Language is the most intuitive way for us to express how we feel and what we want. However, despite recent advancements in artificial intelligence, it is still very hard to control a robot using natural language instructions. Free-form commands such as “Robot, please go a little slower when you pass close to my TV” or “Stay far away from the swimming pool!” are hard to parse into actionable robot behaviors, and most human-robot interfaces today still rely on complex strategies such directly programming cost functions which define the desired behavior.
With our latest work, we attempt to change this reality through the introduction of “LaTTe: Language Trajectory Transformer”. LaTTe is a deep machine learning model that lets us send language commands to robots in an intuitive way with ease. When given an input sentence by the user, the model fuses it with camera images of objects that the robot observes in its surroundings, and outputs the desired robot behavior.
As an example, think of a user trying to control a robot barista that’s moving a wine bottle. Our method allows a non-technical user to control the robot’s behavior only using words, in a natural and simple interface. We will explain how we can achieve this in detail through this post.
Continue reading to learn more about this technology, or check out these additional resources:
We also invite the reader to watch the videos describing the papers:
Unlocking the potential of language for robotics
The field of robotics traditionally uses task-specific programming modules, which need to be re-designed by an expert even if there are minor changes in robot hardware, environment, or operational objectives. This inflexible approach is ripe for innovation with the latest advances in machine learning, which emphasizes reusable modules that generalize well over large domains.
Given the intuitive and effective nature of language for general communication, it would be simpler if one could just tell the robot how they want it to behave as opposed to having to reprogram the entire stack every time a change is needed. While large language models such as BERT, GPT-3 and Megatron-Turing have radically improved the quality of machine-generated text and our ability to solve to natural language processing tasks, and models like CLIP extend our reach capabilities towards multi-modal domains with vision and language, we still see few examples of language being applied in robotics.
The goal of our work is to leverage information contained in existing vision-language pre-trained models to fill the gap in existing tools for human-robot interaction. Even though natural language is the richest form of communication between humans, modeling human-robot interactions using language is challenging because we often require vast amounts of data to train models, or classically, force the user to operate within a rigid set of instructions. To tackle these challenges, our framework makes use of two key ideas: first, we employ large pre-trained language models to provide rich user intent representations, and second, we align geometrical trajectory data with natural language jointly with the use of a multi-modal attention mechanism.
We test our model on multiple robotic platforms, from manipulators to drones, and show that its functionality is agnostic of the robot form factor, dynamics, and motion controller. Our goal is to enable a factory worker to quickly reconfigure a robot arm trajectory further away from fragile objects; or allow a drone pilot to command the drone to slow down when close to buildings – all without requiring immense technical expertise.
Combining language and geometry into a single robotics model
Our overall goal is to provide a flexible interface for human-robot interaction within the context of trajectory reshaping that is agnostic to robotic platforms. We assume that the robot’s behavior is expressed through a 3D trajectory over time, and that the user provides a natural language command to reshape its behavior which relates to particular things in the scene, such as the objects in the robot workspace. Our trajectory generation system outputs a sequence of waypoints in XYZ and velocities, which are calculated fusing scene geometry, scene images, and the user’s language input. The diagram below shows an overview of the system:
LaTTe is composed of several building blocks, which can be categorized into the feature extractors, geometric encoder, and a final trajectory decoder. We use a pre-trained language model encoder, BERT, to produce semantic features from the user’s input. The use of a large language model creates more flexibility in the natural language input, allowing the use of synonyms and less training data, given that the encoder has already been trained with a massive text corpus. In addition, we use the pre-trained text encoder from the vision-language model CLIP to extract latent embeddings from both the user’s text and the pictures of each object in the scene. We then compute a similarity vector between the embeddings, and use this information to identify target objects the user is referring to through their language command.
As for the geometric information, we employ a Transformer encoder network to extract features related to the original robot’s trajectory as well as the 3D position of each one of the objects in the scene. In a practical scenario we can use off-the-shelf object detectors to obtain the position and pictures of each significant object.
Finally, all the geometrical, language and visual information is fused together into a Transformer decoder block. Similarly to what happens in a machine translation problem (for example, translating a sentence from English to German), the information from the transformer encoder network is used by the transformer decoder to generate one waypoint of the output trajectory at a time in a loop. The training process uses a range of procedurally generated synthetic data with multiple trajectory shapes and random object categories. We use multiple images for each object, which we obtain by web crawling through Bing Images.
What can we do with this model?
We conducted several experiments in simulated and real-life environments to test the effectiveness of LaTTe. We also tested different form factors (manipulators, drones, and a hexapod robot) in a multitude of scenarios to show the capability of LaTTe to adapt to various robot platforms.
Examples with manipulators:
Examples with aerial vehicles:
Examples with a hexapod robot:
Bringing robotics to a wider audience
We are excited to release these technologies with the aim of bringing robotics to the reach of a wider audience. Given the burgeoning applications of robots in several domains, it is imperative to design human-robot interfaces that are intuitive and easy to use. Our goal when designing such interfaces is to afford flexibility and precision of action, while ensuring that little to no technical training is required for novel users. Our Language Trajectory Transformer (LaTTe) framework takes a big step forward towards this direction.
If you want to gain an edge in today’s dynamic manufacturing world, your organization must be agile, resilient, and sustainable. In this shifting landscape, many manufacturers are investing in innovative solutions to make their products and operations smarter by tapping into advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and digital twins for manufacturing.
Against this backdrop, Microsoft decided to spotlight the manufacturing industry for our August 2022 IoT Signals report. IoT Signals is a series of impactful thought leadership content curated by Microsoft to inform the community about the latest developments and technology trends in the IoT industry. The first report, published in 2019, provided a broad view of IoT across a variety of industries—from manufacturing and energy to healthcare and retail—based on comprehensive, survey-based research.
For this edition of the report IoT Signals: Manufacturing Spotlight Microsoft, Intel, and IoT Analytics surveyed 500 decision makers working on digital transformation initiatives in discrete, hybrid, or process manufacturing across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. We conducted more in-depth interviews with some participants to gain a deeper understanding of their transformation strategies, execution plans, and challenges.
Six key findings about digital transformation and IoT in manufacturing
This new IoT manufacturing report reveals insights from real-world manufacturers that have started their digital transformation journey. It also uncovers fresh learnings about the state of industrial IoT devices and technology in manufacturing, specifically in the areas of manufacturing operations and smart products.
