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Get your Minecraft Festival tickets starting March 6

You know that feeling just before the guests arrive at your epic house party? You’ve spent hours polishing the place, changing outfits half a dozen times (“does this cape go with my mood and my complexion?”) cutting perfectly cube-shaped pieces of cake, and digging through your floordrobe for the first time in years (“look, there are wooden blocks down here!”) It’s almost time, and you engage the doorbell in a death-stare contest in the hopes it won’t chime until everything is perfect.

Well, that’s basically us right now, but on a slightly larger scale and extended timeline! It’s only February, and we’re already working around the clock to prepare for Minecraft Festival at the end of September. Perhaps that sounds overzealous, but remember – our version of a house party will be a fully-fledged Minecraft experience with thousands of guests, featuring interactive exhibits, inclusive gameplay, fiercely competitive tournaments, intense live entertainment, exclusive merchandise, creativity-sparking panels and the opportunity to meet your favorite content creator or Mojang developer. Aaand it will go on for three days. So we do have a few things on our mind!

Over the frantic pounding of hammers, scribbling of pens and explosions of Creepers going on here, let me tell you about a few things we have planned for you. Minecraft Festival is a party where you are the guest of honor! It’s a celebration of the epic adventure we’ve all shared for the past 10 years, and a sneak peek at the journey ahead. Mojang will bring all Minecraft games (many playable!), and exhibitors from around the world plan to show what they have been working on.

Oh, and remember MINECON Live? The globally available live show featuring all the biggest Minecraft news? We’ve even squeezed that into Minecraft Festival! This portion of the event is now called Minecraft Live and is still the place for epic announcements, nail-biting excitement and deep-dives into the past, present and future of Minecraft. We’ll stream it live, directly from Minecraft Festival. And who knows, some lucky Festival attendees may even get a seat in the studio audience!

Are we forgetting something? Creepers? No, mentioned those. Canapes? Nope, not that kind of party. Capes! Ah, yes, capes! Every attendee will get an exclusive Minecraft Festival cape, compatible with both Java and Bedrock.

“Everyone is welcome!” says Lydia Winters, Chief Brand Officer at Mojang. “We think of Minecraft Festival as a place to meet, hang out with, and learn from like-minded players – all in an interactive space full of surprising experiences and opportunities for discovery.”

Well, that sounds exciting, but let’s get specific! First, jot down the dates September 25-27 in your calendar or on some other reasonably flat surface, because that’s when we’ll be at Orange County Convention Center in sunny Florida. There will be exciting goings-on throughout the three days, so make it a long weekend if you can! If not, there will also be the opportunity to swing by for a single day. Here is a breakdown of the various ticket options available:

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Bose Frames bring hands-free way to use Microsoft Soundscape app for people who are blind or have low-vision

Microsoft Soundscape is a research project and mobile application that explores the use of innovative audio-based technology to enable people – particularly those who are blind or have low vision – to build a richer awareness of their surroundings, thus becoming more confident and empowered to get around.

Today we are delighted to announce that Microsoft Soundscape now supports Bose Frames, an audio wearable that combines the protection of sunglasses with the functionality and performance of wireless headphones.

Frames have a proprietary open-ear design that doesn’t block the wearer’s ears, allowing them to hear ambient environmental sounds – such as traffic and other people –while still hearing directions, music and other content streaming from a mobile device. Frames use a 9-axis head-motion sensor and the device’s GPS to provide audio information based on location and the direction the wearer is facing. Coupled with Microsoft Soundscape’s audio feedback and descriptions of one’s surroundings, Bose Frames offer the wearer an immersive and hands-free way to navigate the world around them.

Our ears are naturally very well attuned to three-dimensional (3D) sound. For example, when we hear a dog bark across the yard, we know exactly in which direction to look. In other words, when we listen, we instinctively make subtle head movements to locate the origin of the sound. The sensors embedded in Bose Frames allow Soundscape to sense those subtle head movements and help the wearer pinpoint the location of the ‘landmark’ using 3D audio cues generated by Soundscape, offering improved awareness of one’s environment and enhanced navigational support. Early testers of this experience have shared that this combination feels incredibly natural and makes them feel significantly more aware of their surroundings.

