Sega has announced the release date for the next two games in its Sega Ages range.

Shinobi and Fantasy Zone are two arcade classics which earned legions of fans back in the day and established two classic franchises. Both will come with the usual slate of enhancements, such as online leaderboards, replays and save states, but they’ll also have features exclusive to each title.

In Shinobi, a melee button has been added so you can use Joe Musashi’s blade independently from his throwing stars. You can also play in a special “Ages” mode which puts Musashi in a white outfit (like the one seen in Revenge of Shinobi) and benefit from extra health and increased damage. There are also difficulty options, a stage select feature and a time rewind aid so you can quickly amend mistakes.

For Fantasy Zone, a “coin stock” feature makes things easier for novices, while the Time Attack mode is perfect for those seeking a challenge. You’ll also be facing off against extra bosses and there’s the option to play as Opa-Opa’s sibling, Upa-Upa.

Both games launch on January 23rd at $7.99 each. Will you be picking them up?

Step right up folks. pic.twitter.com/ImVTNMJiLk

— Better Call Saul (@BetterCallSaul) January 9, 2020

The last several years have brought massive change – and opportunity – for the retail industry. Gone are the days when retailers chose when, where and what to sell; now consumers are in the driver’s seat, and retailers are being challenged to figure how to best engage with them. Additionally, they’re juggling pressures driven by industry trends such as the drive for more sustainability in retail, the proliferation of data, increased energy around “anywhere commerce,” the need to better equip store associates with technology and much more. But change often accelerates innovation, and because of this I believe that there’s never been a more exciting time to be a retailer at the intersection of retail and technology.

Microsoft continues to innovate side by side with retailers to help them embrace their biggest opportunities and enable intelligent retail by empowering businesses to take control of their own digital evolution. Our solutions enable retailers to transform across all parts of their business – from how they better understand their customers and empower employees, to putting the right technology in place to deliver an intelligent supply chain and ultimately reimagine their businesses. In the last year and a half, we’ve established ourselves as a trusted partner to some of the world’s largest retailers such as Walmart, Kroger and Walgreens Boots Alliance, among others. And we’ve empowered their transformation by providing the platforms on which to build innovation for all parts of their businesses.

We’ve learned a lot along the way both through our retail customers as well as our own physical retail presence about how technology can help this industry both embrace its biggest opportunities as well as tackle its biggest challenges. And today we’re sharing how our first-party innovations are helping to drive the future of intelligent retail across all parts of a retailer’s business.

Gaining a better understanding of your customers

If customers are the heart of the retail industry, data is the oxygen. Data has the potential to profoundly impact every single aspect of retailers’ businesses, including – and perhaps most importantly – how they respond to customer demands with differentiated and unique experiences.

We’re helping retailers surface actionable customer insights with data solutions like Azure Synapse Analytics, which helps retailers not only analyze vast amounts of data, but also apply machine learning to quickly surface insights that can drive immediate impact for their businesses, and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, which helps maximize customer lifetime value by surfacing a 360-degree view of the customer to drive personalized engagements at scale. This means that even the most complex retailers, with thousands of suppliers in their end-to-end supply chain and millions of item-store combinations, can quickly make the decisions needed to not only run their businesses most efficiently but also delight customers in the process.

And with Dynamics 365 Connected Store, retailers like Marks & Spencer – which is piloting the solution in a store in London – can generate data within its physical stores that produces the same kind of actionable business insights as it gets from its digital storefronts. M&S is achieving this by analyzing data from smart devices such as video cameras and IoT sensors to provide real-time and predictive insights on everything from the current length of the checkout line to the traffic around endcap product displays to help associates make better decisions. We’re welcoming new retail customers into our Connected Store preview every day, so sign up here to request access.

One of the customer demands becoming more and more evident as retailers reason over their data is the desire for a seamless shopping experience regardless of where, when and how they choose to buy. We’ve invested in helping retailers bridge embrace this concept of commerce anywhere (aCommerce) with Dynamics 365 Commerce, the evolution of Dynamics 365 Retail and a true multi-channel solution that transforms the customer experience by unifying retailers’ back-office, in-store, call center and e-commerce experiences. One experience across all channels – that’s what customers are demanding today. The result? More personalized engagement with customers, employees who are better equipped to provide the best customer experience possible and deep insights to empower advanced decision making across every piece of a retailer’s business. I’m excited to announce that Dynamics 365 Commerce, currently in preview, with become generally available to our retail customers on Feb. 3.

