded
5. Abstraction: Minecon Earth 5. Abstraction: Minecon Earth
Inspiration Island by Minecraft: “Visit Inspiration Island, a floating theme park world filled with creative challenges. Whether you are new to Creative Mode or just need a little extra inspiration, a visit here sets you on the path to craft your own groundbreaking worlds.”
Purple Parrot Party Place by Minecraft: “A celebration of all things purple parrot party and palace! Master the mechanics of fireworks, armor stands, jukeboxes, and banners. Traverse a jungle island to find a massive parrot temple.”
Legacy Skin Pack by Minecraft: “Get cracking with these starter skins and old favorites brought over from Minecraft editions of yore.”
Grid Runners by Noxcrew: “Take on Noxcrew’s Grid Runners: a minigame map made up of classic Minecraft challenges where you can craft, mine and jump your way to victory. Compete against the clock for the fastest times and team up with all of your friends to find out who is the ultimate Minecraft champion! This is a free map, created exclusively for Minecon Earth 2018.”
ABSTRACTION: Minecon Earth by Jigarbov Productions: “Featuring the logos that were just begging to be played on, MINECON EARTH has floating landmasses with a surprising amount of hidden secrets and challenges.”
Luxury Life by PixelHeads: “Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”
Aquatic Life by Cyclone Designs: “Get ready for a realistic aquarium experience with Aquatic Life! Dive into large tanks and swim with whale sharks! Discover dangerous shark species and hop on a boat and feed the Piranhas!”
Anime Day School by Sil3ntWxlf and TeamVisionary: “Experience going to school in style with Anime Day School.”
City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios: “With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!”
Haunted Swamp Survival by Everbloom Studios: “Gnarly trees, a ghastly maze, and an abandoned mansion; these are just some of the things you’ll find as you explore this mysterious survival spawn.”
Top 10 highest grossing
5. Immersion Chicago 5. Immersion Chicago
City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios: “With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!”
Luxury Life by PixelHeads: “Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”
Aquatic Life by Cyclone Designs: “Get ready for a realistic aquarium experience with Aquatic Life! Dive into large tanks and swim with whale sharks! Discover dangerous shark species and hop on a boat and feed the Piranhas!”
CampCraft by Blockworks: “A vast wilderness awaits you and your friends in CampCraft. Discover forest animals, ride camper vans, toast marshmallows, sit around the campfire and set up your own camp!”
Immersion: Chicago: “Immerse yourself in Chicago, the windy city. Visit the river with your friends, race through the streets and roleplay your daily life.”
Movie Star by Noxcrew: “Direct and star in your very own films with Noxcrew’s Movie Star Creative Toolbox! With dozens of scripts and pre-built scenes, this map is great for roleplay and learning to build.”
City Life by PixelHeads: “Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.”
Super Cute Texture Pack by Minecraft: “The Super Cute Texture Pack lets you create a cheerful world full of the cutest and cuddliest mobs! Bouncing bunnies, ultra-adorable unicorns, brilliant bumblebees and, er, burgers? Yes, burgers! This texture pack comes with 15 skins.”
Cruise Ship Roleplay by Everbloom Studios: “Welcome aboard! You’re the Assistant General Manager on this voyage across the sea. And it’s your job to lend a helping all around the ship, so our guests have the ultimate vacation!”
Zombie Apocalypse by PixelHeads: “Explore a run-down, overgrown city taken over by cyborg zombies. To survive, you must scavenge for food and weapons, and fight off the zombies!”

Microsoft’s challenge requires AI agents to cooperate in a virtual universe

Playtime: Microsoft researchers hope that after collaborating with other AIs in a virtual game, it will be easier for AIs to learn to work with humans in the real world.
If artificial intelligence (AI) agents are to become real players in society, using their machine abilities to complement our human strengths, they must first become players in the video game of Minecraft. And to prove themselves in Minecraft, they must work together to capture animals in a maze, build towers of blocks, and hunt for treasure while fighting off skeletons.

That, anyway, is the premise of a competition organized by Microsoft, Queen Mary University of London, and crowdAI (a platform for data-science challenges). Next month, the organizers will announce the winner—the team that created an AI that could best observe its Minecraft environment, determine which of three missions it had to accomplish, and then collaborate with another AI agent to carry out that mission.

By emphasizing adaptability and cooperation, the organizers aimed to encourage research on AI agents that could one day interact with humans to accomplish tasks in the real world. And while an AI that can truly match the intellectual capacity of a human is still the stuff of science fiction, researchers could take meaningful steps toward that goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI) in Minecraft.

The Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in MalmO (MARLO) competition is an offshoot from Project Malmo, begun in 2015 by AI researcher Katja Hofmann at Microsoft Research Cambridge, in England. Although much exciting AI research has involved AIs mastering strategy games like chess and Go, Hofmann was looking for a game that would allow an AI to learn a broader range of skills.

“The moment we started talking about Minecraft, it was obvious that this was a perfect environment for AI research,” she says. “It’s a world that people join with no predefined goal.” Project Malmo is a platform built on top of Minecraft in which researchers can perform many different kinds of AI experiments, yet also compare their results in a standardized way.

In the inaugural MARLO challenge, in 2017, AI agents were asked to carry out a single mission: catching a pig. For the 2018 competition, the organizers made it harder by designing three different missions that all require collaboration. The AI competitors had to learn how to identify another AI agent in the environment, and then find a way to work together toward their common goal.

An AI agent that could hypothesize about the goals of another agent would have a rudimentary form of what psychologists call “theory of mind,” the human capacity to attribute mental states and intentions to other people. Hofmann hopes that AI agents will eventually hone this ability by collaborating with human players in Minecraft. “Then the algorithms could learn to collaborate with humans,” she says, “and learn what humans want.”

The AIs at play in the MARLO competition were trained via reinforcement learning, in which an AI learns through an intense course of trial and error. Each team’s AI began by making random movements and observing their effects on the game. The competition environment had rewards built into the game, so the AI received points for certain achievements. Eventually, the AI figured out the actions that caused it to acquire points—and that resulted in a captured chicken or found treasure. While the reinforcement-learning algorithms did most of the work in these training sessions, each MARLO team had its own strategy to speed up or improve the learning.

Minecraft is just one of many complex video games now being used by AI researchers, says Igor Mordatch, who leads multiagent research at OpenAI, a nonprofit research organization based in San Francisco. OpenAI hasn’t focused on Minecraft, instead creating AI agents that can play the multiplayer video game Dota2.

“We’re building toward a good ecosystem of environments and benchmarks for reinforcement learning,” says Mordatch. “But there is a challenge now: How do we ensure that the AI is learning something useful in these games?”

Hofmann says the AI agents that succeed in Minecraft can likely succeed in other video games as well. It’s easy to imagine that AI could power the nonplayer characters in games, perhaps giving these characters the ability to interact naturally and cooperate with human players.

One competitor in the MARLO challenge sees even more practical applications for his entry. Donghun Lee, a researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, in South Korea, focused on getting his AI agent to communicate effectively and express its intentions. He says this ability will feed directly into his IoT research. The proliferation of smart devices poses communication problems, Lee says, as many networked devices now need to work in tandem.

“It’s not an easy job to manipulate all these devices at once in a cloud,” he says. But with multiagent reinforcement learning, he says, the IoT devices could figure out how to work together.

This article appears in the January 2019 print issue as “Why AIs Are Chasing Chickens in Minecraft.”

The holidays are upon us once again, and you have some last-minute shopping to do. What better present is there to offer your loved ones than the gift of Minecraft. Not outdated, unmoddable console-Minecraft, but glorious PC Minecraft. It just so happens that a Tom’s Guide forum user asked our help in finding the best cheap laptop for Mojang’s popular world-building game.

Help_Me_LTP_legion

christinahoward24 writes, “Any recommendations for a cheap laptop or tablet that will mainly be used for playing Minecraft, Roblox, and watching YouTube. It’s a Christmas gift for a kid. I was thinking about a Chromebook, but I read that you can’t play Minecraft on a Chromebook.”

Don’t worry, Christina, we got you covered. While Minecraft isn’t graphically demanding, it devours RAM faster than Google Chrome does, so that’ll be one of the main factors when choosing the right laptop. Also, you’ll want to check out our top cheap gaming mice, since you can’t game on a touchpad alone.