Our close collaboration with Bose is a key milestone for Soundscape’s journey to enhance one’s sense of independence when out and about by enhancing their perception of the environment around them with spatial 3D audio.

We look forward to what the future will bring with this new frontier of Audio AR experiences as Soundscape continues to push boundaries to empower people to do more.

As always, we can’t wait to hear what you make of this new experience so we encourage users to share their thoughts and questions directly with soundscapefeed@microsoft.com.

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Microsoft update on Q3 FY20 guidance

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 26, 2020 — As Microsoft closely monitors the impact of the COVID-19 health emergency, our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees, customers, partners, and communities. Our global health response team is acting to help protect our employees in accordance with global health authorities’ guidance. Worldwide, Microsoft employees are working to support organizations addressing the challenges on the ground. Microsoft also continues to make donations to relief and containment efforts, including directly providing technology to help hospitals and medical workers.

On Jan. 29, as part of our second quarter of fiscal year 2020 earnings call, we issued quarterly revenue guidance for our More Personal Computing segment between $10.75 and $11.15 billion, which included a wider than usual range to reflect uncertainty related to the public health situation in China. Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated at the time of our Q2 earnings call. As a result, for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, we do not expect to meet our More Personal Computing segment guidance as Windows OEM and Surface are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated. All other components of our Q3 guidance remain unchanged.

As the conditions evolve, Microsoft will act to ensure the health and safety of our employees, customers, and partners during this difficult period. We will also continue to partner with local and global health authorities to provide additional assistance. We deeply appreciate the commitment of the people and organizations that have united to address this health emergency; our thoughts are with all those affected across the world.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release are “forward-looking statements” based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors described above as well as:

  • intense competition in all of our markets that may lead to lower revenue or operating margins;
  • increasing focus on cloud-based services presenting execution and competitive risks;
  • significant investments in products and services that may not achieve expected returns;
  • acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances that may have an adverse effect on our business;
  • impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing a significant charge to earnings;
  • cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities that could lead to reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to our reputation or competitive position;
  • disclosure and misuse of personal data that could cause liability and harm to our reputation;
  • the possibility that we may not be able to protect information stored in our products and services from use by others;
  • abuse of our advertising or social platforms that may harm our reputation or user engagement;
  • the development of the internet of things presenting security, privacy, and execution risks;
  • issues about the use of AI in our offerings that may result in competitive harm, legal liability, or reputational harm;
  • excessive outages, data losses, and disruptions of our online services if we fail to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;
  • quality or supply problems;
  • the possibility that we may fail to protect our source code;
  • legal changes, our evolving business model, piracy, and other factors may decrease the value of our intellectual property;
  • claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights of others;
  • claims against us that may result in adverse outcomes in legal disputes;
  • government litigation and regulatory activity relating to competition rules that may limit how we design and market our products;
  • potential liability under trade protection, anti-corruption, and other laws resulting from our global operations;
  • laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data that may impede the adoption of our services or result in increased costs, legal claims, fines, or reputational damage;
  • additional tax liabilities;
  • damage to our reputation or our brands that may harm our business and operating results;
  • exposure to increased economic and operational uncertainties from operating a global business, including the effects of foreign currency exchange;
  • uncertainties relating to our business with government customers;
  • adverse economic or market conditions that may harm our business;
  • catastrophic events or geopolitical conditions that may disrupt our business; and
  • the dependence of our business on our ability to attract and retain talented employees.

For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft’s business, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of Microsoft’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft’s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft’s Investor Relations website at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.

All information in this release is as of Feb. 26, 2020. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

For more information, financial analysts and investors only:

Michael Spencer, General Manager, Investor Relations, (425) 706-4400

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news.

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Microsoft scholarship program fosters collaboration with academia

Cecily Morrison wants to build technology that enables people to live their lives the way they want and accomplish things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

The Principal Researcher landed on the personal mission years before joining Microsoft Research. Experiences first teaching children robotics and then working with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service applying existing technology to healthcare scenarios ignited the desire. Since then, she’s helped develop a system for monitoring the progression of multiple sclerosis in patients and a physical programming language for children who are blind or have low vision. She’s currently working on visual agent technology, including a new project in which she’ll explore computer vision and spatialized audio to help children born blind develop social and learning skills that children with sight cultivate through visual cues.

