UK Retailers Begin Switch Lite Pre-Orders With A Placeholder Price Of £200
Update: A page on the Nintendo UK store now gives visitors the option to register their interest in the console. Alongside this is confirmation that it’ll cost £199.99 in the region.
Original Article: With the Nintendo Switch Lite reveal yesterday, one of the key pieces of information left out – for those living outside of the US, at least – was the pricing.
We already know that in the US, a lovely new Switch Lite will cost you $199.99. All marketing materials provided to us by Nintendo from the UK and Europe, as well as all of its official websites from these regions, avoid mentioning any pricing info. As such, these early pre-order listings are the first (unofficial) prices we have to go on.
Two of the largest retailers for video games in the UK, Amazon UK and GAME, have listed Switch Lite pre-orders for £199.99. A straight conversion from the US’ $200 should work out at around £160, but the UK rarely gets a true conversion rate such as that. We expected the console to be available at around the £180 mark, but we wouldn’t be surprised if these £199.99 listings turn out to be accurate.
Naturally, we’ll make sure to update you when Nintendo officially reveals its pricing for other regions. We do know that in Australia, the recommend retail price will be $329.95 AUS.
What sort of price point would make you consider buying a Switch Lite? Does $200 / £200 seem fair? Or do you think it should be lower? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-11-2019, 06:17 PM - Forum: Windows
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Microsoft’s new London flagship store opens to the public
Microsoft’s new flagship store in London has opened its doors to the public for the first time, with people waiting hours to be among the first to set foot inside.
Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer, Cindy Rose, UK Chief Executive, and Senior Store Manager John Carter welcomed the public by giving speeches in front of the doors on Regent Street.
Rose said the store was a “symbol of Microsoft’s enduring commitment to the UK”, which allows people to “experience the best the company has to offer”. “Thank you for helping us make history today,” she added.
People had started queuing along Regent Street from 7am to see Microsoft’s Surface devices, HoloLens, Xbox Gaming Lounge and sit in the McLaren Senna on the ground floor.
One customer, Blair, had started queuing at 7:30am after travelling from Wiltshire by bus. “I’m a Microsoft fan but I especially love Xbox. I heard there would be a few games from [videogame event] E3 here,” he said. “I really want to have a go in the McLaren Senna.”
Denise, from Sutton, was interested in seeing the Surface devices. “I want to see the latest technology and products that Microsoft has in there. I might buy a new laptop today.”
Callum, from London, also wanted to sit in the McLaren Senna. “I play a lot of Forza, so I want to experience the car and the Xbox Gaming Lounge,” he said.
James, from Reading, wanted to see how the store could help businesses. “I’m excited to see what it’s like,” he said. “I want to see what they can offer businesses. The outside of the store looks incredible; it’s a masterpiece of architecture.”
Microsoft handed out free T-shirts and Xbox Game Pass codes to people in the queue, while the first 100 visitors to buy a Surface Pro 6 were also given a free limited edition Liberty Surface Type Cover.
At 11am, the curtains in the store windows dropped to reveal excited store staff, dressed in red, green, yellow and blue shirts – the colours of Microsoft’s logo – jumping up and down and cheering.
The customers walked into a store with a modern feel, with lots of space and wood and glass surfaces. They were greeted by staff standing in front of a large video wall and Surface devices on tables, with the McLaren on their right and the HoloLens mixed-reality headset to their left. A wooden spiral staircase or lifts took them to the first floor, where they could play the latest Xbox and PC titles in high-quality gaming chairs and professional pods in the Gaming Lounge, purchase third-party laptops and accessories and get tech support, trainings, repairs and advice from the Answer Desk, or go to the Community Theatre where coding workshops were taking place. Visitors could create their own personalised Surface Type Cover with Surface Design Lab, featuring a range of designs that can be etched directly onto the cover. They also took photos in the Selfie Area.
The enterprise area on the second floor is a place to support, train and grow businesses no matter where they are on their digital transformation journey. From small companies and educational institutions to enterprise customers, the Product Advisors and Cloud Technical Experts will help customers discover, deploy and use Microsoft 365 and other resources to solve business challenges such as AI, data security, collaboration and workplace efficiencies. This floor also contains an area for hosting events, as well as meeting rooms and a Showcase space for demonstrating how customers, including Carlsberg and Toyota, are digitally transforming.
It is also the most accessible store Microsoft has ever opened, with store associates collectively speaking 45 languages, buttons to open doors, lower desks to help those in wheelchairs and Xbox Adaptive Controllers available for gamers with restricted movement.
As a judge of the Revolutionary Tribunal, preside over complicated cases of ordinary citizens, dangerous criminals, and enemies of the revolution in revolutionary Paris. Make judgments, plot political intrigue, and try to not lose your own head.
In Blazing Chrome, bring your best pal and kick some metal butts to free the humankind while enjoying a classic run?n?gun, fully loaded with action and exciting fights.
Overcome impossible odds and survive certain death scenarios in the undercover spy thriller that VR has been waiting for. You'll need every advanced weapon, cutting-edge technology, and deceptive tactic in your arsenal. Good luck agent. [Oculus]
Nintendo Might Be Updating Some Components In Its Original Switch Model
Nintendo appears to be updating some components in its original Switch model, but it’s not the sort of upgrade you would probably expect.
According to The Verge, recent filings with the United States Federal Communications Commission suggest the currently available Switch will soon be receiving a new processor and flash storage chips. It goes onto explain how Nintendo has submitted a “Class II Permission Change” to the FCC, allowing it to adjust an existing product without having to get the system recertified for sale within the US.
The document itself makes mention of “SoC” – referring to the Switch’s system-on-chip (the Nvidia Tegra processor, containing the CPU and graphics) and the “NAND memory” – aka. the flash storage in the SSD. Nintendo is also unlikely to announce these internal changes publicly, in order to lower the chances of consumers deliberately seeking out newer and better-performing systems.