Minecraft System Requirements
Mojang’s Minecraft: Java Edition system requirements are listed on its website as such:

CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz / AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz or equivalent.
RAM: 2GB.
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Ivy Bridge) or AMD Radeon R5 series (Kaveri line) with OpenGL 4.4.
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 400 Series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series with OpenGL 4.4.
Storage: At least 1GB for game core, maps and other files.
Windows 7 and up / macOS: Any 64-bit OS X using 10.9 Maverick or newer / Linux: Any modern 64-bit distributions from 2014 onward.
Internet connectivity is required for downloading Minecraft files, afterward offline play is possible.
You may want to take these requirements with a grain of salt, mostly because this covers basic Minecraft, and that’s about it. Popular mods, such as SkyFactory or All the Mods, are known to gobble up tons of RAM.

Acer Aspire E 15: Best Value for Playability
If you’re going for the bare minimum, then the Acer Aspire E 15 will be more than sufficient, as it comes equipped with an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 6GB of RAM, 1TB HDD and an Intel HD 620 GPU, all for $354.

acer aspire e15-673

The Aspire E 15 scored 7,468 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test and 63,817 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics benchmark, which means it can perform some decent multitasking as well as run basic Minecraft.

acer-aspire-e15-performance

Its 15.6-inch, 1080p display is rather dull, however, as it reproduced only 62.3 percent of the sRGB color gamut and reached a maximum brightness of 227 nits. However, when we put the Aspire E 15 up against the Laptop Mag Battery Test, it lasted a solid 8 hours and 48 minutes.

acer-aspire-e-15-keyboardThe Aspire E 15’s keyboard is a bit shallow with only 1.1 millimeters in key travel, but they felt surprisingly springy in our testing. We typically recommend key travel in the 1.5 to 2.0 mm range.

Acer Spin 3 (Core i5 – 2018): Best Battery Life
A step up from the Aspire E 15 is the Spin 3, which is armed with an Intel Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an Intel UHD 620 GPU, resulting in faster speeds all around for just $599.

acer-spin-3-lede

The Spin 3 nailed 12,172 on Geekbench 4 and 61,440 on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, which gives it more power than the Aspire E 15 to chug some of those heavier Minecraft mods.

Its 14-inch, 1080p panel is smaller than the Aspire, but it’s also slightly nicer to look at, covering 68 percent of the sRGB color gamut and achieving 237 nits of brightness. On top of that, the Spin 3 held out for an impressive 9 hours and 12 minutes on our battery test.

Unfortunately, the Spin 3’s keyboard is too shallow and not tactile enough to be comfortable, as its keys measured at only 1.2 millimeters.

Lenovo Legion Y530: Best Keyboard and Graphics
The Legion Y530 that we tested costs $899 and is outfitted with an Intel Core i5-8300H processor, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB 5400-rpm HDD, a 128GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, which hit 13,866 on Geekbench 4 and 163,266 on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited.

lenovo-legion-y530-perform

To meet your specific needs, we recommend getting the $849 configuration that comes with an Intel Core i5-8300H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB 5400-rpm HDD and a GTX 1050 GPU, making it more than capable of running a full-modded-out Minecraft (aka: the true way to play).

legion-y530-ports

Its 15.6-inch, 1080p display isn’t as colorful as we would have liked, reproducing only 80 percent of the sRGB color spectrum and averaging a decent 266 nits of brightness. Being a gaming laptop, the Legion Y530 lasted only 4 hours and 44 minutes on our battery test.

The Legion Y530’s keyboard is incredibly comfortable to type on, with its solid 2.0 millimeters of key travel, but it still doesn’t have that tactile feedback you’d expect from a regular gaming keyboard.

Bottom Line
If you’re on a tight budget, then the Acer Aspire E 15 ($354) will do fine in handling Minecraft’s basic game and a few choice mods, as well as everyday YouTube viewing.

However, you may want to consider getting the Acer Spin 3 ($599) due to its increased RAM and performance, as the laptop will be able to handle even more mods in-game, which is how most people play nowadays. On top of that, you get 2-in-1 capabilities, so there are plenty of reasons for a growing artist to use this as well.

If you suspect that the person you’re shopping for wants to get more into gaming beyond Minecraft, we recommend getting the Lenovo Legion Y530 ($849). It’s capable of juggling demanding games at lower settings, and due to its 16GB of RAM, it can play Minecraft with more mods than you can imagine (the right way).

We hope that this helped narrow down your choices. Let us know which you decide to go with!

Credit: Laptop Mag

MINECRAFT: Story Mode is a Netflix show where viewers can control their own ending. So how exactly can you play Minecraft: Story Mode on Netflix?

Minecraft: Story Mode is the final product released from developer TellTale Games before closing down. Streaming service Netflix teased Minecraft: Story Mode with this statement: “Take control of an adventure set in the Minecraft universe. The future of the world is at stake, and your decisions shape the story – so choose wisely!”

How to play Minecraft Story Mode on your TV:
Take control of an adventure set in the Minecraft universe

Netflix

Minecraft: Story Mode allows viewers to decide how the story progresses across its five episodes.

The first three are already out, meaning you can stream them at your leisure now.

Minecraft: Story Mode is not to be confused with the popular game, because character’s cannot be controlled.

The series begins with an explanation as to how the stories work.

Viewers choosing a male or female version of the protagonist, Jesse.

They then begin an adventure to by using with your crafting skills and your friends.

Minecraft: Story Mode can be streamed on TVs, consoles and iOS devices via Netflix.

You will need to use the official app from Google Play to watch Minecraft: Story Mode with an Android device.

Minecraft: Story Mode is rated PEGI 12, meaning it is targeted for family friendly audiences.

The Netflix show was created by Telltale Games, in collaboration with Minecraft creators, Mojang.

Minecraft: Story Mode features the voices of Patton Oswalt, Martha Plimpton and Corey Feldman.

Released in 2011, Minecraft is a sandbox video game, meaning players have the ability to create, modify, or destroy their environment.

Minecraft allows players to build with a variety of different blocks in a 3D procedurally generated world, requiring creativity from players.

Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat.

Multiple gameplay modes are available, including survival mode, creative mode, adventure mode and hardcore mode.

King Orm of Atlantis is one of the most important Aquaman villains. Here’s everything you need to know about Ocean Master.

The oceans will boil with brotherly hatred when the Aquaman movie hits theatres. The war between Arthur Curry and his conniving brother Orm, the Ocean Master, for the Throne of Atlantis has long been a staple of the legend of Aquaman. It’s a Shakespearean struggle that is perfect for the big screen.

We already covered the history of one undersea baddie in Black Manta, so let’s take a look at the other film villain, King Orm, the Ocean Master. We’ve said it before, prior to the Silver Age, Aquaman never really had an A-list rogues gallery, but that all changed with the arrival of Ocean Master. So let’s take a look at this homicidal, regicidal, fratricidal madman, the would be king… Orm, the Ocean Master!

The Early Days
Ocean Master first appeared in Aquaman #29 (1966) and was created by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy, the same legendary creators that dreamt up Black Manta. In this classic tale, the cover blurb asks, “Aquaman a coward?” as Haney and Cardy unfold the Sea King’s first battle with Black Manta. Over the course of the debut, Aquaman keeps running (swimming) away from Ocean Master every time the new baddie rears his finny head. Aqualad looks on aghast as the always brave Aquaman tucks his gills, pees himself a little, and flees from the freshly debuted Ocean Master again and again. In his first appearance Ocean Master tries to blackmail the world’s navies by trapping a ship in an iceberg and implanting a whale with a device that causes disaster wherever the whale goes. Wait, really? Whoah. I love you, comics.

Anyway, as Ocean Master bedevils the world with his killer icebergs and dickhead whales, it is revealed that the villain is actually his half-brother Orm! Gasp! Aquaman tells a shocked Aqualad that the Sea King’s human father remarried after his Atlantean wife, Aquaman’s mom, died. The two humans had a son together and, for some reason, named him Orm. Orm longed for the sea, and when he was hit in the head with a rock, he contracted amnesia and went mad. Still longing for the sea, Orm built himself a high-tech suit and set plans into motion to become an underwater dictator and all around shitheel.

From robbery to visions of monarchy, after his first appearance, Ocean Master decided he would use his technological mastery to take the throne of Atlantis from his brother. In these subsequent battles in the Silver Age, Ocean Master had no memory of his past, but Aquaman knew, making each battle with Orm a personal struggle. Finally, after being possessed by Deadman, Ocean Master regained his memory, and much to his regal brother’s horror, Orm still desired to usurp and destroy Aquaman.

The Revised Origin
In writer Peter David’s early ’90s absolutely must read run on Aquaman, King Arthur of Atlantis discovers that Tom Curry was not actually his father. Instead, David revealed that Aquaman was the son of an Atlantaen wizard named Atlan. Atlan, the ol’ sea smoothie, got around and had another son with an Inuit woman. So in the post-Crisis era of the DCU, Orm and Arthur were still siblings and Orm was still a fratricidal dick.