Principal Researcher Cecily Morrison

“I am passionate about demonstrating in the real how AI can fundamentally change people’s lives,” says Morrison, who is collaborating on the work with Oussama Metatla of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

Advancing research like Morrison’s through collaboration and strong relationships between Microsoft Research Cambridge researchers and academia is at the core of the Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship Programme in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). Morrison and Metatla’s “Using AI to Develop Joint Attention in Blind Children” is one of 15 projects that have been selected this year to receive the scholarship, which provides financial support for up to three years. Their work joins the more than 400 projects since the program’s inception in 2004 that have helped drive innovation in the lab’s key research areas: All Data AI, Cloud Infrastructure, Confidential Computing, Future of Work, Game Intelligence, Healthcare Intelligence, and Biological Computation. This year’s other projects include conversational user interfaces for mental health status reporting, failure detection in machine learning models, and learning local forward models in complex 3D games.

kid at computer

Microsoft researchers are developing visual agent technology like the above system, which is designed to help people who are blind or have low vision find and identify people in their vicinity, as part of Project Tokyo. Principal Researcher Cecily Morrison will be collaborating with a PhD supervisor from the University of Bristol to build on that work through the Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship Programme in EMEA.

The value of collaboration

As part of the program selection process, Cambridge researchers invite a PhD supervisor at an EMEA institution to collaborate. Often, they have a preexisting relationship with the supervisor or an interest in working with them. Together, the pair writes and submits a proposal. Proposals are reviewed and selected by Microsoft researchers in a two-stage review process. The researchers and supervisors of the selected proposals then choose a PhD student to work on the project.

The collaborative nature of the program supports all parties involved in important ways. The program, for example, gives researchers a chance to conduct more exploratory research than they might normally be able to undertake in their day to day and to draw on the unique perspectives and knowledge of and students. PhD supervisors  and students—encouraged to attend meetings at Cambridge’s lab, where they get to experience firsthand the breadth and depth of research at Microsoft—are introduced to such professional opportunities as visiting researcher positions for faculty and internships for students.

The program also allows for resource sharing. PhD supervisors and students can benefit from Microsoft technology and computational power such as cloud services while academia offers facilities and equipment researchers don’t have access to.

“I see this as a way to do longer-term research than we can do in Microsoft Research, but that couldn’t be done in academia because they don’t have access to the technology,” says Morrison.

photo of woman

Principal Scientist Sara-Jane Dunn

For Microsoft Principal Scientist Sara-Jane Dunn of the Biological Computation Group, who was selected to the program this year with Graziano Martello of the University of Padua, Italy, working with PhD students is particularly valuable.

“Being able to co-supervise brilliant young researchers is rewarding in many ways: being able to foster new research, mentor talent, develop new ideas, and learn new techniques,” she says. “It’s invaluable as a seasoned scientist.”

Dunn and Martello’s project, “The Pluripotency Program in Human Embryonic Stem Cells,” builds on the pair’s work in stem cell research. They’ll focus on how personalized stem cells are generated, a greater understanding of which could help inform new medical diagnostics and treatments.

Over the next several months, selected researchers and PhD supervisors will be recruiting students for their projects. For more information or to apply, visit the program home page. Positions will be posted as they become available.

EMEA PhD Award

As a complement to the EMEA PhD Scholarship Programme, Microsoft Research is excited to announce the Microsoft Research EMEA PhD Award, a new research grant for PhD students in computing-related fields who are in their third year or beyond at universities in EMEA.

Award recipients will receive the following:

  • $15,000 to put toward their doctoral thesis work for the upcoming academic year
  • an invitation, including travel and accommodations, to attend the two-day Microsoft Research PhD Summit workshop in North America, where they will present their work and be mentored by Microsoft researchers
  • an offer to intern at the Cambridge lab

Applications are due by 11:59 UTC on April 1. To find out more, including how to apply, visit the EMEA PhD Award home page.