During our research, we discovered six key digital transformation and IoT manufacturing trends:
Most manufacturers are advancing their efforts to build smart factories. Three out of four survey respondents (72 percent) said they’re implementing their smart factory strategy.
Operational improvement is still a top goal for manufacturers. Four out of five survey respondents said they consider overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to be the most important key performance indicator to measure the success of their smart factory strategy.
Organizations are shifting investments to industrial automation-based process control. To date, most manufacturers have focused on quality control and condition-based maintenance for smart factory projects. However, the need for greater agility is leading these organizations to shift their investments over the next three years to industrial automation-based process control—the use of automated control systems, such as IoT and AI, to automate manufacturing processes.
Manufacturers face new challenges with scaling smart factory initiatives. Half of the respondents said they face challenges in developing new software applications, and the majority (eight out of 10) said they’re dealing with skills gaps, particularly in data science, AI, and cybersecurity.
IT-OT convergence is happening in the manufacturing industry. With 76 percent of manufacturing assets now connected, many manufacturers are moving workloads and applications from on-premises infrastructure to public and private cloud platforms.
Manufacturers plan to increase investments in smart connected IoT products. Manufacturing organizations are not only optimizing their own operations with smart connected IoT products—they’re also creating new revenue streams by selling these products to customers. Manufacturers that already sell connected IoT products expect to increase investments from 33 percent today to 47 percent by 2025, with a strong focus on value-added services, such as predictive maintenance and remote support.
Read the IoT Signals: Manufacturing Spotlight to learn more about what’s driving these six key trends and holistic understanding of six key components of digital transformation in manufacturing.
Accelerating digital transformation and embracing IoT with Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing
All six of the key findings from this manufacturing IoT report share a common theme: Manufacturers across the globe are advancing their digital transformation efforts. These organizations are tapping into innovative solutions to reimagine manufacturing and build a more resilient and sustainable future.
By adopting transformative technologies like IoT industrial devices, AI, and digital twins, your manufacturing organization can:
Transform your workforce. Eight out of 10 manufacturers report having at least one important skill gap, particularly when it comes to advanced data analysis and IT cybersecurity. In this environment, manufacturers are looking for tools that will help them close the gap and boost employee productivity. Today’s manufacturers can transform their workforce by empowering their frontline workers with digital tools and modern devices that enable real-time collaboration, enhance training, and improve worker health and safety.
Build more agile factories. The ability to adapt quickly to rapid change is a defining factor between manufacturers that simply survive and those that thrive. That’s why manufacturers across the globe are tapping into advanced technologies to build more agile, smarter factories.
Create more resilient supply chains. According to the report, 74 percent of manufacturers ranked supply chain resilience as a top priority. This is no surprise considering that, now more than ever, manufacturers are under pressure to prevent and minimize supply chain disruptions. Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing is already helping manufacturers improve end-to-end supply chain visibility and boost supply chain resilience.
Engage customers in new ways. If you want to gain an edge in the manufacturing industry, customer engagement is critical. As manufacturers search for innovative ways to engage customers, many are selling smart connected IoT products. Our research shows that 33 percent of manufacturers’ product revenue comes from smart products today.
Drive innovation and deliver new services. Manufacturers are investing in advanced technologies to create a more resilient future. According to our research, 28 percent of manufacturers have rolled out digital twins, and four percent of them have fully deployed them in their factories. Another 45 percent of manufacturers are in development and proof of concept (POC) stage for digital twins, and 39 percent are in the same stage for augmented reality (AR).
Decrease your environmental impact. Most manufacturing board members (59 percent) believe that decreasing their carbon footprint is an important area of focus. Manufacturers are uniquely positioned to drive sustainability while saving costs and improving safety using cloud-based automation, machine learning, and AI.
Improve security. Security is a top priority for manufacturing organizations, and 62 percent of manufacturers have strict data privacy policies. Over the next three years, manufacturers plan to decrease the mean time to detect cybersecurity incidents by 30 percent.
Build a resilient future with IoT manufacturing
Manufacturing organizations are drawing from the lessons learned during COVID-19 to develop resilience and build a better future. Digital transformation continues to be top of mind for these manufacturers as they work to increase agility, improve customer engagement, and drive growth. To gain insights from the digital transformation journeys of real-world manufacturers, read the IoT Signals: Manufacturing Spotlight report.
The Microsoft Bing team is excited to announce the addition of time- and money-saving annotations to shopping search results. Ever wondered if you were overlooking coupons or special promotions when you shop online? Or perhaps you didn’t even consider that a discount might be available, and you missed out! Bing now provides you with this information within shopping searches – annotations neatly nested within your search results, without the need to install a browser extension or plugin (third-party cookies must be enabled.)
Let’s say you are shopping for a new outfit for a girls’ night on the town. Or maybe you are just window shopping for some back-to-the-office fashions. A search for the Eileen Fisher website on Bing reveals that some coupons are available, even before you click to enter the site. No need to do a separate search for a code. And if you decide to click in and do some shopping, the coupon will be automatically copied and applied to your purchase. All of this is made possible by quick and easy annotation links found within your search results. This feature is now available across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, and France.
Annotations also make it easy to do good while you save money. If you are looking for eco-friendly, upcycled, or fair-trade fashion, Bing helps identify those opportunities via our Ethical choice annotation, which has recently expanded to more regions around the world. Powered by the ethical fashion app Good On You®, the Ethical choice ratings are based on a brand’s impact on three areas: people, planet, and animals. For more information click on any Ethical choice annotation found within your search results, such as in the example below. For information on how this score is created, please visit: Good On You ratings explained.
Ethical shoppers buy from brands that align with their personal values. Bing makes it easy to be a part of a growing ethical shopping movement with a huge potential impact.
Another annotation recently made available is price history. To help you decide when to make a purchase, Bing is adding an annotation that reveals an item’s pricing over time; this handy graph helps determine if it’s the right time to buy. You can feel better about your purchase knowing that the price has recently gone down or may decide to hold off if it was significantly cheaper in the past. This feature is available across US, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Australia, and India.
Previously captured search results which may contain expired pricing and promotional offers.
We’re excited to return to gamescom in Cologne, Germany this August and hang out in person with the community for the first time since 2019!