 Empowering employees with the tools they need to better serve customers

Despite the rise of e-commerce over the past couple of decades, we know that most shopping – across generations even – still happens in person. Research from Forbes Insights shows us that 60 percent of consumers still prefer to shop in physical retail environments, and this number stays fairly consistent across generations. This means that first-line workers are still one of a retailer’s most valuable assets – many times, they are the first impression a shopper gets of your brand and they play a significant role in customer acquisition and retention.

Retail associates need modern tools and experiences in order to remain productive and deliver the best customer service possible while on the store floor. With Microsoft 365, the world’s productivity cloud, and new first-line capabilities coming to Microsoft Teams later this year, we are in a unique position to help this often-overlooked part of the workforce get their jobs done. Today I’m thrilled to announce that we’re adding even more productivity and collaboration value into Teams, including task targeting, publishing and reporting, new workforce management integrations to streamline shift management and a new Walkie Talkie feature. By building push-to-talk functionality into Teams, we’re helping our retail customers turn company-owned smartphones and tablets into a secure walkie talkie, extending the range of traditional walkie-talkie communication and streamlining licensing and provisioning for retailers’ IT staff.

Finally, as we extend modern tools and experiences across the first-line workforce, we know that we need to make it easy for IT to manage and help enable a secure and compliant experience for all employees. I’m excited to disclose enhanced identity and access management capabilities – such as shared device sign-out for Android and inbound provisioning from leading workforce management providers such as SAP SuccessFactors and Workday – that will make onboarding retail associates and operating shared devices more secure and scalable, something our retail customers have been asking us to add for some time now. And, later this quarter, retailers will be able to enable SMS sign-in to Microsoft 365 and custom applications for retail workers and empower their store managers with delegated user management capabilities, making it easier to reset passwords and manage workers’ identities without additional demand on IT staff.

Infusing more intelligence into the supply chain

A retailer’s supply chain can play a major role in customer satisfaction – outdated supply chain processes can mean delays, unfulfilled orders and more. By connecting devices and collecting data, retailers can analyze that information to create new insights and ultimately a truly intelligent supply chain that enables them to provide the best service possible to customers. This is the Internet of Things (IoT), and as IoT becomes more mainstream it continues to be a huge driver of data for retailers today. In fact, our IoT Signals for Retail study found that 92 percent of retailers have adopted IoT and are using it in various stages of trials and deployments, with the most common IoT scenarios being driving store analytics (57 percent), supply chain optimization (48 percent) and security and loss prevention (46 percent and 45 percent, respectively).

We’re making building and deploying IoT applications in retail environments easier than ever with new Azure IoT Central solution templates that help retailers simplify IoT deployments to start driving immediate impact. Today, the Azure IoT Central Micro Fulfilment Center template joins five existing retail-focused templates – including for scenarios across connected logistics, digital distribution centers, in-store analytics and smart inventory management – to help retailers more easily optimize their fulfilment processes through a managed service that includes everything a retailer needs to get started today.

Reimagining retail business models and customer experiences

The success of today’s retailers’ physical store environments rests on their ability to disrupt themselves and their own status quo by pushing into new business models and providing new experiences and formats that engage customers and keep them coming back for more.

We understand this better than most technology vendors, because we’re continuing to move through this same transformation journey with our own Microsoft retail stores. Over the past several years, we’ve digitally transformed and extended our physical retail store strategy from an exclusively consumer storefront to a commerce engine that connects with all customers – from commercial enterprises to small businesses and consumers. Partnering with enterprise sales, we’re offering new experiences in and through our stores targeted toward our enterprise customers such as J. Crew, Office Depot and Marks & Spencer. Our stores are also at the forefront of adopting new Microsoft technology across cloud, predictive analytics, machine learning, cognitive services and more to solve our most complex challenges – and we’re learning from those experiences to ultimately pass those lessons along to our customers. And of course, that’s a two-way street – we’re also learning from our retail customers to inform how we manage and operate our stores too, which is indicative of the true partnerships we strive to establish with every retailer we work with.