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Teaching 100 teachers: Teenager turns the tables with Minecraft

Namya Joshi, a 13-year-old, loves training teachers.

The seventh grade student has been helping teachers of her school convert their class lessons into interactive Minecraft sessions.

“Minecraft is a great platform. If a child does not like reading books, for example, you can make them in Minecraft and get the child interested,” the student from Sat Paul Mittal School in Ludhiana, says very matter-of-factly.

It all started two years ago when her mother, who is the IT Head at the school, signed up to become a global Minecraft mentor, as a part of Microsoft Innovative Educator program.

“I didn’t know much about Minecraft when I signed up. I had some exposure in our school during Microsoft’s Hour of Code but that was all I knew about it. I started researching about it and was initially shocked to see how a game could be integrated into the school’s curriculum. I wasn’t convinced,” says Monica Joshi, Namya’s mother.

A Microsoft Expert Educator herself, Joshi thought she’d learn how to use Minecraft on her own gradually, but all that changed when one day she found Namya playing with Minecraft: Education Edition, a special edition of the game customized for the classroom environment, on her laptop.

“I’d seen Minecraft installed on my mother’s Windows 10 laptop and started trying it on my own. After understanding the basics, I watched some tutorials and got myself familiar with it,” Namya says with pride.

Recovering from the initial shock, Joshi asked her daughter to create her upcoming lesson in the Minecraft world. It was a creative writing lesson and Namya had to write about her recent trip to the hills. The result convinced Joshi about using Minecraft in her school.

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Microsoft to open new datacenter region in Spain and expand strategic partnership with Telefónica to boost Spain’s competitiveness

  • Microsoft will open a datacenter region in Spain to help accelerate digital transformation of public and private entities of all sizes, helping them to innovate, scale and migrate their businesses to the cloud in a secure way.
  • Microsoft will leverage Telefónica infrastructure as part of their global strategic partnership.
  • Under their strategic partnership, the two companies will develop joint go-to-market plans in all countries where Telefónica operates.
  • Additionally, Telefónica will accelerate its use of Microsoft’s cloud internally as part of its own digital transformation journey.

REDMOND, Wash. and Madrid Feb. 25, 2020 Microsoft Corp. and Telefónica today announced plans to further expand their global strategic partnership to accelerate digital transformation for public and private entities of all sizes. Together, the two companies will help their mutual customers leverage the cloud to more quickly, securely and easily innovate and scale their operations to create new business opportunities and improve competitiveness.

Microsoft will deliver intelligent Microsoft cloud services – including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform – from new datacenter regions in Spain. Additionally, Telefónica will accelerate its own internal digital transformation by choosing Microsoft as its strategic cloud partner.

“Telefonica and Microsoft share a commitment to helping Spanish organizations of all sizes, in every industry, thrive in a world of rapid technologic change,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Together, we will deliver comprehensive, intelligent, secure and trusted cloud services – spanning Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 – from datacenters in Spain, helping our customers accelerate their digital transformations.”

“The opening of a Microsoft datacenter region in Spain is a game changer, a key milestone in our strategic partnership that will boost Spain’s industrial fabric and digital economy”, said José María Álvarez-Pallete, chairman and CEO of Telefónica. “Cloud is one of the key priorities in Telefónica, as we announced in November, with the launch of Telefónica Tech, the new unit to boost the solid growth of digital services. This global strategic partnership with Microsoft will certainly help to achieve that objective.”

