Today we are announcing that we have made the difficult decision to transition the Minecraft Forum from an active website to a read-only archive. This decision has been made after careful consideration about how we can best serve the Minecraft community with the resources we have available. A read-only archive of the website will ensure that the valuable content contributed over many years is safe-guarded, remaining available for visitors to explore.
From everyone at the Minecraft Forum we are deeply grateful for our communities contributions to the forum over the last decade, big and small. Millions of members have shared tens of millions of posts that have been viewed billions of times, and everyone contributed something to make this forum great. Minecraft Mod creators helped expand the world of Minecraft, support volunteers worked tirelessly to provide access to that world and everyone together turned that world into a community.
Read only mode will be enabled on June 16th, 2019. From this date you will no longer be able to login to the Minecraft Forum and no new content will be created, however all links to the Minecraft Forum will continue to work as-is, all content will remain accessible. This change does not impact the Minecraft Wiki. The Minecraft Wiki will continue as an active website, we have no plans to archive the Minecraft Wiki.
We appreciate that this is a big change and that there will be many questions. I am available in the comments of this news post to answer any questions you may have, and you are welcome to reach out via Private Message if you have any questions you would like to ask privately.
Please use the comments as an opportunity to share your story about what this community has meant to you. We would love to hear about how the forum has impacted you, whether it inspired a passion for creating, helped build friendships or simply provided you somewhere to share your love of the game — any thoughts you may have are welcome.
Overwatch League™ Opening Week Draws More Than 10 Million Viewers
Newly announced Twitch distribution deal drives an average audience per minute of 408,000 for the opening day broadcast
IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Overwatch League roared to life last week at the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, with four days of intense competition between all 12 teams of the world’s first major global city-based professional esports league.
Buoyed by a newly announced two-year deal with Twitch, the Overwatch League’s exclusive worldwide[1] third-party digital broadcast partner, opening day drew an impressive average audience per minute of 408,000, and 280,000 for the week. More than 10 million viewers tuned in over the four-day period via Twitch, MLG, and Chinese streaming partners ZhanQi TV, NetEase CC, and Panda TV—not to mention the countless additional viewers at watch parties worldwide. On Twitch and MLG alone, the peak concurrent online audience of 437,000 hit during the highly anticipated day-one matchup between Dallas Fuel and Seoul Dynasty. In addition, tickets to Blizzard Arena Los Angeles were sold out for the entirety of opening week.
“We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response to the Overwatch League’s opening week of play,” said Pete Vlastelica, president and CEO of Major League Gaming (MLG). “But this is only the beginning. With more than 35 million Overwatch® players, the Overwatch League has the potential to become one of the most-watched leagues—of any kind—in the world.”
“Since we announced Overwatch League at BlizzCon 2016, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when the global competitive Overwatch community could come together under one banner,” said Nate Nanzer, Overwatch League commissioner. “Opening week was that coming-out party—for the fans, both in-person at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles and tuned in by the millions all over the world, and for the players, whose love for the game came through crystal clear.”
“We had high expectations for the inaugural broadcast of the Overwatch League on Twitch, given our platform’s passionate fanbase for Overwatch,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. “They really put on an amazing show and fans showed up en masse to support and celebrate Overwatch. Based on the response from the community, Overwatch League is off to a great start and we look forward to watching how the season progresses. This league demonstrates the power and potential of esports, and we’re thrilled to continue expanding our partnership with Blizzard.”
Viewers can tune in to catch all the action on Twitch, www.mlg.com, the MLG app (on iOS and Android), www.overwatchleague.com, and the Overwatch League app, which launched last week for iOS and Android. Blizzard gamers also can get easy access to the Overwatch League via a new Overwatch League tab in the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app.
The first season of the Overwatch League runs until June, with playoffs and finals scheduled for July. For the inaugural season, all regular-season games will take place at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, a state-of-the-art live-event venue in Burbank, California, custom-renovated for Blizzard Entertainment esports events. Fans can purchase tickets to attend matches, which will be played each Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. A full schedule and information about ticket sales can be found at www.overwatchleague.com.
About the Overwatch League™
The Overwatch League™ is the first major global professional esports league with city-based teams across Asia, Europe, and North America. Overwatch® was created by globally acclaimed publisher Blizzard Entertainment (a division of Activision Blizzard—Nasdaq: ATVI), whose iconic franchises have helped lay the foundations and push the boundaries of professional esports over the last 15 years. The latest addition to Blizzard’s stable of twenty-one #1 games,[2] Overwatch was built from the ground up for online competition, with memorable characters and fast-paced action designed for the most engaging gameplay and spectator experiences. To learn more about the Overwatch League, visit www.overwatchleague.com.
[1] Not including China. [2] Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the dates, events and features of the Overwatch League, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
Blizzard Has No Plans To Add Cross-Platform Progression To Overwatch Right Now
Blizzard has already said it’s still trying to determine if “cross-system play” would make sense for Overwatch, so what about cross-platform progression? Unfortunately, if you do intend to pick up the Switch version of the game when it arrives next month, and you’ve already spent a lot of time with one of the other versions on PC, Xbox One or PlayStation 4, there’ll be no option but to start over again.