While reimagining retail can lead to the kind of business transformation we’ve seen in our own store, it can take different forms as well, such as how retailers are tapping into new revenue streams and digitizing their own physical stores to drive new customer and employee experiences.

Microsoft PromoteIQ is an end-to-end commerce marketing platform enabling retailers to create a new critical growth engine for their businesses through at-scale vendor marketing programs. With Microsoft PromoteIQ, retailers can empower their brand partners with powerful marketing technology to natively promote products to in-market shoppers, reaching them at the right time to increase digital sales – all supported by a deep analytics suite to deliver impactful audience insights. And now, thanks to the integration with Microsoft Advertising, we can offer our retailer partners a powerful new source of incremental demand for their programs. Take Home Depot, for example. While you may expect the world’s largest home improvement retailer to do most of its business in person, HomeDepot.com is the fifth largest e-commerce site in the U.S. Consequently, the company needed a solution to help it maximize the nearly 170 million visitors per month its site was seeing by integrating an end-to-end commerce marketing platform with capabilities to manage and scale its vendor-funded digital marketing. Since deploying PromoteIQ, Home Depot has seen very positive results, including double-digit sales growth for promoted products through this program.

Of course, reaching customers at the right time is only half the equation; a retailer must also be able to deliver on what that customer is looking for. In fact, 80 percent of shoppers will abandon a site that produces poor search results. And that’s why we’re investing in this critical piece of digital commerce – product search. Microsoft Bing for Commerce is an intelligent artificial intelligence-driven solution for product search, personalization and product recommendations that gives retailers the power to meet today’s shopper expectations and grow revenue through more relevant and customized results that drive conversion. We’re also enabling our retailers to meet customers where and how they want to shop through visual search innovation included in Bing for Commerce, to help capture sales from new, emerging shopping behaviors.

Connect with us at NRF

Microsoft will have a significant presence at NRF once again this year, headlined by our own CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote session to open the show. You won’t want to miss hearing his perspective on business and cultural transformation, and how our retail customers are putting our technology into action to reimagine their businesses. And if you’re attending the show, make sure you stop by our Microsoft booth (#4501) to see how we’re bringing intelligent retail to life across all parts of a retailer’s business and how you can achieve the same – we’re offering complimentary envisioning workshops, where retailers will have an opportunity to work directly with us to create a shared vision and digital road map to unlock a future of endless possibilities.

You’re also invited to attend one of our sessions on the show floor – I’m leading a Big Ideas session where I’ll share my thoughts on the increasing importance of sustainability to the industry and how technology can help accelerate retailers’ sustainability visions. In addition, my colleagues Alysa Taylor, corporate vice president for Microsoft Business Applications and Global Industry, and Emma Williams, corporate vice president of Microsoft Office Vertical Solutions, and I will participate in the FQ Lounge at NRF along with many other “women rocking retail” for panel discussions about diversity and inclusion in the retail industry (we’re proud to be a sponsor of this space as well). And of course, visit Microsoft’s NRF page to keep up to date on the latest developments.

Tags: NRF 2020, Retail

The critically acclaimed and much adored To The Moon is just a week away from launching on Nintendo Switch, and we’ve just been treated to a new trailer to celebrate.

If you’re unaware, To the Moon is an adventure game that was actually originally developed on RPG Maker. Thanks in part to its emotional storytelling and soundtrack, the game went on to be quite the success, and now it’s headed to Switch in a fully remastered form. You see, X.D. Network has been working with Unity to recreate the original game with a fresh lick of paint while hoping to keep its retro charm.

Here’s the official blurb:

Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts have peculiar jobs: They give people another chance to live, all the way from the very beginning… but only in their patients’ heads. Due to the severity of the operation, the new life becomes the last thing the patients remember before drawing their last breath. Thus, the operation is only done to people on their deathbeds, to fulfill what they wish they had done with their lives, but didn’t.

This particular story follows their attempt to fulfill the dream of an elderly man, Johnny. With each step back in time, a new fragment of Johnny’s past is revealed. As the two doctors piece together the puzzled events that spanned a life time, they seek to find out just why the frail old man chose his dying wish to be what it is. And Johnny’s last wish is, of course… to go to the moon.