Microsoft and Telefónica Partnership Momentum

Today’s announcement builds on the partnership between both companies with new initiatives and joint plans across three key areas:

  • With the expanded relationship, the two companies have identified the opportunity to collaborate to better serve the needs of organizations of all sizes, in critical sectors such as government, health, education, travel, manufacturing, retail, finance, insurance and more, all with significant social and economic impact. Joint capabilities, delivered from a Microsoft Azure datacenter region in Spain and leveraging Telefónica’s infrastructure, will also allow Telefónica and Microsoft’s joint customers to deliver new services that require low latency, security and assured bandwidth, opening up new scenarios around 5G, edge computing and Industry 4.0.
  • A new strategic collaboration framework between Telefónica and Microsoft will also provide joint go-to-market plans in Telefónica’s footprint.
  • As part of Telefónica’s digital transformation, the company will use the Microsoft cloud for its own internal operations, pursuing efficiency, flexibility and scalability improvements, optimization of operations and cost reductions. Telefónica has also deployed Microsoft 365 to its global employee base to enable more seamless communication and collaboration across the 14 countries in which it operates. As a strategic partner for its multi-cloud strategy, Microsoft will train hundreds of Telefónica employees on Microsoft Cloud services.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world by market capitalization and number of customers with a comprehensive offering and quality of connectivity that is delivered over world class fixed, mobile and broadband networks. As a growing company it prides itself on providing a differential experience based both on its corporate values and a public position that defends customer interests.

The company has a significant presence in 14 countries in Europe and Latin America and over 344 million accesses.

Telefónica is a 100% listed company and its shares are traded on the Spanish Stock Market and on those in New York and Lima.

For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, +1 (425) 638-7777,
rrt@we-worldwide.com

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Microsoft Intelligent Security Association doubles in size (again), adds more products

Another RSA Conference (RSAC) and another big year for the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). MISA was launched at RSAC 2018 with 26 members and a year later we had doubled in size to 53 members. Today, I am excited to share that the association has again doubled in size to 102 members.

New members expand the portfolio of MISA integrations

Our new members include a number of ecosystem partners, like RSA, ServiceNow, and Net Motion, which have developed critical integrations that benefit our shared customers and we look forward to deepening our relationship through MISA engagement.

New MISA member RSA is now using Azure Active Directory’s risky user data and other Microsoft security signals to enrich their risk score engine. Additionally, RSA also leverages the Graph Security API to feed their SIEM solution, RSA NetWitness with alerts from the entire suite of Microsoft Security solutions.

 “RSA is excited to showcase the RSA SecurID and RSA NetWitness integrations with Microsoft Security products. Our integrations with Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Graph Security API, Azure AD, and Microsoft Azure Sentinel, help us to better secure access to our mutual customer’s applications, and detect threats and attacks. We’re excited to formalize the long-standing relationship through RSA Ready and MISA to better defend our customers against a world of increasing threats.”
—Anna Sarnek, Head of Strategic Business Development, Cloud and Identity for RSA

The ServiceNow Security Operations integration with Microsoft Graph Security API enables shared customers to automate incident management and response, leveraging the capabilities of the Now Platform’s single data model to dramatically improve their ability to prioritize and respond to threats generated by all Microsoft Security Solutions and custom alerts from Azure Sentinel.

“ServiceNow is pleased to join the Microsoft Intelligent Security Alliance to accelerate security incident response for our shared customers. The ServiceNow Security Operations integration with Azure Sentinel, via the graph security API, enables shared customers to automate incident management and response, leveraging the capabilities of the Now Platform’s single data model to dramatically improve their ability to prioritize and respond to threats.”
—Lou Fiorello, Head of Security Products for ServiceNow

Microsoft is pleased to welcome NetMotion, a connectivity and security solutions company for the world’s growing mobile workforce, into the security partner program. Using NetMotion’s class-leading VPN, customers not only gain uncompromised connectivity and feature parity, they benefit from a VPN that is compatible with Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS devices. For IT teams, NetMotion delivers visibility and control over the entire connection from endpoint to endpoint, over any network, through integration with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Microsoft Intune).

“NetMotion is designed from the ground up to protect and enhance the user experience of any mobile device. By delivering plug-and-play integration with Microsoft Endpoint Manager, the mobile workforce can maximize productivity and impact without any disruption to their workflow from day one. For organizations already using or considering Microsoft, the addition of NetMotion’s VPN is an absolute no-brainer.”
—Christopher Kenessey, CEO of NetMotion Software

Expanded partner strategy for Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

The Microsoft Defender ATP team worked with our ecosystem partners to take their rich and complete set of APIs a step further to extend the power of our combined platforms. This helps customers strengthen their network and endpoint security posture, add continuous security validation and attack simulation testing, orchestrate and automate incident correlation and remediation, and add threat intelligence and web content filtering capabilities. Read Extending Microsoft Defender ATP network of partners to learn more about their partner strategy expansion and their open framework philosophy.

