Before we drop into a new year of Fortnite, there’s still plenty of holiday cheer spreading across the Island.
The fun begins with Winterfest. Between now and January 7, every time you fire up Fortnite on your Xbox One you’ll have a chance to unwrap free rewards in the Winterfest Lodge. In total you will be able to open 14 presents, including two outfits, two gliders, two pickaxes, two wraps, one emote, and more. The Lodge also features a special stocking where you’ll receive daily challenges that reward you with prizes and XP.
Outside of the Lodge,
you can showcase your holiday style with the upcoming chill new outfits with the
Polar Legends Pack available on December 23. The pack includes:
The end of the year also
marks the perfect time to celebrate all things Star Wars, including the release
of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Your favorite characters — including
both Kylo Ren and Zorii Bliss — are available in the Item Shop alongside Star
Wars-themed gliders, back blings, and emotes. Once in battle, be sure to grab a
blaster and your favorite legendary lightsabers made popular by Rey, Kylo Ren,
Luke Skywalker, and Mace Windu.
But there’s more! To
wrap-up the year, we’re also letting you jump in with some of the year’s most
popular LTM gameplay modes, including Zone Wars. You can also grab a friend and
be among the first to try our new split-screen mode in Duos and Squads.
Also, Save the World
Founder’s Packs are now 50% off until January 17. Save the World is a co-op,
looter-shooter, survival mode with hundreds of hours of content. Level-up your Commanders,
expand your collection of unique weapons, and build the perfect Hero loadout to
fight back the Husks!
From everyone at Epic
Games, we hope you have a wonderful holiday. Happy Winterfest!
Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella steps in to head DICE LA
Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella has been tapped to head up DICE LA as the EA-owned studio undergoes a rebranding to take it from DICE Stockholm’s support studio to stand-alone developer.
Zampella discussed the move in a recent chat with the Los Angeles Times, noting that the shift doesn’t mean he’s cutting ties with Titanfall developer Respawn. Instead, his head coach-like role at the studio will remain largely the same while his day-to-day duties shift to leading its sister company DICE LA.
Along with the new leadership, DICE LA is set to undergo a rebranding in the near future. The nature of that change is still under wraps, but Zampella notes its new name and focus will be completely separate from both DICE and Respawn.
Electronic Arts studios chief Laura Miele tells the Los Angeles Times that the move aims to help DICE LA switch gears and work on a full project of its own, rather than its previous task of providing development support to other studios.
“I genuinely believe that [Zampella] is going to help guide them creatively. He’s going to help them further fortify and build out their talent and their team. I think we’re going to have a really strong studio out of our Los Angeles location,” says Miele. “They can go from a support team to a full stand-alone studio to create a new game offering.”
Love It Or Hate It, Fortnite Made More Money Than Any Other Game In 2019
Fortnite might not be to everybody’s tastes, but there’s no denying how successful it is – in fact, last year it made more moolah than any other video game – a feat it achieved in 2018, too.
According to Superdata, the game was the top earner in 2019 with a whopping $1.8 billion in revenue – although it’s worth noting that it suffered a 25 percent drop on the $2.4 billion it made in 2018. Superdata feels that the drop reflects the stabilisation of the game’s revenues after a sudden spike in popularity in 2018.
Here are the top 10 earners in full:
As you can see, Pokémon GO is also raking in the cash, bagging $1.4 billion in 2019 – an increase over the previous year. Interestingly, the report also found that free-to-play games accounted for 80 percent of all digital games revenue during the past 12 months.
By comparison, spending on PC and console ‘premium’ games – ones you actually have to pay for – dropped by 5 percent year-on-year. Here are the top earners:
The drop, according to Superdata, can be attributed to more big-hitters launching in 2018 than 2019.
We’re back and we’re going to start as we mean to carry on – by rounding up random stories I never got around to covering properly during the week. 2020 is going to be a big year for Pocket Tactics and I can’t wait until you see what the powers that be have in store.
In the meantime, I’ll be watching over the shop in my usual fashion, so don’t expect much to drastically change over the course of this month. Got a couple of games I want to get get reviews going for, and we’re going to publish a new guide that looks at what 2020 has in store for mobile games, as a follow-up to your now ended 2019 guide.
This was the only game of the past couple of weeks to catch our eye, but we haven’t had a chance to delve into it ourselves. It reminds me of the Kairosoft game Dungeon Village, just made by Tinybuild. This is from the same people that also did titles like Graveyard Keeper, so it’s got some pedigree behind it. If you end up checking it out yourself let us know how you found it, otherwise we’ve added it to the list so will review it as soon as we can (pictured above).