It’ll launch on Switch on 16th January for $11.99 / €11.99 / £10.79, although a two-week 20% off sale will be taking place at launch to celebrate the game’s arrival on a new platform. We’re looking forward to seeing this one on Nintendo’s machine – so much so we included it in the video below.

Will you be checking this one out next week? Tell us below.

Following on from our reader-voted Top 50 Games of the Decade, Nintendo Life staff members will be picking their personal favourite Nintendo games between the years 2010-2019. Today, Darren looks back at the golden age of the Wii U era in 2014 and beyond…

Ah, the good old Wii U. While it was a bit of a commercial flop, the much misunderstood dinky console did sure have some amazing games during its brief lifetime. Of course, since the days of the Super NES no Nintendo console generation can pass without a Mario Kart game and Mario Kart 8 sure was a belter.

While it’s possibly not the most exciting choice for my Game of the Decade, it is probably the game which I’ve had the most fun with over the years (mostly with the kids!). Of course with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe coming so soon after the Nintendo Switch launch, this has ensured that we always have a convenient way to enjoy this gem, whether at home or on our travels.

Back in May 2014, I remember eagerly looking forward to playing what would be the first Mario Kart in glorious HD in the comfort of my home. I’d played a bit in advance sessions at Nintendo’s headquarters, which convinced me that this one was going to be the best entry ever, what with its fancy anti-gravity sections and smooth 60 FPS gameplay. Having young kids at the time, it was a game which we could enjoy together, too. Sometimes we’d race each other with me feigning a complete inability to beat them in VS mode, other times they’d cheer me on as I worked through the 150cc mode and tried to get all the gold trophies and 3 stars.

It’s impossible to overstate how delighted I was when the Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing DLC packs were announced for Mario Kart 8. The new courses were a welcome addition and being able to play as Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach and Link was a revelation. Of course, the jewel in the crown of these DLC packs was the F-Zero themed level which fit perfectly with the anti-gravity vibes. Such a nice surprise.

Something about the game made it feel more polished than ever. Perhaps it was the high-definition lick of paint it brought to the table, or the way it drew on the best elements from previous games and felt like a true culmination of series’ best bits. Maybe Luigi’s adorable death stare had something to do with it, but Mario Kart 8 had that special Nintendo sauce which kept me coming back time and again.

The Deluxe version on Switch bundled all that DLC goodness in and added a proper Battle Mode, the absence of which one of the only marks against the Wii U original. A dusting of the 200cc class, extra items and characters was the icing on an already delicious cake, with other additions like optional Smart Steering making the game even more accessible for novices than before.

With a whopping 19 million units of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold on the Switch, Nintendo’s kart racer has cemented itself as the most popular game on the Switch, way above even the excellent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild… that’s quite the achievement. Even in its original form, though, for me Mario Kart 8 was always ahead of the pack. Now while we wait for Mario Kart 9, let’s have some more lovely DLC please Nintendo!

Every month on the first Tuesday, Epic Games give away several items from the Unreal Engine marketplace and January 2020 is no exception.  This month there are 5 free for January items as well as 1 more free forever item.  So long as you “purchase” the item before the start of next month’s giveaway, it is yours forever.

This months free items are:

Permanently Free

Free For January

You can learn more about the Unreal Asset giveaway on the Unreal Engine blog, or by watching the video below.

GameDev News Unreal

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What looks like Mahjong, smells like Mahjong and plays like Mahjong but isn’t actually Mahjong? Dragon Castle, that’s what. If you watched someone playing, taking matching tiles with at least one free edge off a pile, it looks exactly like solitaire Mahjong. Even down to the oriental iconography. The designers admit that the Chinese classic inspired them. But when it gets down to the claws and scales, this is a very different dragon indeed.

Most of the time, players will do the solo Mahjong thing on their turn and pick up a pair of tiles from the stack. If you’re familiar with the genre, you’ll understand the same strategy concepts apply. You want to try and set up future moves to free tiles you want down the line. At the same time, though, because this is a competitive multiplayer game, you don’t want to free up easy pairs for your opponents to collect.

If there isn’t a pair then, obviously, the game doesn’t end. Instead, you can either take a victory point and toss the tile or take the single tile and a shrine. Shrines, and whatever tiles you’ve got, get used in the second and not at all Mahjong-like half of the game. This is all about arranging your tiles on a cramped play mat to score points.