New product teams join the association

In addition to growing our membership, MISA expanded to cover 12 of Microsoft’s security solutions, including our latest additions: Azure Security Center for IoT Security and Azure DDoS.

Azure Security Center for IoT Security announces five flagship integration partners

The simple onboarding flow for Azure Security Center for IoT enables you to protect your managed and unmanaged IoT devices, view all security alerts, reduce your attack surface with security posture recommendations, and run unified reports in a single pane of glass.

Through partnering with members like Attivo Networks, CyberMDX, CyberX, Firedome, and SecuriThings, Microsoft is able to leverage their vast knowledge pool to help customers defend against a world of increasing IoT threats in enterprise. These solutions protect managed and unmanaged IoT devices in manufacturing, energy, building management systems, healthcare, transportation, smart cities, smart homes, and more. Read more about IoT security and how these five integration partners are changing IoT security in this blog.

Azure DDoS Protection available to partners to combat DDoS attacks

The first DDoS attack occurred way back on July 22, 1999, when a network of 114 computers infected with a malicious script called Trin00 attacked a computer at the University of Minnesota, according to MIT Technology Review. Even after 20 years DDoS continues to be an ever-growing problem, with the number of DDoS attacks doubling in the last year alone and the types of attacks getting increasingly sophisticated with the explosion of IoT devices.

Azure DDoS Protection provides countermeasures against the most sophisticated DDoS threats. The service provides enhanced DDoS mitigation capabilities for your application and resources deployed in your virtual networks. Technology partners can now protect their customers’ resources natively with Azure DDoS Protection Standard to address the availability and reliability concerns due to DDoS attacks.

“Extending Azure DDoS Protection capabilities to Microsoft Intelligent Security Association will help our shared customers to succeed by leveraging the global scale of Azure Networking to protect their workloads against DDoS attacks”
—Anupam Vij, Principal Product Manager, Azure Networking

Learn more

To see MISA members in action, visit the Microsoft booth at RSA where we have a number of our security partners presenting and demoing throughout the week. To learn more about the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, visit our webpage or the video playlist of member integrations. For more information on Microsoft security solutions, visit our website.

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Gamers: Ori and the Will of the Wisps is coming soon; enter the sweepstakes now for tickets to the launch event in LA

With the global launch of Ori and the Will of the Wisps just around the corner on March 11, Moon Studios and Xbox are excited to invite you to a special launch event in Los Angeles on March 5 that brings Ori’s world to life! In celebration of Ori’s latest adventure, we are giving away 40 pairs of tickets to the event and offering you and a guest the opportunity to be invited.

On
March 5, you and your guest will be transported to an exotic world through a
fully immersive digital art and music experience that brings the magic of Ori
and the Will of the Wisps
into reality in Los Angeles. You will be able to walk
into a digital representation of Ori’s world, accompanied by the original game
soundtrack played by a live pianist. Attendees will also have an opportunity to
meet Moon Studios co-founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol and other Moon
Studios developers, as well as get hands on with the game.

How
To Enter

To
enter the sweepstakes, visit our contest page here and
fill out the online entry form. Entries must be submitted between February 25,
2020 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) and February 28, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.
Pacific Time (PT). You must complete all required information to be eligible to
win one pair of tickets to the event. We will randomly select the winners and
contact them via e-mail.

Winners
will need to make their own travel arrangements to the venue in Los Angeles, so
please have that in mind before entering the sweepstakes.

Rules

The sweepstakes
is only open to participants over the age of 21. You may only enter once. Please
read our full sweepstakes terms and conditions on the contest page before
entering.

To our Ori community, we’re just a few short days away until the launch of Ori and the Will of the Wisps on March 11, 2020! You can still pre-order Ori and the Will of the Wisps today ahead of the game’s worldwide release on Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam, and with Xbox Game Pass.