We’re really looking forward to being back on the show floor, bringing our passionate fans together again in person to celebrate what’s ahead at Xbox. At gamescom 2022, whether attending the show or watching the Xbox Booth @ gamescom Live Stream from home, fans in Europe and around the world can expect a little more insight into some of our previously announced games coming to Xbox in the next 12 months.
We’re also very pleased to announce the return of Xbox FanFest to the show floor. More details on this and everything else we’re up to at gamescom 2022, can be found below. Here’s what to expect.
Xbox Booth
This year the Xbox booth will be back in Hall 8 and will feature 36 stations with a fantastic line-up of content coming to Xbox in the next 12 months, many of which will arrive on Game Pass on day one.
For those attending in person, you will be able to go hands-on with some of the latest games and updates from Xbox Game Studios, including:
Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios)
Age of Empires IV (Relic Entertainment & World’s Edge / Xbox Game Studios)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios Publishing)
Sea of Thieves (Rare Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Grounded(Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios)
We will be celebrating some of our third-party partners too, with playable titles on the booth including:
APlague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio / Focus Entertainment)
Disney Dreamlight Valley (Gameloft)
Gunfire Reborn (Duoyi Games / 505 Games)
Inkulinati (Yaza Games / Daedalic Entertainment)
Last Case of Benedict Fox (Plot Twist Games / Rogue Games)
Lies of P (Neowiz)
Lightyear Frontier (Frame Break)
Planet of Lana (Wishfully / Thunderful)
You Suck at Parking (Happy Volcano)
Visitors to the booth will also be able to get hands-on with the new Xbox App on the latest 2022 Samsung Smart TV, part of our mission to empower everyone to play the games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want.
In addition to getting hands-on with the latest games, attendees will have the chance to become a video game hero with some amazing photo opportunities. You’ll be able to…
Come face-to-face with the first boss from Grounded, the Broodmother, a larger-than-life spider 5 meters (17 feet) wide who is looking forward to getting a selfie with you
Walk the plank with Sea of Thieves
Fight the Piglins with Minecraft Legends
Storm the battlefield with Age of Empires IV
Take a selfie with Starfield’s robot companion, VASCO
We can’t wait to see what you get up to.
Xbox remains committed to the belief that gaming should be safe, inclusive, and accessible for all. That’s why we’re ensuring that Xbox Adaptive Controllers will be available on request and all areas of the booth will be wheelchair accessible. Additionally, easily identifiable American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), and German Sign Language (DGS) interpreters, as well as “Here to Help” staff, will be available to assist players of all abilities.
We are also pleased to announce that Xbox is an official partner of “gamescom goes green” and we have made a voluntary climate contribution to ClimatePartner to offset the CO2 consumption of our show floor presence. We are also committed to the prevention of waste in the design, presence and breakdown of the Xbox booth itself. All of this forms part of Xbox’s commitment to our players and the industry to work tirelessly to reduce our environmental impact in a responsible way.
You will be able to find us at Hall 8 of the Koelnmesse, North entrance. Come hang out with Team Xbox!
See below for the consumer show opening times:
Thursday, August 25 – 10:00am – 8:00pm CEST
Friday, August 26 – 10:00am – 8:00pm CEST
Saturday, August 27 – 9:00am – 8:00 pm CEST
Sunday, August 28 – 9:00am – 8:00pm CEST
Xbox Booth @ gamescom Live Stream
Live from the Xbox Booth at gamescom, on Thursday, August 25 from 2:00pm CEST – 8:00pm CEST / 5:00am PT – 11:00am PT / 8:00am ET – 2:00pm ET we’ll also host a special day of live-streamed conversations. Expect developer interviews and gameplay from various Xbox Game Studios including Mojang Studios, Obsidian Entertainment, and World’s Edge plus Xbox Game Studios Publishing and their partners at Asobo Studio, in addition to some of our highly anticipated games from our third-party partners. Join us for the whole stream or tune in for the latest on your most anticipated titles. Keep an eye on Xbox Social channels for the full content schedule in the days leading up to gamescom.
Here’s a taste of what to expect:
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios Publishing)
Gunfire Reborn (Duoyi Games / 505 Games)
Sea of Thieves (Rare Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Lies of P (Neowiz)
High On Life (Squanch Games)
Grounded (Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios)
Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios)
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio / Focus Entertainment)
Minecraft Legends (Mojang Studios & Blackbird Interactive / Xbox Game Studios)
Planet of Lana (Wishfully / Thunderful)
Age of Empires IV (Relic Entertainment & World’s Edge / Xbox Game Studios)
The live English-language broadcast from Xbox’s gamescom booth will be available in German, French, Polish, Italian, Spanish (Latin American & Castilian), Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified), along with ASL, BSL and DGS interpretation, and English Audio Descriptions. You can catch all the Xbox Booth @gamescom Live Stream on regional Xbox channels on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and elsewhere.
Xbox FanFest @ gamescom
After Hours Booth Access Event.
Xbox FanFest will host a special event after hours in the Xbox Booth. This event will take place on Wednesday, August 24from 8:00pm – 11:00pm CEST and gives select fans a chance to beat the crowds and get access to the booth before the show opens to public ticket holders. There’s no better way to connect with others in the Xbox community than being together in-person. Together, fans can enjoy fun booth activities, including meet and greets with game creators. To enter for a chance to win a ticket to the After Hours Booth Access Event for you and a friend, register as an Xbox FanFest fan at xbox.com/fanfest and opt-in on the exclusives page. Entry period ends August 15 at 11:59pm PT.
Virtual Meet & Greets with Sea of Thieves and Park Beyond.
Can’t make it to gamescom in person this year? No problem. Xbox FanFest will host Meet & Greets with Sea of Thieves and Park Beyond on Friday, August 26. Fans can participate no matter where they may be by joining a Microsoft Teams call. These virtual experiences are a unique opportunity to chat directly with game creators about their games and their experience in the industry. To enter for a chance to win, register as an Xbox FanFest fan at xbox.com/fanfest and opt-in for the meet and greet of your choice. Entry period ends August 15 at 11:59pm PT. See Official Rules for full details.
Gartner has recognized Microsoft as a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud AI Developer Services, with Microsoft placed furthest in “Completeness of Vision”.