The post-Crisis Ocean Master was much more front and center in the DC Universe. In 1995’s Underworld Unleashed event, Ocean Master sells his soul to the devil Neron in return for a power boosting trident. Orm also joins Lex Luthor’s Injustice Gang in the pages of Justice League. This team of evildoers was all considered each of the “Big Seven” Justice League’s perfect foes. This shunted Orm to the big time of DC villainy where he has remained ever since.

The most important post-Crisis Orm revelation (Ormvelation?) came in The Atlantis Chronicles (1990). In this mini-series (which has some of the best fantasy world building this side of Tolkien), it is revealed that the idea of brothers struggling for the throne of Atlantis has been a constant in Atlantaen history. This reveal gives the battle between Orm and Arthur a grand and epic feel. They are each filling the role of an ancient underwater struggle which is all sorts of tragic.New 52
When the DC Universe rebooted in 2011 with the New 52 so did the origin of Orm (Ormigin?). In the new DC continuity, the future Ocean Master was the son of Aquaman’s mother and a member of the Atlantis Elite Guard. When his parents died, Orm found himself as King of Atlantis…until his half-brother Arthur arrived from the surface to take back the throne. This whole bit of high fantasy awesomeness was the brainchild of writer Geoff Johns and it’s no coincidence that this is the one inspiring the Aquaman movie version, where Patrick Wilson will wear the stylish Ocean Master helmet.

Throne of Atlantis
Orm’s next major appearance was in the modern classic Throne of Atlantis. In this tale, a surface vessel unwittingly attacks Atlantis. In retaliation, Ocean Master tries to attack Boston and comes face to face with the Justice League. Not knowing the details of the surface attack on Atlantis, Aquaman sides with his brother against the League. During the struggle, Orm tries to flood Boston which if you think about it, would have prevented the Red Sox from winning two World Series and kept the Patriots out of the Super Bowl, so maybe this isn’t such a terrible idea. Anyway, by story’s end, Ocean Master is arrested and Aquaman retakes the throne.

Ocean Daddy
Ocean Master escapes prison in the 2013 Forever Evil storyline, but in a delicious twist, instead of reverting to his evil ways, Ocean Master meets and settles down with a single mother named Erin. Orm becomes a father to Erin’s son Tommy, but during the events of the 2018 Mera, Queen of Atlantis mini-series by Dan Abnett (it’s a hidden gem, kids, check it out), Orm is drawn back to the depths to become Ocean Master once again.

As for his powers, Orm’s abilities change with the ages of the character. During the Silver Age, Ocean Master uses high tech weapons to challenge Aquaman. In the post-Crisis DCU, Orm was also powerless until his deal with Neron which gave him the ability to manipulate magical energy through his demonic trident. In the New 52 continuity, Orm has the same powers as Aquaman (minus the talking to fish stuff). The modern Orm uses his trident to control lightning and his crown to summon tsunamis and control water. Pretty badass.

But it is his place as Aquaman’s brother that makes Ocean Master so great. Orm could have been a hero, an adventuring king, but instead, he is a bitter recluse always in his brother’s shadow. And that’s the kind of characterization that makes for great drama.

We regret to inform you that musical supervillain Mr. Worldwide has now extended his domain to the very bottom of our planet’s oceans, as Warner Bros. unleashed the soundtrack for next week’s soaked superhero flick Aquaman onto the internet last night. Despite competition from crooner Skylar Grey and the film’s composer, Rupert Gregson-Williams, one track has quickly risen (possibly stomach-side up) to the top of the pile: Pitbull’s “Ocean To Ocean.” Or, as it will now always be known, “The one where Pitbull raps over ‘Africa’ by Toto.”

At two entries, “Least essential ‘Africa’ cover of 2018” turned out to be a staggeringly packed field this year, but we’ll be damned if the Miami unpleasant sound machine doesn’t just kind of go for it, rapping generically about his role as a modern Great Gatsby, a sentiment that has an impressively equal amount of nothing to do with Aquaman and “Africa.” Truly, we are all boats beating on against the current, borne back ceaselessly into a past where we had not yet heard Pitbull scream “Ayooooo!” over the hook of the best Toto song that doesn’t happen to be “Rosanna.” (Don’t at us.)

Here’s the most annoying thing, though: It’s still fucking catchy, because “Africa” is an extremely catchy song. (Also, Rhea does a perfectly fine job of singing the chorus.) And unlike, say, Weezer’s bafflingly popular cover of the song, which was inspired by a tweet, and sounded like it, Pitbull does at least make the song his own, in much the same way that a tidal wave might whilst approaching a small, undefended coastal town.

Next week, the Aquaman live-action film may complete one of the most remarkable pop culture comebacks since the late ’80s. Jason Momoa stars as Aquaman, and the movie is tracking to be one of the year’s biggest superhero adventures at the box office. Momoa’s Aquaman has the capacity for comedy, but the title character is no longer the butt of the joke in his own adaptations. It only took the better part of eight decades to happen.

To comic book readers, Aquaman’s an original member of the Justice League and one of the top DC heroes. But, for decades, the King of Atlantis was considered to be pathetic. He wasn’t super or mighty, he was just the guy who talks to fish!

Casual fans may not realize it, but Aquaman has been around since 1941. When he was created by Mort Weisinger and artist Paul Norris, Aquaman wasn’t intended to be a joke or even comedic. As we recently noted, the early Aquaman was so personality-free that he didn’t even have his mythology in place until several years later.

How did Aquaman’s reputation sink so far? The blame lies largely in television. While Aquaman’s comic stories of the ’50s and ’60s were fairly lighthearted, they also fleshed out Aquaman and his supporting cast. That created enough material for The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure in 1967. That show was actually a pretty good take on Aquaman that was true to that era. Unfortunately, Aquaman was then prominently featured in Super Friends, starting in 1973. From there, his legacy began to suffer.

Aquaman Seahorse
It’s not too unusual for comic book adaptations to influence the source material for years to come. The Batman TV series starring Adam West created such a big impression on the general public that for two decades it was the most indelible portrayal of the character for people who had never read the comics. Even when the Batman comics returned to a more serious style in the late ’60s and early ’70s, it still took Tim Burton’s Batman movie to really convince the public that the Caped Crusader wasn’t the kitschy “Biff! Pow!” guy anymore.

Aquaman wasn’t as lucky, and the stench of Super Friends’ ineffectual portrayal stuck with him for decades. Super Friends turned all of DC’s biggest heroes into sappy-go-lucky stiffs. That helped the show make the characters kid-friendly, but it had the side effect of making Aquaman look like a fool, and it cemented his unearned reputation as a weaker hero. The creative team behind the show may not have intended it, but their version of Aquaman became the most commonly accepted. That’s why even decades after Super Friends ended, Cartoon Network couldn’t resist making Aquaman the butt of the joke in this PowerPuff Girls crossover short.

That’s pretty much how it went for years. The intriguing thing is that the Aquaman comics had already course corrected decades earlier. But there was still the occasional backslide, like the infamous Justice League Detroit era. That was the time that Aquaman insisted that the Justice League drop any members who couldn’t commit to the team full time. Instead of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, we got these losers.

Justice League Detroit
In the ’90s, DC was ready to be a little bit more radical with their take on Aquaman. Longtime Hulk scribe Peter David revitalized Aquaman by making him much tougher than before. He ditched the clean-cut look for a beard and long hair, and he replaced his left hand with a freakin’ harpoon. More than anything else, it’s David’s take on Aquaman that helped shape the hero’s portrayal in the upcoming movie.

A Crash of Symbols 5
Aquaman’s next cartoon appearance came in Superman: The Animated Series, which kept the classic look but added his ’90s attitude. When Justice League followed a few years later, it went for a version of Aquaman who even more of a barbarian than his comic incarnation. This was a hero so badass that he actually cut off his own hand so he could save his son.

That’s arguably more hardcore than our current live-action Aquaman. And even that wasn’t quite enough to shake the Super Friends Aquaman among the general public. Justice League was popular, but it didn’t quite have the reach of Super Friends.

Strangely enough, HBO’s Entourage series also dealt with Aquaman’s bad rep. In the second season, the show’s movie star, Vinnie Chase, was approached to headline an Aquaman movie directed by James Cameron (who appeared as himself). Within the world of the show, Aquaman became an even bigger hit than the first Spider-Man film. However, the show only shared a small clip from the actual “movie.”

Unfortunately, there was a slight setback for Aquaman’s pop culture comeback as a “cool” character. The Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series cast John DiMaggio as perhaps the goofiest Aquaman to date. He wasn’t an ineffectual hero, but he was a lovable buffoon.