Stay tuned for the latest game news and updates at orithegame.com.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Xbox Game Studios

Xbox One X Enhanced
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass

Pre-Order now and get ready to embark on an all-new adventure to unravel Ori’s true destiny. Play with Xbox Game Pass on March 11, 2020. From the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest – the acclaimed adventure game with more than 50 awards and nominations – comes the highly-anticipated sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Embark on an all-new adventure in a vast and exotic world where you’ll encounter towering enemies and challenging puzzles on your quest to unravel Ori’s true destiny.

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Head of Xbox Phil Spencer: What you can expect from the next generation of gaming

The future of gaming has never been more inspiring. Creativity in games is flourishing. New services empower you to discover more games—and bring you closer to the games and creators and streamers you love. The cloud creates a massive opportunity to stream console-quality games and play with the people you want, wherever you want. And for many of us, nothing is more inspiring than the dawn of a new console generation.

We know you
expect the next generation of consoles to set new standards in graphical power
and processing speed, converging together in games that look incredible and feel
alive. This will be defined by worlds that are visually astounding and
immediately immersive, with innovative leaps in CPU, GPU and storage technology
to give you frictionless access to new stories and new creators constantly.

We’ve
been using Xbox Series X in our internal Takehome program and are energized by
the feedback we’ve been receiving. At Xbox we value being open and transparent
with you, and I’m proud to be able to share details about some of the technologies
we are enabling for the next generation, and look forward to boldly sharing more
as we head towards E3.   

Xbox Series X

A
superior balance of power and speed

Compared
to the previous generation, Xbox Series X represents a superior balance of
power and speed in console design, advancing on all technological fronts to delivering
amazing, dynamic, living worlds and minimize any aspects that can take you out
of the experience. Our job at Team Xbox is to give teams the tools they need to
achieve their ambitions and tap into the console’s power with efficiency, a few
of which we’re detailing today. Raw power is just part of the story:

  • Next Generation Custom Processor: Xbox Series X is our most powerful console ever powered by our custom designed processor leveraging AMD’s latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. Delivering four times the processing power of an Xbox One and enabling developers to leverage 12 TFLOPS of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) performance – twice that of an Xbox One X and more than eight times the original Xbox One. Xbox Series X delivers a true generational leap in processing and graphics power with cutting edge techniques resulting in higher framerates, larger, more sophisticated game worlds, and an immersive experience unlike anything seen in console gaming.
  • Variable Rate Shading (VRS): Our patented form of VRS empowers developers to more efficiently utilize the full power of the Xbox Series X. Rather than spending GPU cycles uniformly to every single pixel on the screen, they can prioritize individual effects on specific game characters or important environmental objects. This technique results in more stable frame rates and higher resolution, with no impact on the final image quality.
  • Hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing: You can expect more dynamic and realistic environments powered by hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing – a first for console gaming. This means true-to-life lighting, accurate reflections and realistic acoustics in real time as you explore the game world.

Immersion
in an instant

The next
console generation will be defined by more playing and less waiting. And when
play begins, we know many gamers demand ultra-low latency to be as immersed and
precise as possible. To this end, the team analyzed every step between player and
game, from controller to console to display, and asked how we could make it faster.
 

  • SSD Storage: With our next-generation SSD, nearly every aspect of playing games is improved. Game worlds are larger, more dynamic and load in a flash and fast travel is just that – fast.
  • Quick Resume: The new Quick Resume feature lets you continue multiple games from a suspended state almost instantly, returning you to where you were and what you were doing, without waiting through long loading screens.
  • Dynamic Latency Input (DLI): We’re optimizing latency in the player-to-console pipeline starting with our Xbox Wireless Controller, which leverages our high bandwidth, proprietary wireless communication protocol when connected to the console. With Dynamic Latency Input (DLI), a new feature which synchronizes input immediately with what is displayed, controls are even more precise and responsive.
  • HDMI 2.1 Innovation: We’ve partnered with the HDMI forum and TV manufacturers to enable the best gaming experience through features such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). ALLM allows Xbox One and Xbox Series X to automatically set the connected display to its lowest latency mode. VRR synchronizes the display’s refresh rate to the game’s frame rate, maintaining smooth visuals without tearing. Ensuring minimal lag and the most responsive gaming experience.
  • 120 fps Support: With support for up to 120 fps, Xbox Series X allows developers to exceed standard 60 fps output in favor of heightened realism or fast-paced action.