Gartner defines the market as “cloud-hosted or containerized services that enable development teams and business users who are not data science experts to use AI models via APIs, software development kits (SDKs), or applications.”
We are proud to be recognized for our Azure AI Platform. In this post, we’ll dig into the Gartner evaluation, what it means for developers, and provide access to the full reprint of the Gartner Magic Quadrant to learn more.
Scale intelligent apps with production-ready AI
“Although ModelOps practices are maturing, most software engineering teams still need AI capabilities that do not demand advanced machine learning skills. For this reason, cloud AI developer services (CAIDS) are essential tools for software engineering teams.”—Gartner
A staggering 87 percent of AI projects never make it into production.¹ Beyond the complexity of data preprocessing and building AI models, organizations wrestle with scalability, security, governance, and more to make their model’s production ready. That’s why over 85 percent of Fortune 100 companies use Azure AI today, spanning industries and use cases.
More and more, we see developers accelerate time to value by using pre-built and customizable AI models as building blocks for intelligent solutions. Microsoft Research has made significant breakthroughs in AI over the years, being the first to achieve human parity across speech, vision, and language capabilities. Today, we’re pushing the boundaries of language model capabilities with large models like Turing, GPT-3, and Codex (the model powering GitHub Copilot) to help developers be more productive. Azure AI packages these innovations into production-ready general models known as Azure Cognitive Services and use case-specific models, Azure Applied AI Services for developers to integrate via API or an SDK, then continue to fine tune for greater accuracy.
For developers and data scientists looking to build production-ready machine learning models at scale, we support automated machine learning also known as autoML. AutoML in Azure Machine Learning is based on breakthrough Microsoft research focused on automating the time-consuming, iterative tasks of machine learning model development. This frees up data scientists, analysts, and developers to focus on value-add tasks outside operations and accelerate their time to production.
Enable productivity for AI teams across the organization
“As more developers use CAIDS to build machine learning models, the collaboration between developers and data scientists will become increasingly important.”—Gartner
As AI becomes more mainstream across organizations, it’s essential that employees have the tools they need to collaborate, build, manage, and deploy AI solutions effectively and responsibly. As Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella shared at Microsoft Build, Microsoft is “building models as platforms in Azure” so that developers with different skills can take advantage of breakthrough AI research and embed them into their own applications. This ranges from professional developers building intelligent apps with APIs and SDKs to citizen developers using pre-built models via Microsoft Power Platform.
Azure AI empowers developers to build apps in their preferred language and deploy in the cloud, on-premises, or at the edge using containers. Recently we also announced the capability to use any Kubernetes cluster and extend machine learning to run close to where your data lives. These resources can be run through a single pane with the management, consistency, and reliability provided by Azure Arc.
Operationalize Responsible AI practices
“Vendors and customers alike are seeking more than just performance and accuracy from machine learning model. When selecting AutoML services, they should prioritize vendors that excel at providing explainable, transparent models with built-in bias detection and compensatory mechanisms.”—Gartner
At Microsoft, we apply our Responsible AI Standard to our product strategy and development lifecycle, and we’ve made it a priority to help customers do the same. We also provide tools and resources to help customers understand, protect, and control their AI solutions, including a Responsible AI Dashboard, bot development guidelines, and built-in tools to help them explain model behavior, test for fairness, and more. Providing a consistent toolset to your data science team not only supports responsible AI implementation but also helps provide greater transparency and enables more consistent, efficient model deployments.
Microsoft is proud to be recognized as a Leader in Cloud AI Developer Services, and we are excited by innovations happening at Microsoft and across the industry that empower developers to tackle real-world challenges with AI. You can read and learn from the complete Gartner Magic Quadrant now.
Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
For much of my life, I attempted to cover my Karuk heritage. I would hear a hurtful stereotype but not have the courage to speak up because previous instances were met with, “but you’re white,” as if my Indigenous heritage should be splayed along my skin to count. Fast forward to the summer of 2019 when I took the opportunity to celebrate my birthday with my tribe at our annual reunion on the Klamath River. I had conversations with members of my tribe who expressed that they could not imagine themselves working in the tech industry or that tech industry had a place for them. As a person with Indigenous heritage and a leader in the gaming industry, those conversations sparked a passion to overtly represent Indigenous people through my work. Today, as Xbox celebrates International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I am writing from the ancestral homeland of the Congaree and the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East) Peoples and I commit to telling the importance of representation of Indigenous Peoples in their honor.
My tribe, the Karuk, are the “Upriver People.” We have been the stewards of our Northern California territories since time immemorial. To this day, our Department of Natural Resources practices Indigenous land management and cultural burning where permitted while advocating for our lands. In my home office, I display a traditional dentalium shell necklace being worn by Sheepsquatch on my bookcase. I also have on my office bookshelf a copy of “Fire Race: A Karuk Coyote Tale of How Fire Came to the People” by Johnathan London. These links to my heritage are proudly on display during every conversation I have at Xbox and have led to great conversations about Indigenous representation with colleagues. I also serve as the co-lead for our Indigenous employee community group at Xbox.
For those who don’t work in the tech industry, there is often a misconception that you have to know how to code to get into gaming. But games are about so much more than just code; video games are an artistic medium told through visual art, music, and narrative storytelling. Indigenous peoples have traditionally ingrained wisdom and knowledge through oral narrative, through passing stories and songs down from one generation to the next. Now, these stories can continue to be memorialized through video games by those of us who work in the industry or those who will tell our stories.
I distinctly remember playing Never Alone, which is a puzzle platformer developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat Alaskan Native people. The rich narrative tells the story of a young Iñupiat girl and an arctic fox who are surviving the Arctic tundra, which has been ravaged by an everlasting blizzard. As I progressed through the story, I was able to unlock fascinating cultural highlights which are actual interviews from Iñupiat members who share about their beliefs and culture. I soaked in the stories about how the northern lights came to be or the importance of caribou leather insulating from the cold. I finished the game on a Wednesday and found myself on a flight to Alaska on Saturday morning. I admired an elderly woman and her daughter, who was wearing traditional clothing, her fur lined hood on a royal blue parka, boarding the plane from Anchorage to Fairbanks. To my excitement, their seats were next to mine on the plane. She asked why I was visiting Alaska. With a kind smile, she nodded and listened as I rambled excitedly about this video game, this Indigenous artistic masterpiece, and that I was coming to Alaska to visit in real life what I had experienced through the game. When I’d finished, the elderly woman revealed that she was an Iñupiat elder and one of the tribal members who contributed to the game’s creation. In that moment I truly felt not alone – seen, understood by, and connected for just a moment with another Indigenous person thousands of miles from my own home.