That’s actually pretty funny, but for fans of a more serious Aquaman, that was kind of the problem. Brave and the Bold essentially him into a joke again.

For a while, Aquaman was somewhat radioactive in the comic book world. DC essentially gave up on Arthur Curry, and killed him off in Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. His replacement was a younger hero who had a similar name. However, this take on the concept didn’t last long. In 2011, Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis relaunched Aquaman as part of the New 52 reboot. Johns even integrated Aquaman’s reputation as a joke into the comic, so Aquaman could confront it head on and demonstrate why he was on the same level as the rest of the Justice League.

The Trench 2
Johns’ portrayal of Aquaman went a long way towards repairing the damage that had been done with the character. It was also used in part as the basis for the live-action interpretation of Aquaman played by Momoa. The DC live-action films may have their flaws, but Momoa’s Aquaman came off very well in Justice League. It certainly helped that Momoa’s Game of Thrones experience gave him solid geek cred as Aquaman. But the most important thing is that the movie didn’t treat him like a joke. It also allowed Momoa’s natural charisma to shine through and make him a formidable hero.

Truthfully, Aquaman’s future rests in the hands of moviegoers. If Aquaman becomes a blockbuster, it’s going to spawn at least one sequel, if not more. It’s also going to be the new “definitive” take on Aquaman, as far as the general public is concerned. And we may finally be able to put all of those Super Friends Aquaman jokes behind us.

First off, Aquaman earned $19.7 million in its first two days in (non-China) overseas markets. The Jason Momoa/Amber Heard superhero flick earned $1.3m in both Russia and Brazil while earning $1.4m in Mexico. They have seven more markets opening today (including India) as they enter the weekend in 43 overseas territories. While it doesn’t open in North America until next week, WB is hosting an Atom Tickets/Amazon Prime-sponsored sneak preview nationwide tomorrow night. We’ll have a clearer idea of where the film stands overseas by Sunday, but it’s already showing incredible legs in China.

The film earned another $12.51 million in China on its second Friday, dropping a stunningly small (for a big Hollywood movie playing in China) 48% from its $24.5m opening day. That gives the film a $147.94m eight-day cume and puts it on a path for a possible $53m (-44%) second weekend and a $188m ten-day cume. If that comes to pass, it’ll be a smaller second-weekend dip than Venom (-53%), Wonder Woman (-64%), Captain America: Civil War (-67%), Justice League ($69%), Avengers: Infinity War (-73%) and Batman v Superman (-78%). So, yeah, folks over there like it and are telling their friends.

Its potential $188 million cume will also be above the $180m final cume of Civil War, making Aquaman the fourth-biggest Hollywood superhero movie of all time. It’ll be behind only Avengers: Age of Ultron ($240m in 2015), Venom ($267m in 2018) and Avengers: Infinity War ($360m in 2018). So, barring a fluke in either direction, it’s surely going to pass Age of Ultron and will probably end up between Venom and Infinity War. We’ve had two solo superhero flicks that have, just this season, done so much better than the conventional $90m-$120m normal.

This is evidence that either Chinese audiences are embracing the comic book superhero movie or that Aquaman and Venom are weird enough and fantastical enough to appeal to fantasy fans with a less inherent interest in superheroes. Either way, this means that Aquaman will enter is overseas global launch (China Film Group went a week early) with around $168 million ($148m in China and $19m overseas) and should be over $200m worldwide by the end of the day. No, I’m not answering the “Will Aquaman cross $1 billion worldwide?!” question quite yet, if only because I don’t think that should be the bar for success.

But it does now stand a shot at displacing Venom ($853 million-and-counting) to be the biggest “under-$1 billion” earner of the year. Considering the extent to which audiences, in China and elsewhere, are embracing unapologetic weirdness in their IP-specific entertainments, Colin Trevorrow might want to rethink that “no dino attacks in the big city” promise in regards to Jurassic World 3. Audiences can and will embrace insane dino carnage even if the dinos don’t wield machine guns. Oh, and if Aquaman 2 can give me my dolphin fight, that would be super!

I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for 28 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last ten years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing s… MORE

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While some actors dream of playing a superhero, that wasn’t the case for the cast of “Aquaman.”

“I knew nothing about this,” Amber Heard, who plays Mera in the James Wan-directed action film, told Variety at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere. “I knew nothing about comic books in general. I didn’t know anything about this world. What a way to be introduced, huh?”

It sure is. The $350 million movie stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Nicole Kidman as his mom. Patrick Wilson co-stars as Aquaman’s half-brother and archnemesis King Orm. Rounding out the cast are Willem Dafoe, Dolph Lundgren, Michael Beach, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Temuera Morrison.

Momoa admits he “wasn’t a fan” until comic book writer Geoff Johns “kind of created this role for me.”

Kidman was convinced to jump on board because of Wan. “I knew James Wan was going to do something really interesting and really fun and I’ve wanted to work with him since he started out in Australia in low-budget horror, and I’ve followed his career,” the Oscar winner said. “I do this with directors, I follow certain directors. So I’ve been following James. And then he showed me some of the drawings [he was] doing, and he said, ‘See this is why you have to be in the movie, because I’ve drawn her to look like you.’”

For Wilson, the movie brought back memories from his childhood when he had an Aquaman action figure. He laughed, “I had many baths with Aquaman.”

“Aquaman” hits theaters on Dec. 21.

In today’s film news roundup, “Aquaman” has already grossed more than $150 million outside the U.S., Michael Masini joins “Birds of Prey,” and Freestyle buys the documentary “Shamanic Trekker.”

BOX OFFICE

Warner Bros.’ tentpole “Aquaman” has taken in $152 million overseas in 36 markets, with $135 million of that from China, where it opened on Dec. 7.

The Jason Momoa vehicle has become the highest China grosser in the DC Universe and surpassed the lifetime grosses of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Black Panther” in the Middle Kingdom. Mexico debuted with $1.4 million on Thursday on 3,517 screens while Russia and Brazil each took in $1.3 million.

Indonesia has taken in $2.2 million in two days and the U.K. generated $1.8 million in two days of previews. Taiwan’s two-day total is $1.4 million and the Philippines generated $1.1 million. In the U.S., Amazon Prime is holding advance screenings of “Aquaman” on Dec. 15 amid expectations of a $65 million opening weekend in North America on Dec. 21-23.

CASTING

Michael Masini (“Modern Family”) will join Margot Robbie and Ewan McGregor in the Warner Bros. Harley Quinn spinoff film “Birds of Prey.”

The film will be directed by Cathy Yan and begins filming in January. The studio has dated the project, a spinoff from 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” for Feb. 7, 2020.

Sue Kroll, Robbie, and Bryan Unkeless are producing. Robbie announced last month that the title will be “Birds of Prey: (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).” Masini’s credits include “Blue Bloods” and “NCIS.”

ACQUISITION

Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American rights to the documentary “Shamanic Trekker” for release on Jan. 8.

The film focuses on the Q’uero tribe of the High Andes and the sacred rituals and ceremonies of the indigenous shamans. The Q’uero are potato farmers, weavers, and alpaca herders living in stone houses without electricity, running water, and plumbing.

“Shamanic Trekker” is directed by Emmanuel Itier and Kristen White, written by Kristen Schwab, and produced by Kristen Schwab & John Schwab.

“The shamanic descendants of Machu Picchu are alive today and have something powerful to share in modern media,” said White. “We are grateful to the team at Freestyle Digital Media for making it possible to share this powerful message.”

AWARD

Thee US-Ireland Alliance will honor Aidan Gillen at the 14th Annual Oscar Wilde Awards, which will be held at J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21.

Gillen’s credits include “Game of Thrones and “The Wire.” He is currently in production the BBC/Netflix series “Peaky Blinders” and is about to star in the Robert Zemeckis-produced History series “Project Blue Book.” On the big screen, Gillen recently appeared in A24’s “The Lovers” and “Maze Runner: Death Cure” and currently appears in Fox’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Trina Vargo, founder of the US-Ireland Alliance, said: “Aidan’s body of work is rich with a range of diverse and memorable roles that span television, theater and film. While his career his taken him to London, Los Angeles and beyond, he has remained loyal to working Ireland as well.”

“Aquaman” is an improbable movie, which in many ways makes James Wan the ideal person to direct it.

The latest chapter in the Warner Bros. series based on DC comic book superheroes, “Aquaman” provides an origin story for this much-maligned undersea adventurer (played by Jason Momoa of “Game of Thrones”) as he teams up with Mera (Amber Heard) against the nefarious Orm (Patrick Wilson) for control of Atlantis.