The next
generation of game compatibility

The
benefits of the next console generation extend in every direction, bringing
greater visual fidelity and improved loading speeds to your existing gaming
legacy, in addition to new games. We’re continuing our commitment to compatibility
with Xbox Series X and investing in technology that makes game ownership easier
across generations.

  • Four
    generations of gaming
    :
    Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including
    backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than
    ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit
    from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual
    fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming
    accessories also come forward with you.
  • Smart Delivery: This
    technology empowers you to buy a game once and know that – whether you are
    playing it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X – you are getting the right version of
    that game on whatever Xbox you’re  playing
    on. We’re making the commitment to use Smart Delivery on all our exclusive Xbox
    Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, ensuring you only have to
    purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever
    Xbox console they choose to play on. This technology is available for all
    developers and publishers, and they can choose to use it for titles that will be
    release on Xbox One first and come to the Xbox Series X later.
  • Xbox
    Game Pass:
    In
    addition to games from across four generations of consoles, our leading game
    subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, will continue to have our first party
    games, like Halo Infinite, included at their launch.  We look forward to millions of you experiencing
    the Xbox Game Pass portfolio and immersing yourselves in a deep library of
    high-quality games, playing those you love now and also discovering your next
    great adventure.

A
generation with players at the center

Xbox
Series X is our fastest, most powerful console ever, designed for a console
generation that has you at its center. This means a high-fidelity gaming
experience enclosed in a quiet and bold design, with the ability to discover
thousands of games across four generations, all with more playing and less
waiting. 

Whether
it’s empowering amazing creators at our 15 Xbox Game Studios, fueling game
discovery with Xbox Game Pass, or expanding what and where you can play with
Project xCloud, Team Xbox stands for frictionless pathways between players and
the best experiences our remarkable art form has to offer. Xbox Series X
represents that same commitment for players who want immediate immersion in
games that also look and feel better than ever.

We can’t
wait to share more details about the new Xbox with you in the coming months.

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Teachers: Take your students to space March 2 with astronaut Jessica Meir aboard the International Space Station

The countdown is on! Now we just need your STEM-loving students to join in on March 2 at 9:55am PST. That’s when Astronaut Jessica Meir will speak with students around the world in a broadcast from the International Space Station.

Bring this special 20-minute conversation to your classroom from here.

Astronaut and marine biologist, Dr. Jessica Meir made history last year when she partnered with Astronaut and physicist Christina Koch to complete the first, all-female spacewalk. Give your students a chance to hear directly from Jessica about that historic milestone and a host of other inspiring experiences.

Today’s astronauts have diverse backgrounds in STEM fields, including engineering, medicine, geology and a lot more. By engaging with role models like Jessica, students have the opportunity to see how STEM education can lead to future technical jobs.

2020 is a critical milestone for STEM, space travel, and inclusion. It marks 20 years of humans living and working continuously aboard the International Space Station. Your students are the first to grow up during  a time in which humans are living both on Earth and in space. As STEM jobs grow to over 9 million by 2022, it is also a critical time to encourage young people to explore exciting and empowering STEM career paths.

Microsoft Education has partnered with NASA’s STEM on Station team to develop a hands-on STEM curriculum for middle and high school students based on real-life scenarios in space.  The collection celebrates the considerations that astronauts need to think about when living and working in space. It includes the Astro Socks Design Challenge that has students take on the roles of biomechanical engineers and product designers to solve the foot pain astronauts experience in microgravity. The standards-aligned lesson plan incorporates design thinking with an introduction to working with sensors and live data in Excel. It has been designed for the classroom and ready for you to try it out with your students!

Don’t miss out on what’s certain to be an incredible conversation and a milestone moment in the education of your students

Learn more by visiting the Microsoft Education Downlink event page. 

As always, share your feedback with us on Twitter by tagging @MicrosoftEDU!