I know what it’s like to feel alone. So many Indigenous people cover who they are for fear of being misunderstood or made fun of. I can’t tell you how many people have asked me why I don’t wear a feather headdress, or worse, how many people are surprised to learn that Indigenous peoples are alive and well, not just a relic from history. Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in every area of life. Through video games, we at Xbox have the incredible opportunity to elevate and give voice to communities that have been systemically oppressed. All people deserve a place at the table. I love this industry and I love video games as an artistic, narrative medium.
Join Xbox as we celebrate the rich histories of Indigenous peoples all over the world for International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples as well as throughout the year:
Give
Gaming and Impact with Microsoft Rewards
Throughout the month of August, we’re adding organizations that support Indigenous communities to Microsoft Rewards on console. Microsoft Rewards members in the United States and the Canada can earn and donate points to organizations supporting gaming and disability communities with Xbox.
American Indian Science and Engineering Society: AISES is a national nonprofit organization focused on substantially increasing the representation of Indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies and careers.
FirstNations Development Institute: Our mission is to strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities. We invest in and create innovative institutions and models that strengthen asset control and support economic development for American Indian people and their communities.
Indspire: Indspire is an Indigenous national charity that invests in the education of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people for the long-term benefit of these individuals, their families and communities, and Canada. In partnership with Indigenous, private and public sector stakeholders, Indspire educates, connects and invests in Indigenous people so they will achieve their highest potential.
Xbox gamers can earn Microsoft Rewards points in various ways, such as playing or purchasing games after downloading the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox. Earn points and redeem them for real rewards. Join us today and donate through Xbox.
Discover
Visual Storytelling through Indigenous Artists and Xbox
Representation is important. We say this throughout the year for all underrepresented communities, but it’s particularly important for the Indigenous community. Each tribe has a unique style to their artwork as well as medium (e.g. basketry). We worked with Indigenous artists across the world to redesign the Xbox logo in a way that was authentic to them and their tribes. Xbox will be updating this page with more art throughout the month, so stay tuned! Each piece tells its own story, so read on to learn about these amazing artists and the stories they tell through art:
Artist: Chief Lady Bird
Chief Lady Bird: When approaching this logo, I was inspired by the connection between video games and Anishinaabe oral tradition, which is storytelling and the use of narrative to experience the world around us. In this drawing in particular, I was imagining a video game in woodland style, and was curious about which cultural icons or creatures would be cast as a “boss” in an RPG. I opted for a snake in this instance as opposed to one of our sacred spirits because it has been used as a symbol cross-culturally and across the globe in many different ways; I felt like it could be widely understood even when presented through an Anishinaabe lens. – Instagram: @chiefladybird
Artist: Carl Avery
Carl Avery: The Xbox logo I created is inspired by the traditional regalia worn during the Jump Dance of the Yurok people. This dance is meant to bring healing and positive energy to the earth as well as promote healthy crops, healthy rivers, and plentiful harvest. The headdress is made from woodpecker scalps, rabbit fur, and deer hide. This headdress is usually dressed up with some abalone and other shells as the Yurok Tribe lived along the Klamath River extending into the mouth of the river where it meets the Pacific Ocean. The headdress feather is that of the American Bald Eagle dressed with abalone using the Sturgeon Back design. The necklace is made from dentalium shells and is used traditionally for trade and currency. The basket is made from willow sticks, woven to hold medicine during the dance. The jump dance lasts ten days in total and is performed every two years by a chosen family, which is mostly determined based on the location of the dance site and a family’s land. In the background of this image is a basket also made from willow sticks, which can be found along the riverbanks. The designs are also all specific to the area. Starting in the middle is the Swallow Tail design, followed by the snake nose design, and finally the friendship design border. The different colors in the design were often dyed using roots, berries, and other natural dyes. Red, being the rarest, was highly sought after and was held for the tribes’ most important members. This artwork is loosely based on my family’s regalia in the dance grounds known as “Kawtep” in Johnsons, CA. – Website: Carl Avery Studios
Artist: Bethany Fackrell
Bethany Fackrell: In re-designing the Xbox logo, I am honored to represent my people, the Snoqualmie Tribe, while sharing what makes us culturally different in a contemporary and traditional art form. Using the traditional “make-ups” of a story board, I chose to tell the story of our peoples’ creation.
Story Boards are a traditional art style used by the Snoqualmie people, unlike the commonly known totem poles by many of Salish Tribes. Story Boards were used to tell important or spiritual stories by using symbolic references and purposeful representation in the maker’s story. Traditionally, this art is carved into cedar and is simplistic consisting of pigments of black, red, white, and sometimes yellow.
When Two sisters go digging for fern roots, they end up in Sky World and get married to stars. One of the sisters becomes pregnant. Then one day, the sisters go to dig fern roots in Sky World and dig deep enough to make a hole and see earth. The sisters decided to weave a cedar rope long enough to get back home with the child. When they arrived, they celebrated their return home, during which Dog Salmon stole the child away. Blue Jay, who found the child, (much older now) returned him home. Upon their return it was discovered he had powers and was too strong to stay on Earth. So, he returned to the Sky World and became the moon; also known as “Transformer” (creator).
At the top of the logo is the Sky World. There are also two large stars on the left and right of the logo by each sister, representing their marriage to the stars. The cedar rope represents how the sisters returned back to Earth. Throughout the logo you see (what I believe) represents the most important aspects of our creation story. I used crescent moons inside the pregnant sister and in Dog Salmon to represent the child’s journey in becoming the moon. On the bottom of the logo is a large red moon, being the final transition and form of the child/ young adult (as our creator). I included Dog Salmon and Blue Jay in this section, for their significance in the events of how the child becomes the moon, thus creating us. The waterfall and the five circles represent our tribe and the five clans.