News & App Updates
Android users will pleased to know that you can know pre-register for Space Grunts 2 on the Google Play Store. We didn’t think it was as good as the first game, but it’s still a pretty decent experience and so worth signing up if you’re a fan of Orangepixel’s work.
Black Desert Online’s mobile adaptation seems to be doing pretty well for it so far. The tips guide we put together for it has proven very popular so far (so I’ll be pushing through some updates for it), and the developers are moving quite quickly on adding new content to the game.
The Node War ‘PVP’ mode isn’t due until mid-January officially, but Pearl Abyss have already introduced and early version of it so players and guilds can start practicing. Here’s a quick overview of what it entails:
Guilds can participate in a Node War through a bidding process, where three guilds with the highest bids will be selected as participants. Participating guild members must attack the opposing guilds’ Holy Artifacts while defending their own to win. Guilds that win the Node War will take possession of the Node for seven days and receive large sums of silver collected as tax from the areas surrounding the Node. During the pre-season, Node Wars will take place from 10 PM to 12 PM (server time) on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sunday.
Best App Sales
We mentioned Kairosoft above, we’ve spotted a couple of their games on sale on iOS, although none of the goods ones. Other sales of notes include:
We’ve got a belated review of that last one coming next week, so keep an eye out for it.
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
Apple to hold annual shareholders meeting on Feb. 26
Apple is scheduled to hold its annual shareholders meeting in February at Apple Park’s Steve Jobs Theater, where stock holders will cast votes on measures ranging from the election of the company’s board of executives to three shareholder proposals.
The meeting is slated to take place on Feb. 26 at 9 a.m. Pacific, according to a proxy statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. Shareholders of record, or those who owned Apple stock at the close of business on Jan. 2, 2020, are invited to participate in person, but anyone with stake in the company can vote online through proxyvote.com.
For 2020, the meeting will cover a total of six proposals involving the election of directors, ratification of Ernst and Young as the independent registered public accounting firm and approval of executive compensation. Three shareholder proposals covering proxy access, sustainability and executive compensation, and policies of freedom of expression are also up for vote.
Apple presents board nominees James Bell, Tim Cook, Al Gore, Andrea Jung, Art Levinson, Ron Sugar and Sue Wagner for consideration. Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, resigned from the company’s board last September, prior to the debut of the Apple TV+ and Disney+ streaming services. A longtime director at Apple, Iger later said the tech giant’s interest in entering the entertainment industry put the companies on “conflicting rather than converging” paths.
During 2019, CEO Cook once again netted the lowest payout amongst fellow C-suite executives at $11.5 million, including a $3 million base salary. Other executives, including CFO Luca Maestri, General Counsel Kate Adams, SVP of Retail and People Deidre O’Brien, COO Jeff Williams, and former retail chief Angela Ahrendts, reaped between $19 million and $25 million in salary, stock grants and incentives.
That said, Cook raked in $113.5 million in vested stock units and stands to gain hundreds of millions of dollars should Apple continue to perform at expectations, as he controls 1.26 million unvested stock units worth some $275.7 million, as well as 560,000 equity incentive plan awards worth $122.5 million.
Three shareholder proposals are on the docket for 2020, including yet another proxy access amendment that seeks a second shareholder-approved nominee to the board. Apple’s current proxy access regulations limit access to 20 percent of immediately serving directors rounded down to the nearest whole number, which comes out to one director. The proposal would change that language to reflect a 20 percent figure “or 2, whichever is greater.”
Apple has received proxy access proposals six years running and in each case recommended shareholders vote against the proposition on the basis that the existing method of proxy access has been deemed effective.
Proposal 5 requests the Board Compensation Committee to prepare a report “assessing the feasibility of integrating sustainability metrics into performance measures, performance goals or vesting conditions that may apply to senior executives under the Company’s compensation incentive plans.” While Apple touts efforts in the areas of environmental sustainability and human rights, directly tying specific metrics to executive compensation could “reduce reputational, legal and regulatory risks and improve long-term performance,” the proposal reads.
Apple recommends a vote against Proposal 5, noting existing programs like the yearly Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, Environmental Responsibility Report and Supplier Code of Conduct are already in place. Further, integrating the requested metrics into executive compensation would be redundant as they are already built in as core corporate values, the company says.
“An effective approach to “sustainability,” as that term is defined by the proponent, requires more than simply tying executive compensation to the achievement of environmental, social, and governance goals,” Apple says. “That is why, as a company, we already incorporate the Apple Values into our business strategy.”