When it opens on Dec. 21, the kaleidoscopic and willfully offbeat “Aquaman” will find itself bearing the weight of the larger DC franchise, which continues to be perceived as an also-ran to Marvel. Aside from “Wonder Woman,” the series has struggled to find an entry that’s excited audiences and critics, even as it rakes in millions of dollars.

Wan, 41, a spirited, quick-talking filmmaker with a plume of reddish-purple dye in his hair, is used to being an underdog. Born in Malaysia and raised in Australia, he found early success with his genre-redefining 2004 horror feature, “Saw.” But he struggled for years to find a worthy follow-up before re-establishing himself with hit supernatural thrillers like “Insidious” and “The Conjuring.” That led him to mainstream Hollywood blockbusters like “Furious 7” (the seventh entry in the “Fast & Furious” series) and finally to “Aquaman.”

On a recent visit to New York, Wan spoke about the unusual trajectory that brought him to Atlantis and the unexpected pressure now on the film. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Aquaman is a well-known superhero, if not a widely respected one. His powers — swimming fast, talking to fish — surely paled next to Superman’s. Was he important to you, growing up?

I did grow up reading comic books, but his books weren’t the ones I read. Later, as I got older, it became apparent that people out there were making fun of him. Sure, he was somewhat disrespected and made the joke of the superhero world. But I always found him endearing.

How did the movie first become a possibility for you?

Having made “The Conjuring,” I was part of the Warner Bros. family, and I knew they were doing their DC thing. I spoke with Kevin Tsujihara [the Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive] at a premiere and I said, “I’m interested in the properties that you have at DC.” A few months later, I was in a general meeting with DC and they floated two properties that didn’t have filmmakers on board: the Flash and Aquaman.

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Patrick Wilson in “The Conjuring.” Wan made the horror movie for Warner Bros., which led to directing “Aquaman” for the studio.
Credit
Michael Tackett/Warner Bros.

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Patrick Wilson in “The Conjuring.” Wan made the horror movie for Warner Bros., which led to directing “Aquaman” for the studio.CreditMichael Tackett/Warner Bros.
Why did you choose Aquaman?

I felt the Flash had been done before. It had been on TV twice at that point. The one that had not been done was Aquaman. I realized, wow, his character resides in this crazy, big world, and I could do something very interesting with it. I look up to people like Spielberg, Cameron, Lucas, John Carpenter. I’m a fan of genre filmmaking, naturally. So I thought I could make “Aquaman” a genre film, meaning a horror monster movie. DC basically said, yes, you can make Aquaman versus sea monsters if that’s what you want.

How were you selected to direct “Furious 7”? Was that an important step in being considered for other big-budget projects like “Aquaman”?

Believe me, “Furious 7” was difficult to make, if not the toughest of my career. But that movie really allowed people to look at me as a more complete filmmaker.

“The Conjuring” hadn’t come out yet, but Chris Morgan, the producer-writer of the “Fast & Furious” franchise at the time, had seen “The Conjuring” and he loved it. Around that point, Justin Lin was finishing “Fast & Furious 6,” and I think he just needed a break. He wasn’t going to come back to do “7.” So they were kind of scrambling. I talked about what I wanted to bring from my horror filmmaking into the “Fast & Furious” world. By that, I meant I wanted to create suspenseful, tension-filled set pieces. And they were excited with what I had to say.

You broke through professionally with the original “Saw” movie, which seems like every filmmaker’s dream. But what happened next?

“Saw” exploded in a big way and created this big, big franchise. But then I couldn’t seem to get out from under its shadow. I only directed the first one, but my name became synonymous with “Saw” and therefore all the negative connotations — I became the father of torture porn. I went off and did “Dead Silence” and “Death Sentence,” two movies that worked hard to break away from the image of “Saw” and ultimately did not work, from a commercial standpoint. That was two strikes against my name and I’m thinking, am I in director’s jail? All the projects that were coming my way were just copycat projects that weren’t special for me. And so, I just held out. Then my buddy Leigh Whannell and I just thought, screw all this. Let’s go back to our low-budget filmmaking roots. That was when we made “Insidious.”

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A scene from the original “Saw,” directed by Wan, who came to regret that his name became synonymous with the franchise.
Credit
NBC Universal

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A scene from the original “Saw,” directed by Wan, who came to regret that his name became synonymous with the franchise.CreditNBC Universal
Were there any lessons from this frustrating period?

I learned what it means to be artistic and commercial at the same time. It made me very aware of the projects I need to do. It needs to be artistically fulfilling, but it needs to have commerciality as well. I’m always walking that tightrope: I know I need to make a movie that works financially, because in Hollywood, that’s how you get your next film.

“Aquaman” is obviously a piece of a larger franchise. Did you still feel you were able to put your stamp on it?

It’s pretty crazy. For as big a movie as “Aquaman” is, I could not have had more freedom. I had all the big tools and the budget to paint on a really big canvas, but with the freedom I had on, let’s say, “Saw” or “Insidious.” So if the movie works, or doesn’t work, I have no one to blame but myself.

Did you have any say in the casting of Jason Momoa and Amber Heard, who were introduced in previous DC movies?

Even though Zack [Snyder] was making “Justice League,” I was kept in the loop by DC and Warner Bros., and they really wanted my input into the two leads. The great thing about casting Jason is, any jokey perception that people have of Aquaman goes right out the window. He completely nullifies any disrespect that people have for this character. Everybody knows how tough and strong Jason Momoa is. I wanted to show people the more lighthearted side of him, the goofy side of him. I worked very hard to pull it out of him, and Jason would be the first to say that I took him out of his comfort zones, quite a few times. [Laughs]

James Wan, second from left, directing Amber Heard, Jason Momoa and Willem Dafoe in “Aquaman.”
Credit
Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. and DC Comics

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James Wan, second from left, directing Amber Heard, Jason Momoa and Willem Dafoe in “Aquaman.”CreditJasin Boland/Warner Bros. and DC Comics
It’s no secret that, though they were commercially successful, DC films like “Justice League,” “Suicide Squad” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” were creative and critical disappointments. Did that response affect your approach to “Aquaman”?

I was definitely aware of that. The irony is, I picked “Aquaman” because I thought, here’s a superhero I can make that is fully under the radar. No one’s going to [care] about this film. I can just do whatever I want. Make it easy with no pressure. Fast-forward to three years later and now there’s a massive spotlight on it. So, to answer your question, obviously there was a sense of pressure. But I try not to let any of that cloud my vision for the film. I just plow ahead and continue to make the movie I wanted to make.

So creating an underwater universe that’s vivid and multicolored, that’s not a response to the drab, darker palettes of previous DC movies?

If people go back and watch “Furious 7,” they’ll see how bright and colorful that movie is. Beautiful blue skies, beautiful beaches. People associate me, primarily, with my horror films, and they expect a darker look than “Aquaman.” That serves a narrative that people are trying to get at as well, like I’m reacting to the criticism of these films. My biggest inspiration is actually from the comic book. The comic book is just full of magical creatures and weird and wonderful worlds, and the only way to do an “Aquaman” movie justice is to pay homage to the 70 years’ worth of source material.

A scene from “Furious 7,” which Wan directed. That film, he said, has a colorful look not typically associated with his work.
Credit
Universal Pictures

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A scene from “Furious 7,” which Wan directed. That film, he said, has a colorful look not typically associated with his work.CreditUniversal Pictures
There are many scenes that take place entirely underwater, which creates lots of challenges for you. How did you film these sequences?

There really aren’t a lot of visual cues from existing films to pull from. That was exciting for me, because I get to create a new world. In terms of the technicality of it: It was a pain. The actors would be suited up in their costumes, and placed inside these really awkward, uncomfortable rigs. Then visual effects would come in and add the flowing hair, the floating costumes and capes, and then paint in the entire world. A simple scene of two people talking underwater would just take days and days to shoot.

Looking ahead to other DC movies like “Shazam!,” “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Birds of Prey,” what’s your sense of where Warner Bros. wants to take the franchise next?

I don’t know what the bigger picture is. But I think it’s really cool to take chances with the lesser-known characters and story lines. It’s good if all the other films have their own flavor, so they don’t force them to feel the same.

So you don’t necessarily want a role in steering the larger DC movie operations?

It’s taken me so long just to finish this movie. [Laughs] I don’t want to think about somebody else’s movie at this point. I just want to survive this one.

You’re one of very few nonwhite directors who’s been able to make a studio movie at this scale. What’s needed to ensure that other filmmakers from diverse backgrounds get these opportunities?

I think the willingness to take chances on different kinds of films and filmmakers. I never thought, for the life of me, that I would ever see a movie like “Crazy Rich Asians,” where the cast is Asian, and for the movie to do well and be well received, it’s incredible. It starts at the top, the willingness to reach out to these filmmakers and take chances. I get it — when you’re making a movie that’s really big and expensive, they want filmmakers that have proven track records. But there’s really no excuses for not looking at more diverse filmmakers.