Artist: Rubii Red
Rubii Red: The work is my interpretation of connection, community and journey. A lot of my work reflects those themes, because as a First Nations woman, they are important to me and have helped shape me into the person I am today. I’m on a journey, learning about who I am by connecting to the community and learning more about my culture from my Elders. – Website: Rubii Red Art
Artist: Haimona Maruera and Dillon King
Haimona Mauera (cultural advisor) and Dillon King: As a proud descendant of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, this design derives from the Māori atua (god) named Māui. Māui was the infamous atua known by several names such as Māui-Pōtiki (the last born), Māui-Tinihanga (the mischief), Māui-Tikitiki-a-Taranga (the topknot o Taranga), and Māui-te-whare-kino (the house of trouble). This infamous atua brought the inquisitive and the intellectual attributes to our world. This Xbox logo represents the key art functions of Te Ao Māori, which we practice as guardians of our culture and identity. The left section represents Raranga (weaving) which is used to make food baskets, cloaks, and bassinets. The bottom section represents Ko`whaiwhai (pattern) which is commonly seen in our wharenui (meeting houses) and represents the many generations of Māori. The right section represents Whakairo (traditional carving) which is used in our wharenui (meeting houses) and on weaponry. Finally, the top section represents Tā Moko (skin markings) which allows myself as an Indigenous Māori to display genealogy and history through the etching, piercing, and pigmenting of skin.
Bethesda Celebrates Sámi National Day Author: Anna Erlandsson, Community Manager at Bethesda Nordics
The Sámi people are one of the Nordics indigenous groups that lives in both Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Throughout the history, the Sámi people, as many Indigenous groups, have been subjects for discrimination and injustice. With that in mind and with the rich history and impact the Sámi people have on the Nordics, I feel that it is important to celebrate the Sámi National Day, just as we do with the other national days of the Nordics.
To better highlight the day, I decided to work with Swedish artist Petra Brandström to have her make an artwork that captured the proudness and freedom of the Sámi people combined with Bethesda elements.
“It was really fun to be able to do this. I love Skyrim, dragons, and the beautifullandscapes we have in the Nordics and I am very proud to have been part of highlighting the Sámi national holiday.”
In addition to this and to give Nordics with a Sámi heritage a voice and space on this special day, I worked with Norwegian and Sámi ESO streamer Vikingtrash who made a stream where she talked about the Sámi culture and played ESO.
“It felt so special and important to celebrate the day of all Sámi people, while also educating about the history and traditions we have. I, myself, have been trying to represent my Sámi heritage more and I’m so happy to share it with everyone. I think it’s great that we can have indigenous culture in the spotlight and show everyone the beautiful culture that the Sámi people have.”
For the Nordics and for our community, it is important to highlight the Sámi National Day since the Sámi people are part of the Nordic history, their heritage and culture have had a huge impact on the countries here and they are a living culture and part of the future here. It is something we must remember and keep alive.
Xbox Ambassadors Feature Stories about Indigenous Representation in Gaming
On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and the following days, we will be spotlighting stories about representation in gaming from Indigenous gamers in the Xbox Ambassadors community. Read their stories here.
Play
Explore Games Curated by Indigenous Communities at Microsoft
Last November, we partnered with Indigenous communities at Microsoft to highlight games, inspired by Indigenous creators, culture, and protagonists around the world on Xbox and Windows. This collection is available year-round as part of our ongoing work to create more inclusive gaming ecosystems and elevate content that resonates with communities while increasing awareness of their unique perspectives and artistry.
Tell Me Why (Available on Xbox Game Pass and Rated M) – Set in rural Alaska, this game features Indigenous characters. The development team worked closely with Huna Tlingit community leaders and the Huna Heritage Foundation to represent Tlingit culture. This game includes strong LGBTQIA+ themes and features, Michael, an Indigenous queer character.
Raji: An Ancient Epic – Play as Raji, a young girl in search of her brother, during a war between gods and demons. This unique action-adventure game set in ancient India is inspired by Hindu and Balinese mythology.
Never Alone – Alaska Native storytellers helped to develop this game around traditional Iñupiat lore. Never Alone features an Iñupiaq girl named Nuna and her Arctic fox companion. Players experience the narrative through a series of atmospheric puzzles, symbolizing the intergenerational transference of wisdom through collecting “cultural insights” across the harsh arctic environment. Learn more about the making of the game here.
Button City – This colorful narrative game was created by Shandiin Yazzie Woodward, an artist who identifies as Diné. Button City focuses on the true power of friendship and importance of community building. Subliminal Games is dedicated to lifting diverse and marginalized voices within games and is Indigenous owned.
View the collections on the Microsoft Store on Xbox and the Microsoft Store on Windows in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Visitors can find Indigenous community picks at any time by searching within the Stores for “Indigenous” and related terms. Content is subject to availability by country.
Tune In
Xbox Plays will Feature Indigenous Streamers
In celebration of International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, Xbox Plays will be spotlighting streamers and creators from the Indigenous community during the week of August 8th. Follow us on our Xbox Twitch Channel and don’t miss any of the action!
Tuesday, August 9 at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) – Chief Sweet
Wednesday, August 10 at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) – BloodieKnux
Thursday, August 11 at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) – Gunade
Thursday, August 11 at 3:30 p.m. (PDT) – Cuzb0T
Friday, August 12 at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) – Hiosik
Xbox Honors International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples with New Gamerpic, Profile Themes, and Avatar Items!
In partnership with the Indigenous artists we worked with to bring you custom Xbox spheres, we’re introducing new gamerpics, profile themes, and avatar items throughout the month of August! The gamerpic and profile theme will be available on console and the Xbox PC app. Get your avatar items here.
Learn more about all that Xbox is doing to engage our communities at the Xbox Community Hub.
Today, we’re celebrating the 15th anniversary of OneDrive. We’d like to take a moment to thank you for using OneDrive, whether you’re tackling a big project at work, planning a family reunion, backing up important content to your new device, or connecting with friends and loved ones through photos and videos.
OneDrive: A brief history
Figure 1. Evolution of OneDrive.
Our story started in August 2007 when Microsoft first launched its cloud storage system to enable people to share and synchronize their files in the cloud. A little more than a year later, we added the ability for people to store and access photos and videos as well. Our first five years were a time of keeping up with rapid growth, especially as businesses increasingly moved their productivity and collaboration solutions to the cloud with Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office 365) and people began relying more on their mobile devices for managing everything from their personal photos to their work email and files.