Finally, Proposal 6 seeks a report on Apple’s policies on freedom of expression and access to information, “including whether it has publicly committed to respect freedom of expression as a human right.” The company’s dealings in China are specifically mentioned, with proponents noting Apple’s mass removal of VPN apps from the App Store in 2017, a takedown of at least 634 so-called “illegal” apps in 2018 and the ejection of The New York Times app in 2017. In each case, Apple acted at the behest of the Chinese government, a regime known to stifle free speech.
The company recommends voting against Proposal 6, saying it adheres to the laws and regulations of countries in which it operates.
“In these instances, we prioritize engagement, advocating for the outcome we believe is in the best interests of our users. And, while we may disagree with certain decisions at times, we do not believe it would be in the best interests of our users to simply abandon markets, which would leave consumers with fewer choices and fewer privacy protections,” Apple says. “We believe engaging and participating in markets enables us to advocate for policies and practices that are consistent with Apple’s values.”
Translation is an important step in software localization which helps make software more popular globally, and impacts international user experience. In recent years, localization processes have been evolving worldwide to become more continuous, faster, efficient with automation. In Fedora, the development of the Zanata platform and its plugins, then Transtats, and now the migration to the Weblate platform are part of this common ongoing goal. The localization of a desktop OS like Fedora is highly complex because it depends on many factors of the individual upstream projects which are packaged in Fedora. For example, different translation timelines, resources, and tooling.
What is Transtats?
Transtats is a web application which tries to tie up upstream repositories, translation platforms, build system, and product release schedule together to solve problems of mismatch, out-of-sync conditions and to assist the timely packaging of quality translations. Actually, it collects translation data, analyzes them, and creates meaningful representations.
Just select Packages tab from left hand side navigation bar. This takes us to the packages list view. Then, search for the package and click on its name.
For example anaconda. On package details page, locate following:
Here, we have translation statistics from translation platform: Zanata and Koji build system. Syncs with the platform and build system are scheduled, which update differences periodically. Languages in red color indicate that there are translated strings remaining in the Translation Platform to be pulled and packaged, whereas, blue denote translated messages could not make 100% in the built package.
String breakage (or changes?)
In translation of software packages, one of the challenges is to prevent string breakage. Package maintainers should strive to abide by the scheduled Fedora release String Freeze. However, in some circumstances it could be necessary to break the string freeze and to inform the translation team on the mailing list. As well as, to update latest translation template (POT) file in the translation platform. Just in case these actions seem missing – translators may get new strings to translate very late or the application may have some strings untranslated. In the worst case, an outdated translation string mismatch may result in a crash. Sync and automation pipelines are there to prevent this, nevertheless it depends on the push or pull methods followed by package developers or maintainers.
To deal with the same context, we can use a job template in Transtats to detect this string change – particularly useful after string freeze in Fedora release schedule. This would be really helpful for the folks who look for packaging translations without string breakage, keeping translation template (POT) file in sync with translation platform, and testing localized form of the application for translation completeness to back trace.
How to detect string changes?
One of the options in Jobs tab is ‘YML based Jobs’. Where we can see available job templates.
The jobs framework executes all the tasks mentioned in the YAML, create appropriate logs and store results. Track String Change job basically:
Clones the source repository of respective package.
Tries to generate translation template (POT) file.
Downloads POT file from respective translation platform.
And, finds differences between both the POT files.
Actually, Transtats maintains mapping of upstream repository, Translation Platform project and respective build tag for every package.
Let’s take a closer look into this YAML. We can provide value for %PACKAGE_NAME% and %RELEASE_SLUG% in the next step – Set Values! For example: anaconda and fedora-32. Furthermore, a couple of things seek attention are:
In case the upstream software repository maintains separate git branch for fedora release, please edit ‘branch: master’ to ‘branch: <fedora-release-branch>’
In ‘generate’ block, mention the command to generate POT file. Default one should work for ‘intltool-update’ only, however, many packages do have their own.
A few packages may have gettext domain name different than that of package name. If this is the case, mention the gettext domain too.
As soon as the job is triggered, logs should be populated. If this is not a scratch run, a unique URL shall also be created at the end.
Left hand side is the input YAML and right hand side is respective log for each task. Here we can find the differences and figure out string mismatch.
In Transtats, we can create solutions to different problems in the form of job templates. And, scheduling of these jobs could be a step towards automation.
Nintendo Reveals The 20 Most-Played Switch Games Of 2019 In Europe
I don’t know how seriously I’m supposed to take this ranking.
I mean, I can take it that 5 games out of 20 are from 2019 because their releases were among the most expected ones, but I have to notice that Pokémon Sword and Shield was released on the 2nd half of November.