Another patch has hit the various different versions of Minecraft with Update 1.8 bringing cat & pandas to the game along with three new achievements. As well as the Xbox One version of the game, you can play with these new animals in the Android, Gear VR, iOS, Kindle Fire, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, and Windows Phone versions of the title.

The black and white rolling pandas are a new mob in the game. They are cute and cuddly but also very protective of their children and they love bamboo. Cats have also been redesigned as well as scaffolding and the mentioned bamboo. You can also get to grips with a new crossbow and its enchantments. However, you will need to use the “activate Experimental Gameplay” toggle in the world settings to even use the weapon.

Minecraft players have a new update to apply, and it comes with some nifty changes.

Minecraft’s Bedrock update 1.8.0 is out in the wild, and sure it contains a new climbable block, but who cares about that: it now has pandas and better cats.

What could be considered a bit disappointing is ocelots can no longer be tamed; however, players can still gain their trust y feeding them, which works I guess.

With the update comes a new biome featuring bamboo. The plant can be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests. Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update.

Bamboo jungle biomes will see pandas spawn either as a single mob or in duos. Pandas will have random personalities, and while absolutely adorable, they are also “fiercely protective” of their cubs, so don’t trust them to be passive. Because they eat bamboo, players will find pandas will drop blocks of it.

Next year, Minecraft players can look forward to the Village and Pillage update. Plus, there’s Minecraft: Dungeons coming next year too. It’s the first major spin-off of the popular game and is playable solo or with up to three friends.

Today’s patch notes are a bit long, so know that before diving in below. Links to additional information included where applicable.

This update is now available for Xbox One, Windows 10 Edition, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch.

Minecraft – Bedrock update 1.8.0 patch notes
New Features
Pandas now spawn in jungles where they roll, lounge, and laze around
Stray cats now spawn in villages
Cats can be tamed using fish
Ocelots are no longer tameable
Players can now feed ocelots to gain their trust
Bamboo can now be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests (Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update)
Scaffolding – A climbable block that can be crafted using bamboo
New Achievements
Where have you been? – Receive a gift from a tamed cat in the morning (20G)
Top of the World – Place scaffolding to the word limit (20G)
Zoologist – Breed two pandas with bamboo (40G)
Added
randomTickSpeed game rule
For Map Makers and Add-On Creators
Updated templates for 1.8.0 with new assets and behaviors can be downloaded from minecraft.net/addons
Updates to Add-Ons that allow players to add new entities, particles, and animations. See aka.ms/MinecraftAddons for more details and enable Experimental Gameplay in your world!
Functions have come to Bedrock! Functions allow players to write the commands their worlds use in an external file, not just Command Blocks. See the Minecraft Wiki for more information
Experimental Gameplay
(Only available when Experimental Gameplay is enabled in world settings)

Crossbow weapon with new enchantments

Multishot
Piercing
Quick Charge
Changes
Phantoms are now afraid of cats and will not swoop down while cats are around
Increased the size of Tropical fish (MCPE-35877)
Skeleton Horse and Zombie Horse foals now have a chance of being spawned using a spawn egg
Added a crafting recipe for Packed Ice
Separated Bone Meal, Ink Sac, Cocoa Beans, and Lapis Lazuli into their own dyes and unified all dye names
The splash screen now has an animated loading bar
The following commands can now be run in-game without enabling cheats:
/gamerule showcoordinates
/gamerule dofiretick
/gamerule tntexplodes
/gamerule domobloot
/gamerule naturalregeneration
/gamerule dotiledrops
/gamerule pvp
A warning now appears when attempting to change settings on a world template, as it could change the creator’s intended experience
Command blocks now have the default name of ! instead of @
More skin packs are now shown in the skin picker menu, and each pack can be opened and viewed in its own page
The autocomplete list for player mentions now works in slash commands
The Remix3D upload service on Windows 10 is no longer available, but creations can still be exported as .glb 3D Object files
Text-to-Speech can now be enabled on Nintendo Switch
Minecraft Marketplace:
Content can now be sorted by ‘Updates Available’ in your inventory
Content can now be sorted and filtered by rating when browsing the Marketplace
Bundles of content can now be purchased
Fixes
Crashes/Performance

Fixed several crashes that occurred during gameplay
Fixed a crash that would occur if the player was disconnected while loading resource packs
Fixed a crash that would occur on Xbox One if the player signed out too quickly after signing in
Fixed a crash that could occur during the splash loading screen on Windows 10 Mobile
Fixed a crash that could occur on startup for Gear VR
Fixed a crash that could occur due to a recent Windows 10 update (MCPE-36274)
Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over a renamed firework charge (MCPE-37822)
Using a bucket of fish in a dispenser no longer crashes the game (MCPE-38194)
Fixed a crash that would occur when using lava buckets on fish
Fixed a crash that could occur when kelp grows
Fixed a crash that could occur when suspending and resuming the game on the main menu (154576)
Fixed a crash that could occur in worlds that contained locator maps
Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving the Realms settings screen
Fixed a crash that could occur when downloading or saving data on Nintendo Switch
Fixed a crash that could occur on Switch when split screen players broke a large chest
Fixed a crash that occurred when killing and summoning a salmon with its navigation component removed
Improved performance on some devices with less available memory
Fixed a bug where multiple UI screens could be opened at once, causing the game to crash
Shulker boxes that contain tropical fish buckets no longer cause performance issues (MCPE-27167)
Fixed a bug that caused a significant performance drop when rendering chunks (MCPE-37192)
Improved the loading time of various game files
Fixed delayed touch response on the bottom of the screen on iOS (MCPE-29718)
General

Fixed the bug where the player would unexpectedly turn in a random direction on touch screens (MCPE-35910)
The “Body Guard” achievement can once again be unlocked after creating an Iron Golem (MCPE-33686)
Fixed an issue with custom player permissions that might not apply correctly in multiplayer (MCPE-34864)
Worlds larger than 1GB can now be copied and exported on Windows 10 (MCPE-37269)
Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to start a split screen session with a guest on Xbox One
Split screen players no longer get stuck on the loading screen when re-joining Old worlds
Gameplay

Lightning no longer strikes if the destination is in a cold biome (MCPE-19015)
Players will no longer teleport when standing against a non-full block and reloading the game (MCPE-31242)
Fixed rare enchantments being too hard to get at higher levels
Potion of Slow Falling will now slow down Elytra descent (MCPE-34926)
The player locator map marker now faces the right direction when aboard a boat
Players will now face forwards when entering a boat (MCPE-36795)
Explosions will now drop blocks if the default game mode is Creative and Tile Drops are enabled (MCPE-23498)
Planting crops continuously will no longer skip blocks (MCPE-35857)
Items

Fixed a bug where only white firework stars could be crafted
Crafting multiple cakes using the recipe book will now return the correct amount of empty buckets to the player (MCPE-37387)
Dyed beds now have the correct crafting recipe
Fixed an exploit where rails could be duplicated (MCPE-36917)
Fixed an exploit that allowed Tridents to be duplicated (MCPE-37900)
Fixed Enchanted Tridents being lost from anvils following a server disconnect (MCPE-37526)
Flower pots that contain saplings will once again drop the correct type when broken (MCPE-37328)
Mobs

Large Slimes and Magma Cubes now have the correct sized hitbox based on their size (MCPE-18518)
Fixed mobs not always taking fall damage when they should (MCPE-37257)
Tamed wolves will now tilt their heads when the player is holding meat (MCPE-17144)
Magma cubes no longer inflict damage during their death animation (MCPE-14426)
Blocks

Kelp will now only grow into water source blocks or full downward flowing water, and no longer creates a new source block (MCPE-37155)
Pistons no longer drop as items when being pushed or pulled (MCPE-37492)
The hitbox of piston arms now matches the size and shape correctly (MCPE-13758)
Players no longer fall through Shulker Boxes as they open (MCPE-28812)
Double wooden slabs can now be placed regardless of crosshair position (MCPE-13799)
When the player has just moved out of a block space, they can no longer place a repeater or comparator that can’t be powered (MCPE-36762)
Mobs in minecarts no longer activate adjacent detector rails (MCPE-21863)
Realms

Fixed the bug where players on Realms could be instantly killed in one shot by a Blaze fireball attack (MCPE-19535)
Graphical