Your aim is to try and create groups of tiles of the same colour. The bigger the group, the more points it will be worth. This creates an immediate dilemma: do you risk trying to build a single big group, or go for smaller, quicker scoring opportunities? The right answer depends on what tiles look to be available in the stack and what other players are collecting. It’s a tricky balancing act you’ll need to master for success.

It’s also only half of the high-wire wobbling you’ll want to consider. Once you’ve scored a group of tiles, they’re turned face down and you can place new tiles on top. You can also add one of those shrines that you take when you only pick up a single tile. Shrines score points depending on how many face-down tiles there are beneath them. So again, with an uncertain and player-driven game end, you’re balancing building high against wasting shrines.

Together, these factors interlock to create a fascinating, compelling and rather novel whole. There’s a lot to consider with each and every move. And while there’s no direct, in-your-face interaction, the game doesn’t feel dry. Strategy is very much dependent on watching what others are doing and reacting accordingly. There’s no sense of lacking interaction when the player before you snatches the last tile you needed for a high scoring set out of pure spite.

This mobile adaptation has most of the key elements in place, but it’s a little spoiled by some minor shortcomings. It looks good on screen and plays fast but on phone screens, you have to cycle between the main board and player mats. That’s a bit of a pain, but it’s essential to good play. Bigger-screen formats get to see the player mats in each corner, which is much better. There’s also, bafflingly, no undo option which can be a bit frustrating.

There are three levels of AI but even that hardest won’t stay challenging for long, and there’s no other single-player content. Thankfully, then, the online play is fine. It’s easy to set up and join games and the asynchronous experience is smooth. It’s only a shame there’s no option to let games run longer than seven days.

Once you’ve got to grips with the base game, Dragon Castle has a bunch of variants to keep you interested. You can build the stack of tiles in a variety of different shapes for one thing, some of which work better with particular player counts. If you’ve played the physical game, you’ll understand why having an app stack piles for you is a blessing.

There are also a slew of Dragons and Spirits you can add to the game. The latter award all players extra victory points for fulfilling certain conditions. The Dragon of Fortitude, for example, gives an extra point per shrine placed on the edge of your mat. Spirits, meanwhile, offer a special power players can pay for by discarding a tile or shrine. The tiger-like Spirit of Destruction lets you remove a tile from the main stack, denying it to your opponents.

All the Dragons and Spirits are well designed and change the strategies needed to win, often quite drastically. The Dragon of Tranquility offers everyone bonus points for building smaller, separate stacks of tiles. It then follows that it makes more sense to build higher and shrines becomes more useful. Each combination makes games feel fresh.

Dragon Castle is a great board game that deserves more time in the limelight. This app is a great way to check it out. Hopefully, the few small missing features in this adaptation won’t stop it winning a legion of new digital fans.

Intelligent Edge devices and solutions were on full display at the Microsoft CES 2020 Showcase this week. New PCs, connected storefront and IOT solutions demonstrated the power of Microsoft’s unique and growing relationship with its partners around the world.

Working with this vibrant partner ecosystem has long been a priority for Microsoft and it is a key differentiator that’s helped make Windows 10 and Azure successful. Taking a collective, collaborative approach enables the top minds in our industry to work together, accelerate innovation, and ensure we bring great devices and experiences to market for our customers. Together with our partners, we are driving technology forward.

During the first CES of a new decade, we’ve been doing our own 10-year challenge this week, looking back at where we were in 2010 in contrast with how dramatically things have changed since then. Every year along the way has brought exciting innovation across the intelligent edge and computing as a whole, and it’s at these milestones where we can see the dramatic shifts in the tech landscape.

As we close out another great year at CES, let’s look at where we’ve been, how far we’ve come and where we’re headed.

A decade of disruptive change

In 2010, Intel launched its Core i7 line — the first six core desktop CPU. Blackberry owned double the market share of the iPhone and triple that of smartphones running other operating systems. The iPad and Instagram launched. Office 2010 was introduced and surpassed Microsoft’s previous records for adoption, deployment and revenue.

Ten years later, we can see how some of those innovations moved entire markets. Some of them played their role then passed the baton to other creations. And new, disruptive technology trends have emerged, affecting the entire technology industry.