As the amount of content—both business and personal—stored online began to grow by leaps and bounds, we continued to work on ways to simplify how people manage their files and collaborate with others.
For life outside of the office, we introduced features that provide consumers with peace of mind. With features like camera roll backup and PC folder backup, you didn’t have to worry if your personal device is damaged or lost because your files are protected in the cloud. If you had a malicious attack or needed to recover accidentally deleted files, we had your back there too. We also realized that for the super important personal documents, you needed an extra layer of security and the ability to access them from anywhere, so in 2019 we launched Personal Vault.
Since 2016, Gartner® has recognized Microsoft as a Leader in the Content Services Platforms Magic Quadrant. The value OneDrive provides has evolved from “you can share a file” to “you can collaborate with internal team members and external colleagues reliably, seamlessly, and securely across all form factors—desktop, mobile, and web.” In the past five years, OneDrive has increased monthly active users by 240 percent. In addition, Microsoft customers like Expedia Group, Nestlé, GAP Inc., and Ecolab have come to rely on OneDrive to ensure secure collaboration and productivity for their employees in the new world of hybrid work.
Video description: Expedia Group improves their collaboration, productivity, and security with Microsoft OneDrive.
We are proud of how our offerings continue to evolve—OneDrive has evolved into the core system for powering all files experiences across Microsoft 365. We are grateful to you, our customers, for the ongoing feedback and support we receive to help us make sharing and collaborating in OneDrive the best possible experience.
We’re excited to share even more features to help you access everything you need, whether you’re working alone on a project, collaborating with your team, or sharing photos and videos with your family.
Introducing a new OneDrive Home experience
Video description: Introducing a new landing experience for OneDrive for web.
We’ve redesigned the OneDrive Home experience to help you easily resume your work and catch up on what you missed while you were away. Soon, OneDrive will surface your most relevant files and list your most recent files along with any activity updates, so you can see everything at a glance and quickly prioritize where to start working.
We have evolved the Recent view to OneDrive Home. This will ensure that in the morning—or whenever your workday begins—you can easily find the files you need to work on first. Do you have a product launch guide to wrap up or a customer roadmap you’ve submitted to your teammates for feedback? Now you can filter by file type (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx, and .pdf) using the buttons at the top of the Recent file list. Simply select the Word button to navigate to that launch guide and complete the finishing touches.
Video description: Filter your recent files by type. Stay up to date with the most recent activities on your files.
Through OneDrive, you can access all the collaboration tools that help you and your team deliver high-quality results like threaded comments, @mentions, real-time coauthoring, and highlighted changes. To ensure you are always up to date with these actions, we’re introducing an Activity column in OneDrive that surfaces the most recent, unseen edits, and comments on your shared documents.
The Activity column also appears in the My files view, showcasing all the shares, @mentions, comments, and assigned tasks from collaborators, so you can see which reviewers have provided remarks for you to address.
For example, if you’re working with your team on a white paper for a new product release, you can review the Activity column to see any edits or comments that require your attention or anyone you need to remind to address action items.
Finally, to easily find and access the places where you continually work, you can pin document libraries to the Quick access section in the left navigation of OneDrive Home.
OneDrive Home will be available in the coming months. This new landing experience on OneDrive for web will roll out to OneDrive for work and school users.
A familiar, consistent experience across all your files
We’re dedicated to providing a coherent collaborative files experience across Microsoft 365 with OneDrive. This is why we’ve been working on delivering a more intuitive sharing experience across Office apps, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams that provides you a quick, robust way to grant access to information, set granular sharing controls, see everyone you’ve shared files with and manage access settings across individuals and groups.
Figure 2. Coherent and intuitive sharing experience across Microsoft Teams.
We’ve also created a familiar files experience across OneDrive, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams, so you can quickly locate the files you work with on a regular basis to share them with colleagues. Whether you’re browsing, moving, or copying files in OneDrive or Microsoft Teams channel, adding shortcuts to your OneDrive from a document library in SharePoint site or Teams, or accessing your Teams standard and private channel files—your experience will be coherent and consistent.
Figure 3. Add shared folders to your OneDrive for easy access directly within Microsoft Teams.
A new way to share your memories
Since 2007, OneDrive has been committed to giving you peace of mind knowing your photos, videos, and files are protected in the cloud, and now we’ve extended that commitment to a refreshed photos sharing experience to relive a lifetime of memories.
Figure 4. Share and relive your beautiful moments with OneDrive photo story.
OneDrive photo story, recently made available in preview, brings all your memories into a private, invitation-only feed that you can share with family and friends. It supports comments, reactions, and notifications to spur authentic interactions through photos that people care about. The feature is available now in Australia on the OneDrive mobile app for Android and iOS, and from your favorite web browser. We plan to roll out the new feature in the United States and other regions later in 2022, as we continue to listen to your feedback and develop and improve feature capabilities
We are committed to bringing you features that protect your important files and memories, and securely connect you with those who matter most. This is possible because of your continued support and feedback!
Thank you for the last 15 and for so many more great years to come!
Want to learn more?
Listen to the latest episode on The Intrazone podcast, OneDrive turns 15! Go behind the scenes with the OneDrive team: Steven Bailey, Corporate Vice President for OneDrive and SharePoint engineering, and Arwa Tyebkhan, Principal Group Product Manager for OneDrive, celebrate OneDrive’s 15th lap around the sun and reminisce on the early days while sharing some exciting new announcements rolling out soon.
The first annual Power Platform Conference sponsored by Microsoft and Power Platform Conference is coming to Orlando for an amazing in-person event this September, with keynotes, sessions, breakouts and more—all dedicated to Microsoft Power Platform products: Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, Power Pages, and Power Virtual Agents.
Gain insights and understanding on the latest features and benefits of Power Platform from Microsoft’s senior thought leaders, software engineers, and community experts, all focused on uniting humanity and technology. Learn and connect with key innovators as they incorporate human-centered design and use discovery-based solutions to solve ever-changing business challenges. Kicking off on September 18 & 19 with pre-conference workshops, the event runs September 20-22, 2022.
In addition to featuring more than 100 speakers and more than 150 sessions, conference-goers will have the opportunity to connect—and reconnect—with users from around the world, building their personal and professional relationships, while gaining valuable insight into what’s new and next for Microsoft’s business applications.