Fixed a bug that caused horses (and variants) to show flashing colors on certain devices (no more disco horses!) (MCPE-31726)
Fixed a bug where players could see through solid blocks when swimming
Water now renders correctly when surrounded by Barrier Blocks
Wall signs no longer show different types of wood particles when being broken (MCPE-16141)
Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause black visual glitches to appear around blocks when riding a horse
The player’s hands are now properly rotated and positioned when aboard a boat and holding a bow
Fixed the Ghast projectile firing animation
Audio

Ghast sounds are no longer repeated when they are shooting fireballs (MCPE-19156)
User Interface

Multiple items can be collected when trading with villagers again when using touch controls (MCPE-32635)
Fixed incorrect interact buttons appearing briefly for certain mobs on touch screen devices
The right bumper button now correctly scrolls through the tabs in the game menu on Nintendo Switch
Reassigned Page Up and Page Down keys are now labelled correctly on the Settings screen
The multiplayer toggle is now accurately shown when using platform restricted content on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch
The Achievements button no longer appears in the pause menu if not signed into Xbox Live
Controller hints now show the correct usage of “Open” and “Use” when looking at containers
Health Boost and Absorption effects no longer have the same icon
Fixed the buttons used on the startup message for players using Windows Mixed Reality
Removed “MCPE!” from the list of splash screen messages (MCPE-36741)
Search results in the Marketplace are now more consistent when searching through all content
Only templates are suggested in the “Get More Templates” menu now
Fixed incorrect message when accepting an invite from a notification on Nintendo Switch with certain parental controls set
Commands

Running the ‘title’ and ‘subtitle’ commands will once again override any titles and subtitles currently on screen
Relative coordinates in commands are once again consistent below 3 on the y-axis (MCPE-35130)
Using Shift + Tab to reverse cycle through slash command auto-complete suggestions now properly cycles to the end of the list
Lava blocks no longer appear green in the command autocomplete area (MCPE-33788)
Player names that are made up of only numbers are now surrounded with quotation marks when using autocomplete for slash commands
Add-Ons:

‘minecraft:navigation.walk’ can now be used in component groups without causing the game to crash
Added a underscore to “frozen_river” in the ‘biomes_client.json’ file so it matches the other vanilla Resource Pack entries (MCPE-36799)

The latest Minecraft update is now available to download for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android and Windows 10 PCs. The update adds panda bears, revamps cats and has a few other new features as well. Of course, the usual list of bug fixes and other tweaks have been added as well. A trailer for the new update can be watched below.

Minecraft 1.8 Patch Notes
The full Minecraft 1.8 update patch notes are as follows:

New Features:
Pandas now spawn in jungles where they roll, lounge, and laze around!

Stray cats now spawn in villages

Cats can be tamed using fish

Ocelots are no longer tameable

Players can now feed ocelots to gain their trust

Bamboo can now be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests (Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update)

Scaffolding – A climbable block that can be crafted using bamboo

New Achievements

Where have you been? – Receive a gift from a tamed cat in the morning (20G)

Top of the World – Place scaffolding to the word limit (20G)

Zoologist – Breed two pandas with bamboo (40G)

Added randomTickSpeed game rule

For Map Makers and Add-On Creators:
Updated templates for 1.8.0 with new assets and behaviors can be downloaded from net/addons

Updates to Add-Ons that allow players to add new entities, particles, and animations.

Functions have come to Bedrock! Functions allow players to write the commands their worlds use in an external file, not just Command Blocks.

Experimental Gameplay:

Only available when Experimental Gameplay is enabled in world settings)

Crossbow weapon with new enchantments

Multishot

Piercing

Quick Charge

Changes:
Phantoms are now afraid of cats and will not swoop down while cats are around

Increased the size of Tropical fish

Skeleton Horse and Zombie Horse foals now have a chance of being spawned using a spawn egg

Added a crafting recipe for Packed Ice

Separated Bone Meal, Ink Sac, Cocoa Beans, and Lapis Lazuli into their own dyes and unified all dye names

The splash screen now has an animated loading bar

The following commands can now be run in-game without enabling cheats:

/gamerule showcoordinates

/gamerule dofiretick

/gamerule tntexplodes

/gamerule domobloot

/gamerule naturalregeneration

/gamerule dotiledrops

/gamerule pvp

A warning now appears when attempting to change settings on a world template, as it could change the creator’s intended experience

Command blocks now have the default name of ! instead of @

More skin packs are now shown in the skin picker menu, and each pack can be opened and viewed in its own page

The autocomplete list for player mentions now works in slash commands

The Remix3D upload service on Windows 10 is no longer available, but creations can still be exported as .glb 3D Object files

Text-to-Speech can now be enabled on Nintendo Switch

Minecraft Marketplace:

Content can now be sorted by ‘Updates Available’ in your inventory

Content can now be sorted and filtered by rating when browsing the Marketplace

Bundles of content can now be purchased

Fixes:

Crashes/Performance

Fixed several crashes that occurred during gameplay

Fixed a crash that would occur if the player was disconnected while loading resource packs

Fixed a crash that would occur on Xbox One if the player signed out too quickly after signing in

Fixed a crash that could occur during the splash loading screen on Windows 10 Mobile

Fixed a crash that could occur on startup for Gear VR

Fixed a crash that could occur due to a recent Windows 10 update

Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over a renamed firework charge

Using a bucket of fish in a dispenser no longer crashes the game

Fixed a crash that would occur when using lava buckets on fish

Fixed a crash that could occur when kelp grows

Fixed a crash that could occur when suspending and resuming the game on the main menu

Fixed a crash that could occur in worlds that contained locator maps

Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving the Realms settings screen

Fixed a crash that could occur when downloading or saving data on Nintendo Switch

Fixed a crash that could occur on Switch when split screen players broke a large chest

Fixed a crash that occurred when killing and summoning a salmon with its navigation component removed

Improved performance on some devices with less available memory

Fixed a bug where multiple UI screens could be opened at once, causing the game to crash

Shulker boxes that contain tropical fish buckets no longer cause performance issues

Fixed a bug that caused a significant performance drop when rendering chunks

Improved the loading time of various game files

Fixed delayed touch response on the bottom of the screen on iOS

General

Fixed the bug where the player would unexpectedly turn in a random direction on touch screens

The “Body Guard” achievement can once again be unlocked after creating an Iron Golem

Fixed an issue with custom player permissions that might not apply correctly in multiplayer

Worlds larger than 1GB can now be copied and exported on Windows 10

Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to start a split screen session with a guest on Xbox One

Split screen players no longer get stuck on the loading screen when re-joining Old worlds

Gameplay

Lightning no longer strikes if the destination is in a cold biome

Players will no longer teleport when standing against a non-full block and reloading the game

Fixed rare enchantments being too hard to get at higher levels

Potion of Slow Falling will now slow down Elytra descent

The player locator map marker now faces the right direction when aboard a boat

Players will now face forwards when entering a boat

Explosions will now drop blocks if the default game mode is Creative and Tile Drops are enabled

Planting crops continuously will no longer skip blocks

Items

Fixed a bug where only white firework stars could be crafted

Crafting multiple cakes using the recipe book will now return the correct amount of empty buckets to the player

Dyed beds now have the correct crafting recipe

Fixed an exploit where rails could be duplicated

Fixed an exploit that allowed Tridents to be duplicated

Fixed Enchanted Tridents being lost from anvils following a server disconnect

Flower pots that contain saplings will once again drop the correct type when broken

Mobs

Large Slimes and Magma Cubes now have the correct sized hitbox based on their size

Fixed mobs not always taking fall damage when they should

Tamed wolves will now tilt their heads when the player is holding meat

Magma cubes no longer inflict damage during their death animation

Blocks

Kelp will now only grow into water source blocks or full downward flowing water, and no longer creates a new source block

Pistons no longer drop as items when being pushed or pulled

The hitbox of piston arms now matches the size and shape correctly

Players no longer fall through Shulker Boxes as they open

Double wooden slabs can now be placed regardless of crosshair position

When the player has just moved out of a block space, they can no longer place a repeater or comparator that can’t be powered

Mobs in minecarts no longer activate adjacent detector rails

Realms

Fixed the bug where players on Realms could be instantly killed in one shot by a Blaze fireball attack

Graphical

Fixed a bug that caused horses (and variants) to show flashing colors on certain devices (no more disco horses!)