Today we are in an age of services, cloud computing, AI and machine learning. Next-generation Windows PCs and entirely new product categories are being built to incorporate cloud and AI services, support new experiences like virtual and augmented reality, and address our insatiable demand for new ways to work with data.

With these emerging technologies and trends, we are creating new possibilities for the modern PC that weren’t on the radar in 2010. Yet in today’s PCs we still see parallels with the innovation from a decade earlier—in 2020 as in 2010, the whole ecosystem remains focused on delivering new customer scenarios. And as we move into a more connected, intelligent era of computing, PCs today can do what PCs simply could not do a decade ago.

Partner innovations at CES

The impact of the past decade’s innovations is showing up in many ways across a spectrum of devices. Features like Windows Hello, Windows Ink and Cortana all require specific hardware to work well, and this week, our partners have demonstrated innovations that complement our software, like fingerprint readers on the power button and cameras with security features, among many other advancements large and small.

Along with the evolution of devices have come changes in the expectations of both consumers and commercial customers. People want attractive, high-quality devices with no tradeoffs between cost and quality. At CES this week, we’ve seen how our partners continue to offer attractive, no-compromise devices packed with premium features to customers at all price points.

The Windows ecosystem is growing every year, and CES 2020 showcased some of the most innovative devices we’ve seen—from incredibly thin and light laptops, convertibles and 2-in-1s, to powerful gaming rigs, always-connected devices and more. Some of the devices at the show included:

• The Acer Swift 3, which supports fast-charging, enabling up to four hours of use with a 30-minute charge.

• The ASUS ExpertBook B9, which offers a frameless four-sided NanoEdge display meaning the 14-inch panel fits into a standard 13-inch laptop chassis with a 94% screen-to-body ratio.

• The latest version of the popular XPS 13 from Dell, which has reduced its InfinityEdge borders and has a 6.8% larger 16:10 display that spans from all four edges and is 25% brighter than before.

• The HP Elite Dragonfly, the first world’s laptop with built-in Tile technology, which allows users to easily find a lost notebook, and is made with ocean bound plastic material with more than 82% of the mechanical parts made from recycled materials.

• The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 with the exclusive Lenovo Q-Control Intelligent Cooling feature that uses AI to optimize battery life by an average of up to 20%.

• The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex α, which offers a long-lasting battery, an immersive QLED display capable of producing over 1 billion colors and featuring an ultra-thin bezel, and up to 17.5-hours battery life.

The power of these products shows how Microsoft’s vibrant ecosystem continues to enable the top minds in our industry to work together, accelerate innovation and bring great experiences to market.

Looking ahead

In the next 10 years, we expect this pace of innovation will only accelerate. The 5G networks coming online will process extremely high volumes of data at much faster speeds, driving new streaming experiences and even more services across a range of devices. Graphics will get even better as HDR displays continue to improve and 8K becomes ubiquitous. New types of devices are sure to appear, with dual screen and foldable PCs already on the horizon for 2020.

Customer expectations and demand for the most modern devices will keep rising, and the ways we use PCs will keep evolving as we expand our cloud computing capabilities and our understanding of AI and machine learning.

As we work through this new decade, Microsoft will continue to innovate with our partners to meet these demands, so everyone can achieve more. From 5G to the power of the intelligent edge, I’m excited to see what our partners will bring to market in the new “roaring twenties.”

A new Exotic has also made its appearance, packing a little bit of Unstoppable heat, so to speak. Load up the Sundial and start your quest to acquire the Devil’s Ruin Exotic Sidearm.

We’re still warming up from our holiday hibernation, but we’re hitting the ground running! This week, we have an update from our Game Security team, an announcement for a fundraiser to help send aid to Australia, and news on a hotfix coming early next week. Let’s get to it.

Keep it Clean

Helping Australia: Star Light, Star Bright

In the last few weeks, you may have heard about the bush fires that are currently impacting Australia. With every Bungie Foundation effort, we are reminded of how much good can come from the gaming community. Sr. Foundation Manager Christine Edwards has details on our upcoming efforts to assist those in need, opening an avenue for Guardians around the world to lend a helping hand.