Now, how the hell is it possible that it’s been one of the most played games in the whole year? Sorry, I just don’t believe that.
Well, unless people generally keep their data sharing option turned off, like I do.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-04-2020, 03:23 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Three Great PC Games Are Free Right Now
The Epic Games Store is ringing in 2020 by giving away three free PC games until January 9 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. The freebies represent the end of Epic's 12 Days of Free Games promotion that actually ended up lasting a full two weeks. To claim the free games, you just need to have a free Epic account.
If you like what you play, you can move onto 2018's Darksiders 3 and the recently-released Darksiders Genesis, which introduces more role-playing mechanics and a new top-down perspective.
Quite a departure from Darksiders, Steep is a 2016 extreme sports sim from Ubisoft. Though focused on snowboarding and skiing, Steep also has paragliding, sledding, base jumping, and wingsuit flying. Steep earned a 7/10 in GameSpot's review. Critic Leif Johnson praised the open world mountain and the game's overall variety while lamenting the lack of objective rewards beyond cosmetics.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-03-2020, 07:00 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Meet the 2020 Imagine Cup Asia regional finalists
For 18 years, student developers have brought their unique technology solutions to life with Imagine Cup to make a difference in the world around them. Starting with just an idea, students form teams of one to three people and leverage Microsoft technology to develop purpose-driven applications from what they’re most passionate about.
This competition year is no different, and the journey to the 2020 Imagine Cup World Championship is kicking off with the selection of the Asia Regional Finalists! From hundreds of teams who submitted projects to the Asia Online Semifinals, 10 teams have been chosen to advance to the Asia Regional Final in Singapore this February. Encompassing solutions tackling a drug scanning app to monitor authenticity and allergens, to a real-time computer vision physiotherapy tool, to an immersive virtual reality experience so young students can learn about different cultures, these student innovations are truly incredible and have the chance to create global impact.
At the Regional Final, all teams will participate in an Entrepreneur Day and receive in-person pitch training from the U.S. Department of Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST), and compete for prizing totaling over USD20,000 in cash plus Azure credits. The top two teams will win spots in the 2020 Imagine Cup World Championship in Seattle, Washington to present their projects live for the chance to take home USD100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.
We’re excited to introduce this year’s Asia Regional Finalist teams!
Tanah Airku:Tanah Airku is immersive learning media using books, AR, and VR to deliver a complete cultural learning experience for children from 1st to 3rd grade.
Seguro Droga: The team developed an Android application which lets patients scan a drug’s RFID card to determine authenticity using Hyperledger Fabric on Azure VM, manage their drug purchases, and set filters for allergens.
EDVR
Nepal
EDVR:EDVR is a voice-controlled immersive Virtual Reality experience for dyslexic students enrolled in STEM education. EDVR aims to solve the problem of imparting STEM education for students with learning disabilities by enabling them to visualize, comprehend, and conceptualize.
Hollo:Hollo is a Social Technology Enterprise based in Hong Kong. The team is developing a comprehensive tool for NGOs, therapists, and youth living with mental illness to advance therapy practices using technology such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
Muses
China
AI Composition System:Using AI, The Muse Artificial Intelligence Composer is a low-cost solution to create music for commercial use, providing a new solution for some commercial music creations that have lower creative requirements and are more cost effective.
FaceTag: The team created a solution for bottlenecked gateways in a daily commute: specifically the entry and exit points at metro stations. FastTag tollways enable commuters to simply walk in, have their face scanned, and have the toll deducted automatically from their wallet.
Dr. Rehab:Dr. Rehab is a mobile application for real-time physiotherapy supervision through computer vision. Users can access the rehabilitation exercises assigned to them, follow guided instructions, and receive feedback while completing their exercises.
Tulibot Team
Indonesia
Tulibot:Tulibot is an integrated assistive device to bridge the communication gap for the deaf by providing a smart glove (gesture to text) and smart glasses (speech to text).
Vibra-Intellisense:Vibra-IntelliSense aims to help companies transition from traditional preventive maintenance to predictive maintenance through the use of sensors. The sensors capture machine vibrations to detect anomalies and recommend maintenance efforts.
Congratulations to our finalists! Follow their competition journey on Twitter and Instagram as they head to Singapore in February to compete in the Regional Final, co-located with Microsoft Ignite | The Tour. Students will have the opportunity to connect with the tech community and get hands-on with the latest in developer tools and cloud technologies.
Are you passionate about using tech for social good to solve some of today’s most pressing challenges? Imagine Cup Asia and EMEA submissions are now closed but Americas regional submissions are open until January 15! Register now for a chance to join students across the globe making an impact with technology.
