{"id":110702,"date":"2020-03-24T13:25:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T13:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=436670"},"modified":"2020-03-24T13:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T13:25:57","slug":"xbox-chief-phil-spencers-message-to-the-gaming-community-on-what-were-doing-to-help-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/03\/24\/xbox-chief-phil-spencers-message-to-the-gaming-community-on-what-were-doing-to-help-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox chief Phil Spencer\u2019s message to the gaming community on what we\u2019re doing to help today"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

We are living in
\nunprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of people
\naround the world and changed the way we go about our daily lives. Here at
\nMicrosoft, we\u2019re constantly asking ourselves what we can do to support people
\nduring this challenging time. To me, the most important thing to remember is
\nthat we\u2019re all living and learning through this together.  <\/p>\n

I have previously stated that I believe gaming has a unique power to bring people together, to entertain, to inspire and connect us, and I believe that\u2019s even more true under these unique circumstances. Many are looking to gaming to remain connected with their friends while practicing social distancing, and we are seeing an unprecedented demand for gaming from our customers right now.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

With hundreds of millions of kids at home due to coronavirus-related school closures more kids are going online to spend time with their friends, explore online worlds and learn through play. Families are trying to navigate the need to help their children with distance learning and balance that with taking time to have fun.  That\u2019s why we announced today<\/strong><\/a> that we are adding a new Education category to the Minecraft Marketplace with free educational content players and parents can download. <\/p>\n

The educational content we\u2019ve curated lets players explore the
\nInternational Space Station though a partnership with NASA, learn
\nto code with a robot, visit famous Washington D.C. landmarks, find
\nand build 3D fractals, learn what it\u2019s like to be a marine biologist, and so
\nmuch more. This is launching for free
\ndownload today and will be available through June 30, 2020.<\/p>\n

With so many turning to gaming, helping everyone stay safer online is also a top priority for us. This is why we provide family settings<\/strong><\/a> that help parents choose the screen time limits, content filters, purchase limits, communication and sharing settings that are right for their families. While kids may be home from school, family settings can help balance gaming with offline schoolwork and other responsibilities. <\/p>\n

There are also some ways
\nthat we can bring brand-new players into the fold. For example, our Copilot
\nfeature can be especially helpful for children, new gamers or those who need
\nunique configurations to play, allowing two controllers to play as if they were
\none.<\/p>\n

We understand the important
\nrole gaming is playing right now to connect people and provide joy in these
\nisolating and stressful times, and our teams are working diligently to ensure
\nwe can be there for our players. To that end, we are actively monitoring
\nperformance and usage trends to ensure we\u2019re optimizing the service for our
\ncustomers worldwide and accommodating for new growth and demand.<\/p>\n

While these are unprecedented times we are living in, I
\nhave no doubt that we\u2019ll come through this experience stronger than ever. <\/p>\n

Stay safe and be good to one another.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are living in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of people around the world and changed the way we go about our daily lives. Here at Microsoft, we\u2019re constantly asking ourselves what we can do to support people during this challenging time. To me, the most important thing to remember is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[946,50],"class_list":["post-110702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-covid-19","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}