Christine: Over the past two decades, the Bungie community has been an amazing force for good in our world by raising millions of dollars to assist those in distress. In addition to supporting thousands of children through our iPads for Kids Program, you have helped victims of hurricanes Katrina and Harvey and have donated to those affected by earthquakes in Haiti, Japan, and Nepal. Time and time again, you have been Guardians to others in their greatest time of need.

The bush fires currently ravaging Australia have been devastating. Many people have lost their homes, firefighters are risking their lives daily, and an estimated hundreds of millions of wild animals have fallen victim to the fires.

We are developing a limited-edition T-shirt fundraising campaign to support both Australia’s firefighting efforts and the country’s animal rescue and conservation efforts. The T-shirt, which comes with an exclusive Destiny 2 “Star Light, Star Bright” emblem redemption code with purchase, will be available for pre-order on the Bungie Store and Bungie Store EU between Thursday, January 16 and Tuesday, February 18 at 9 a.m. Pacific, ending with the weekly reset and the end of Crimson Days. The team is currently hard at work on the T-shirt design and we’ll share a preview early next week.

The first half of all profits generated by these T-shirt sales will be donated to WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization. The other half will be donated to NSW Rural Fire Service, which services the state of New South Wales, where the fires have been especially devastating and are in dire need of containment.

Be sure to check out next week’s edition of This Week at Bungie for more details on how you can support Australia through this fundraiser. In the meantime, our hearts go out to all that are impacted and we are wishing for clearer skies ahead.

Hammer Down

So, let’s talk about Titans. You know, the ones that like to punch everything into oblivion. The class that sometimes throws their weapon aside in favor of a good ol’ headbutt. This week, Destiny Player Support has some vital information concerning a specific exotic that could amplify the damage of a throwing hammer to game-breaking values.

This is their report.

WORMGOD CARESS DISABLED

Earlier this week, we identified an issue with the Wormgod Caress Exotic Gauntlets where the “Burning Fists” perk could retain increased melee damage after its intended timer countdown, allowing players to easily defeat raid bosses.

The Armor 1.0 and 2.0 versions of these gauntlets have been disabled until a fix can be deployed at a later date.

DESTINY 2 HOTFIX 2.7.0.2

Next Tuesday, January 14, we will release Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.7.0.2. This hotfix will resolve a few known issues, including the EDZ Obelisk accessibility and Eververse waypoint notifications. Please see below for our rollout timeline.

• 8 AM PST (1600 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance will begin.
• 8:30 AM PST (1630 UTC): Players will be removed from all Destiny 2 activities and will be unable to log in until 9 AM PST.
• 9 AM PST (1700 UTC): Players will be able to log in again and Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.7.0.2 will begin rolling out to all platforms and regions.
• 12 PM PST (2000 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance is expected to conclude.

TRACKING KNOWN ISSUES

Over the past few weeks, a few more issues have surfaced that our Player Support team has been tracking. Below is a list of the latest known issues that were reported in our #Help Forum:

• The Leviathan’s Breath Exotic Bow currently cannot be acquired due to an issue with ‘The Arms Dealer’ strike where it can only be completed in Season 8.
• The Tower Obelisk can sometimes not be accessed. Players encountering this should return to orbit and launch back in to The Tower.
• The Giddy Laugh emote keeps loading in the Emote Collection and can’t be unequipped if slotted.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players should view our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

UNTIL NEXT DAWNING

As the holiday season comes to an end, so too does the Dawning. The Dawning ends this coming Tuesday, January 14, at the weekly reset. Players have until then to create their holiday gifts, upgrade their Dawning Sparrows, and earn double XP from Eva’s bounties.

That’s a lot of Crucible

This week’s winner features eight-minutes of pure Crucible carnage with a variety of weaponry, abilities, and straight up skill? Bows, throwing knives, Arc Beam, Hand Cannons, Sidearms… you name it. Legend of Acrius even snuck in for some love. Language warning for the final moments. Frostbolt, you’d better wash your mouth out with soap!

Movie of the Week: Mastery of Destiny

Honorable Mention: Solo Flawless Pit of Heresy using Two Sidearms and a Sword.

First TWAB of a new year. Prepare for things to ramp up here in the next few weeks. Season of Dawn still has more in store with an upcoming Exotic, Empyrean Foundation, Crimson Days and more.

Have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you again next Monday.

Cheers,

-Dmg04