During an interview with our friends over at Eurogamer, Overwatch’s lead game producer Matthew Hawley said “business and technical challenges” would need to be overcome in order to get cross-platform progression working properly:
Cross play and cross progression are something we’ve learned a lot about in the last couple of years, particularly looking at our other game Hearthstone, which has multiplatform support. We don’t have anything specific to talk about today, other than say there are business and technical challenges to getting all that to work correctly. Our focus really has been just trying to get Overwatch on the Nintendo Switch so we can have all new ways to play and welcome the Nintendo community into the Overwatch community.
Hawley reiterated his previous statement when asked about a cross-save feature being added in the future:
Yeah, I mean this is something we’ve talked about, the industry’s been evolving on this in the last couple of years and we’ve been actively monitoring and paying attention to what’s been going on, we’re just not in a place yet from a technical or a business side that we can make any sort of commitment on that front.
So, it doesn’t seem like there’ll be a cross-play or cross-progression added to Overwatch anytime soon. Of course, Blizzard could still surprise us with one – or both – of these features later down the line.
Are you still interested in picking up Overwatch on Switch even though it won’t support these features that certain other games on the Switch have been able to include? Share your thoughts below.
Nintendo Shares Colourful Graphic Of All The Recent Announcements For Switch
The Nintendo Direct presentation earlier this week was filled with so many quality announcements it was mindblowing at times. There were games we were expecting to see, like Overwatch, and then others such as Deadly Premonition 2, that completely shocked us.
To help Switch owners absorb everything, the Nintendo of America Twitter account has now uploaded a graphic, showing off all of these announcements and games. Some of the games featured are already out and have simply been updated, while others are being released later this month and year. We’ve also got some arriving early next year. See for yourself below:
For your added convenience, we’ve also created a round-up of the entire presentation. It includes every game and trailer that was shown during the most recent Direct. It also features an in-depth look at the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter, Banjo-Kazooie.
What games on this graphic are you interested in playing? Will you be getting just a few of the new releases in the coming months, or do you plan to add all of them to your Switch library? Tell us down below.
August 29th : New Preview Alpha Ring 1910 Update (1910.190827-1945)
Starting at 6:00 PM PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha Ring will begin receiving the latest 1910 Xbox One system update (Build: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1910\18363.7127.190827-1945).
DETAILS:
OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1910\18363.7127.190827-1945
Available: 6:00 PM, August 29, 2019
Mandatory: 3:00 AM August 30, 2019
FEATURE UPDATES:
Home (Experiment)
Thank you all for the great feedback on the experimental home update. The first round of our home experiment concludes this week, and Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead users who have it will start to see the current dashboard again. This is in preparation for additional testing to the Xbox One dashboard. We’ll let everyone know when to keep an eye out for the next round of testing based on your initial feedback.
FIXES:
Notifications
Fixed an issue where users were not receiving notifications for Club invitations.
My Games & Apps
Fixes to the download ETA timer reliability when downloading content.
Dashboard
Various fixes to UI and navigation.
KNOWN ISSUES:
System
Some users have reported the console shutting down unexpectedly while using Netflix.
Some users have reported the console shutting down while playing games.
Dolby Access
Users are unable to complete the setup for Dolby Atmos in the app and the app is not recognizing Dolby Atmos headphones
Note: This is an issue with the Dolby Access app and the app developers are aware and investigating.
Audio
Users who have Dolby Atmos enabled and console display settings set to 120hz with 36 bits per pixel (12-bit) are experiencing loss of Dolby Atmos audio in some situations.
Workaround: Disable 120hz or set Video Fidelity to 30 bits per pixel (10-bit) or lower.
Gamertag
Customers attempting to change their GT using the new Gamertag features on the console will not yet see those changes reflected on the console.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Thank you for being part of the Alpha Skip Ahead ring! For more information regarding the Xbox One Update preview rings, check out our blog post here.
Blog: Unity Addressables – It’s never too big to fit
In order to grab the level 3 guide check out my blog post on The Gamedev Guru’s Blog.
Conclusions
At the beginning of the post I presented you the challenge I had: halving the memory budget of the project being developed for Oculus Quest in just a month. The result? Task accomplished.
This is what I have to say about this almighty Unity package: the Addressables system saved my butt. It made the timed task possible by avoiding a massive game redesign; those are nearly impossible to pull off in the setting of our port.
Addressables is a promising system. On the one hand, Unity developers are working hard to improve it further. On the other hand, it is production ready and documentation is available.
This means: you can start today using it in your projects. If you followed the article and the guide, it should take you little time to get it running in your project.
Consider it a medium-term investment. You will invest some time this week in order to gain it back during the upcoming months/years of your project. Not only you will benefit from it, but more players will be able to play your game due to supporting more devices.
I really hope this was entertaining and useful for you, feel free to visitThe Gamedev Guru’s Blog for more content.
In this 2017 GDC talk, Alejandro Quan-Madrid discusses the creation of mobile game FRKN WKND, a kind of video game mixtape that’s made up of a collection of autobiographical vignette games.
It’s well worth a watch, if only to better understand the unique approach Quan-Madrid took to game design. Without an explicit narrative, the variety of games and their relative order are used to convey a story.
This approach relies upon the principles of montage; for example, the first chapter features slices of life that go from coding to testing a game to checking social media and getting harassed, to finally meditating to come back down. Each of these games/levels on their own is a specific kind of experience, but in this order, you begin to see the perspective of the phone’s owner as the player performs as them.
Quan-Madrid offered up some intriguing insights into how this kind of mixtape approach, playing out across a mobile phone interface, allows for some remarkably creative possibilities for level design and flow.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page.