Capping off the week is a conference-exclusive night at Universal Orlando, home to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter® and Islands of Adventure™!
Power BI experts from around the world will be hosting sessions on a variety of topics including 101s, product deep dives, and hands-on workshops to suit your learning needs.
Check out this one-pager and all the links below to learn more about Power BI’s sessions in the Power Platform Conference.
Power BI sessions include:
Hands-on Power BI workshops include:
Featured Power BI speakers include:
See you there!
Kelly Kaye Power BI Senior Community Program Manager
Achieving technological leaps forward requires more than scientific and engineering breakthroughs. A critical dependency is the cultivation of a skilled workforce that can unlock the potential of emerging technology. In the field of quantum computing, now is the perfect time for educators to get ahead of the curve and prepare their students to start their quantum journeys. Along with quantum technology being on a path to scale, platform and tool maturity and accessibility are converging to enable academic institutions to meet workforce demand.
Microsoft and Azure Quantum want to empower educators and students to do just this. In our efforts to innovate across every layer of the Azure Quantum stack, we are pleased to launch Azure Quantum for Educators: a one-stop resource for curriculum, samples, and tools to facilitate the skilling up of a quantum-ready workforce. It also includes case studies in using a practical, software-driven approach to teach quantum computing to undergraduate students and perspective on bringing hands-on use of quantum hardware to classrooms.
Azure Quantum for Educators features include:
Practical and programming-oriented quantum computing curriculum for educators: A free, classroom-tested and continuously improving curriculum appropriate for students with and without a physics background. Includes syllabus, lecture slides, programming assignments, an automatic homework grading tool, samples of final projects, and more.
Free access to hands-on quantum hardware: The Azure Quantum Credits Program provides free access for quantum hardware exploration supporting teaching, learning, and deploying quantum programs on a diverse set of quantum computers.
Python and Q# code samples: Run these samples against Azure Quantum’s diverse and growing hardware portfolio of trapped ion, superconducting, and neutral atom quantum processing units (QPUs), or against a variety of hardware simulators and resource estimators.
Case studies and white papers: Learn about ways to introduce quantum computing to a variety of academic levels and settings, including undergraduate students.
Azure Quantum office hours: We’re here to help! Drop in to request direct support for and provide input on quantum education initiatives.
Dr. Celia Merzbacher, Executive Director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C®) notes, “Initiatives like Azure Quantum for Educators help to build a robust talent pipeline of quantum-ready workers for the emerging quantum computing industry and the industries that will use the technology, from finance to pharma. Practical hands-on experience is highly sought-after by employers across the board.”
Join institutions, like the University of Washington, in leveraging Azure Quantum for Educators to enable new quantum computing capabilities in the classroom. Combining learning with doing in a recent course that included access to quantum hardware through Azure Quantum generated enthusiastic feedback from learners around:
Putting classroom concepts into immediate practice
“We quickly get to apply what we learned from the professors and guest lectures.”
“The Azure Quantum platform was useful and straightforward to use. Submitting jobs was also straightforward.”
Ease of use
“One of the best classes regarding quantum computing implementations.”
“We’ve enjoyed a wellspring of enthusiasm from teaching institutions globally about the Azure Quantum Educators resources,” says Kent Foster Microsoft University Relations Director. “Universities, colleges, business and vocational schools, and even high school educators are interested in integrating our materials and quantum computing hardware access into a broad range of classroom scenarios, ranging from for-credit classes and summer schools to multi-disciplinary student clubs and continuing education classes targeted at learners already in the workforce.”
Our commitment
With increasing government, private, and academic investment in quantum research, developing a skilled quantum workforce is critical to accelerating quantum computing breakthroughs in areas like chemistry, materials science, and finance. We are incredibly excited to partner with educators, learners, and researchers to close the talent gap and inspire the next generation of quantum enthusiasts with Azure Quantum for Educators resource and an invitation to join our Azure Quantum Network—a vibrant coalition working together to solve for a better future.
Unity selects Azure as its cloud partner; companies will work together to enable creators to reach their audiences on Xbox and PC
At Microsoft, we have a profound commitment to empowering creators. Throughout the history of Windows, we’ve nurtured developers and fostered their creative innovations. We do the same on our Xbox-branded platforms, supporting developers large and small in more than 90 countries around the world. And our Azure cloud assures developers that they can unleash their imaginations and trust that their work is secure and scalable. Our commitment to creators is something we share with our longtime partner, Unity, a global leader in real-time 3D technology. We’re also committed to expanding the creation and distribution of 3D content, to bringing relevant tools and technologies to a wider range of developers, and to making it easier than ever to bring games to players.
That is why today, Unity has selected Azure as its cloud partner for building and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) experiences from the Unity engine. In addition, we’re excited to work together to make it easier for game creators around the world to publish to Xbox consoles and PC so they can reach their communities.
The magic of 3D interactive experiences born in games is quickly moving to non-gaming worlds. Unity is building a platform-agnostic, cloud-native solution that meets the wide-ranging needs of all developers from enterprise through citizen creators. By giving creators easy access to RT3D simulation tools and the ability to create digital twins of real-world places and objects, Unity is offering creators an easy path to production of RT3D assets, whether for games or non-gaming worlds. To support this evolution, creators require a technical infrastructure that is as dynamic and innovative as they are. Azure is that solution. Built for security and global scalability, Azure already supports some of the world’s largest games and is bringing those battle-tested learnings to power RT3D experiences for all industries. As the need for real-time simulation becomes central to every industry ranging from e-commerce to energy, manufacturing to medical and more, Unity and Microsoft are building the creator cloud that empowers 3D artists to build and run those experiences on Azure.
Our ambition to democratize development of games and game-like experiences around the world and across industries depends on strong partnerships, particularly with game engines like Unity. The partnership between Microsoft and Unity will also enable Made with Unity game creators to more easily reach their players across Windows and Xbox devices and unlock new success opportunities. By engineering improved developer tools, leveraging the latest platform innovation from silicon to cloud, and simplifying the publishing experience, Unity creators will be able to realize their dreams by bringing their games to more gamers around the world.
As 3D interactive experiences continue to evolve in both the gaming and non-gaming worlds, Microsoft and Unity are empowering a wave of new creators to define the digital worlds of tomorrow. It is their talent, creativity and empathy that will not only transform the world but change it for the better.
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