Fixed a bug where players could see through solid blocks when swimming

Water now renders correctly when surrounded by Barrier Blocks

Wall signs no longer show different types of wood particles when being broken

Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause black visual glitches to appear around blocks when riding a horse

The player’s hands are now properly rotated and positioned when aboard a boat and holding a bow

Fixed the Ghast projectile firing animation

Audio

Ghast sounds are no longer repeated when they are shooting fireballs

User Interface

Multiple items can be collected when trading with villagers again when using touch controls

Fixed incorrect interact buttons appearing briefly for certain mobs on touch screen devices

The right bumper button now correctly scrolls through the tabs in the game menu on Nintendo Switch

Reassigned Page Up and Page Down keys are now labelled correctly on the Settings screen

The multiplayer toggle is now accurately shown when using platform restricted content on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

The Achievements button no longer appears in the pause menu if not signed into Xbox Live

Controller hints now show the correct usage of “Open” and “Use” when looking at containers

Health Boost and Absorption effects no longer have the same icon

Fixed the buttons used on the startup message for players using Windows Mixed Reality

Removed “MCPE!” from the list of splash screen messages

Search results in the Marketplace are now more consistent when searching through all content

Only templates are suggested in the “Get More Templates” menu now

Fixed incorrect message when accepting an invite from a notification on Nintendo Switch with certain parental controls set

Commands

Running the ‘title’ and ‘subtitle’ commands will once again override any titles and subtitles currently on screen

Relative coordinates in commands are once again consistent below 3 on the y-axis

Using Shift + Tab to reverse cycle through slash command auto-complete suggestions now properly cycles to the end of the list

Lava blocks no longer appear green in the command autocomplete area

Player names that are made up of only numbers are now surrounded with quotation marks when using autocomplete for slash commands

If you’re into your Minecraft you may have heard of Hypixel – it’s one of the biggest Minecraft servers in the world and home to some seriously dedicated creators.

Today brings the announcement of Hypixel Studios, a new indie team made up by the Minecraft server’s co-founders to develop an entirely separate game, and backed by League of Legends maker Riot Games, among others.

The game is named Hytale – and here’s a trailer:

It looks hugely ambitious, with several modes planned aping Minecraft’s own. There’s a creation-focused mode designed to encourage the building of new mini-games, and an adventure mode with hand-crafted dungeons and bosses.

Alongside those are a suite of tools to help code new things in the game, create cinematics and design/edit 3D models.

More than 40 people are currently working on Hytale, and development has been ongoing since 2015.

The project has attracted some serious backing. Riot Games and a group of industry veterans including ex-Blizzard senior designer and producer Rob Pardo, have all invested in it.

“Since meeting the Hypixel team in 2016, we’ve been blown away by their support for their community, vision for the future of sandbox gaming, and belief in individual contributors working toward a common goal,” Riot Games boss Dylan Jadeja said. “Their ambition and commitment to quality gives us a ton of confidence, and from everything we’ve seen of Hytale, we haven’t been let down.

“Supporting Hypixel is also an opportunity to support a game that will reach players at multiple stages in their gaming journeys, across age groups, genres, and play styles. We can’t wait to dive into the world of Hytale.”

Which is all good news for Hypixel, its founders conclude:

“This investment means that we’re able to level up our production values across many disciplines, and to provide stability for our team. It also allows us to avoid many common pitfalls of game development, like feeling pressure to release too early or over-reliance on crowdfunding. This is our first game as a newly-formed studio, but we’re excited to embrace the challenges that lie ahead.”

Hypixel Studios is creating a new game called “Hytale” with some help from “League of Legends” developer Riot Games, it announced in a blog post on Thursday.

“Hytale” is a sandbox RPG with procedurally generated environments and a “Minecraft”-inspired art style. It also boasts a number of interesting features like community servers, minigames, modding tools, and the ability to watch movies together.

“Hytale’s” similarity to “Minecraft” is no accident. Hypixel is the studio behind one of “Minecraft’s” most popular player-made servers, which has reportedly hosted more than 14 million players and won four Guinness World Records, including “most popular independent server for a video game.” The studio said the server’s success allowed it to self-fund development of “Hytale,” but it’s also secured outside funding from investors like Riot Games and former Blizzard Entertainment executive Rob Pardo.

“It’s humbling and exciting to be learning from these veteran game developers and industry experts,” Hypixel said. “Many of us on the team grew up playing their games, and it’s incredible to think that some of their sons and daughters are now playing Hypixel.”

Hypixel said its “Minecraft” server will continue to be actively developed by its own dedicated team. It also said it’s grateful to Mojang and Microsoft, “whose forward-thinking support for content creators from day one has allowed us to produce work that we’re proud of.”

Hypixel plans to launch “Hytale” on PC and Mac, but said it will explore the possibility of releasing on other platforms during development.

Just in case you thought it wasn’t popular anymore

At this point people who refer to Minecraft as a fad are just as ridiculous as the folks who said the same thing about Pokemon in the early 2000s. It’s just as popular as ever, appeals to pretty much all ages and skill levels, and is now universally playable across pretty much every platform on the planet (even VR!), most of which are connected with cross-play. It’s one of the most accessible games of all time.

That accessibility has translated to sales and a still-active playerbase. Speaking to Business Insider, Minecraft Studio Head Helen Chiang confirmed that Minecraft currently boasts over 91 million active players monthly, which beats out the 78 million Fortnite numbers. A lot of those players not only purchased the base game, but additional platforms for family members, skins, texture packs, and possibly monthly server subscriptions. That’s a lot of revenue streams to rely on. And with over 150 million sold they’re the second-best selling game ever: only behind Tetris.

While people are quick to point to Twitch to showcase Fortnite’s popularity, it just goes to show that streaming isn’t everything: Fortnite generally breaks over 100,000 concurrent viewers daily and at the time of this post Minecraft is at 4,000. A lot of people still don’t watch streams, spend their days on YouTube, or spend it playing Minecraft.

Panda-Moneyium

Microsoft has announced a new costume pack for hugely-successful build ’em up title Minecraft, with aims of raising cash for animal-friendly charity The World Wildlife Fund.

The “Paws and Claws” pack will be the first of the WWF-themed charitable initiatives to feature in Minecraft, containing a selection of cat and panda-themed skins. All net proceeds from every pack sold between launch and December 11, 2021 will be donated to the WWF.

As an added incentive, Microsoft will donate a further $100,000 once 10 million “Bamboo Blocks” – which were added to Minecraft in the latest update – have been placed in-game, so better get building! You can check out a trailer about the new promotion below. It’s important to note that this promotion only applies to the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft.

Minecraft – Bedrock Edition is available now on Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch and iOS and Android devices.

A team of community modders for Minecraft have banded together to form a fully-fledged games studio.

Hypixel Studio is the new company from the team behind the Hypixel server network, one of the most popular independent Minecraft servers.

The developer was founded with the help of an investor group thast includes Riot Games, ex-Blizzard exec Rob Pardo, Pardo’s fellow Bonfire co-founder Min Kim, pro-gamer Dennis ‘Thresh’ Fong, university professor Anthony Borquez, and investors Peter Levin and Jeff Lo.

Some of these investors have formed an advisory group to guide the studio forward.

Hypixel is already hard at work on its first project, Hytale. This will be a sandbox roleplaying game complimented by a mini-games platform and a variety of accessible tools enabling users to create and customise their own content for the game.

Work on Hytale actually began in 2015 — two years after the Hypixel server network was established — and was initially funded by the success of the servers, before the team sought the investment needed for the transition from modders to development studio.

“Founding Hypizel Studios is a huge step forward for our team, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Riot Games and our advisory group of investors,” said co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme.

“We feel very lucky to have built relationships that not only fund the development of Hytale, but provide us with insight and advice that will be instrumental in making Hytale as good as it possibly can be.”

The green fields of France frame our latest Battlefield V: Unsung Heroes episode – or, to be more accurate, the airspace above them does. Here, brave pilots weave between the clouds in breakneck dogfights for air supremacy. Soaring fighters duck and dive as they trade cannon fire before finally landing the decisive burst that sends targets spiralling back to Earth.

You needn’t be a fully trained aviator to hop in the cockpit – in Battlefield V, any class can spawn inside an aircraft. If there’s one going spare, simply select it from the spawn screen, and you’re instantly ready to command the skies in one of DICE’s authentic single-seater planes. On the Allies side are manoeuvrable but fragile machines such as the Spitfire, while the Axis wields the equally fearsome Messerschmitt.

The biggest clash between RAF and Luftwaffe forces happened in Battle of Britain (July 1940 to June 1941), the first military campaign fought entirely by aircraft. In it, Hitler attempted to cripple the RAF before launching his land invasion, Operation Sea Lion. Of course, this particular episode takes place before all that, with the Germans still contesting France. There was plenty of aerial fighting to be done in and around the Low Countries, and if you happened to lose your plane, lots of scraps to join in on the ground, too.

You can experience the thrill of air combat by playing Battlefield V, available now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Simply hop into the War Stories mode to learn of brave missions previously unexplored by other World War II videogames. Or, should you be more about online action, up to 64 players can fight for victory on some of gaming’s largest, most detailed multiplayer maps.