As The Verge explains, swapping out components in video game consoles is nothing new. Microsoft made some serious changes to its Xbox 360 line to ensure future owners didn’t ever have to witness the red ring of death.
This filing is not believed to be tied to the rumoured Switch Pro model and is reinforced by Doug Bowser’s recent comment, explaining how a proper upgraded Switch system was not happening right now. In saying this, it could have a connection to the recent chipset rumour, previously linked to the upgraded model.
Fedora job opening: Fedora Community Action and Impact Coordinator (FCAIC)
I’ve decided to move on from my role as the Fedora Community Action and Impact Coordinator (FCAIC). This was not an easy decision to make. I am proud of the work I have done in Fedora over the last three years and I think I have helped the community move past many challenges. I could NEVER have done all of this without the support and assistance of the community!
As some of you know, I have been covering for some other roles in Red Hat for almost the last year. Some of these tasks have led to some opportunities to take my career in a different direction. I am going to remain at Red Hat and on the same team with the same manager, but with a slightly expanded scope of duties. I will no longer be day-to-day on Fedora and will instead be in a consultative role as a Community Architect at Large. This is a fancy way of saying that I will be tackling helping lots of projects with various issues while also working on some specific strategic objectives.
I think this is a great opportunity for the Fedora community. The Fedora I became FCAIC in three years ago is a very different place from the Fedora of today. While I could easily continue to help shape and grow this community, I think that I can do more by letting some new ideas come in. The new person will hopefully be able to approach challenges differently. I’ll also be here to offer my advice and feedback as others who have moved on in the past have done. Additionally, I will work with Matthew Miller and Red Hat to help hire and onboard the new Fedora Community and Impact Coordinator. During this time I will continue as FCAIC.
This means that we are looking for a new FCAIC. Love Fedora? Want to work with Fedora full-time to help support and grow the Fedora community? This is the core of what the FCAIC does. The job description (also below), has a list of some of the primary job responsibilities and required skills – but that’s just a sample of the duties required, and the day to day life working full-time with the Fedora community.
Day to day work includes working with Mindshare, managing the Fedora Budget, and being part of many other teams, including the Fedora Council. You should be ready to write frequently about Fedora’s achievements, policies and decisions, and to draft and generate ideas and strategies. And, of course, planning Flock and Fedora’s presence at other events. It’s hard work, but also a great deal of fun.
Are you good at setting long-term priorities and hacking away at problems with the big picture in mind? Do you enjoy working with people all around the world, with a variety of skills and interests, to build not just a successful Linux distribution, but a healthy project? Can you set priorities, follow through, and know when to say “no” in order to focus on the most important tasks for success? Is Fedora’s mission deeply important to you?
Location: CZ-Remote – prefer Europe but can be North America
Company Description
At Red Hat, we connect an innovative community of customers, partners, and contributors to deliver an open source stack of trusted, high-performing solutions. We offer cloud, Linux, middleware, storage, and virtualization technologies, together with award-winning global customer support, consulting, and implementation services. Red Hat is a rapidly growing company supporting more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.
Job summary
Red Hat’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) team is looking for the next Fedora Community Action and Impact Lead. In this role, you will join the Fedora Council and guide initiatives to grow the Fedora user and developer communities, as well as make Red Hat and Fedora interactions even more transparent and positive. The Council is responsible for stewardship of the Fedora Project as a whole, and supports the health and growth of the Fedora community.
As a the Fedora Community Action and Impact Lead, you’ll facilitate decision making on how to best focus the Fedora community budget to meet our collective objectives, work with other council members to identify the short, medium, and long-term goals of the Fedora community, and organize and enable the project.
You will also help make decisions about trademark use, project structure, community disputes or complaints, and other issues. You’ll hold a full council membership, not an auxiliary or advisory role.
Primary job responsibilities
Identify opportunities to engage new contributors and community members; align project around supporting those opportunities.
Improve on-boarding materials and processes for new contributors.
Participate in user and developer discussions and identify barriers to success for contributors and users.
Use metrics to evaluate the success of open source initiatives.
Regularly report on community metrics and developments, both internally and externally.
Represent Red Hat’s stake in the Fedora community’s success.
Work with internal stakeholders to understand their goals and develop strategies for working effectively with the community.
Improve onboarding materials and presentation of Fedora to new hires; develop standardized materials on Fedora that can be used globally at Red Hat.
Work with the Fedora Council to determine the annual Fedora budget.
Assist in planning and organizing Fedora’s flagship events each year.
Create and carry out community promotion strategies; create media content like blog posts, podcasts, and videos and facilitate the creation of media by other members of the community
Required skills
Extensive experience with the Fedora Project or a comparable open source community.
Exceptional writing and speaking skills
Experience with software development and open source developer communities; understanding of development processes.
Outstanding organizational skills; ability to prioritize tasks matching short and long-term goals and focus on the tasks of high priority
Ability to manage a project budget.
Ability to lead teams and participate in multiple cross-organizational teams that span the globe.
Experience motivating volunteers and staff across departments and companies
Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.
Red Hat does not seek or accept unsolicited resumes or CVs from recruitment agencies. We are not responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions, or any other payment related to unsolicited resumes or CVs except as required in a written contract between Red Hat and the recruitment agency or party requesting payment of a fee.
On paper, Graveyard Keeper sounds like a fun concept. It’s a management/simulation game of a medieval graveyard, with a sense of humor perfectly encapsulated in its wacky braying-donkey app icon. (I choose to believe this is intended to make fun of the endless screaming-angry-man icons found on Clash of Clans-clones.) Unfortunately, Graveyard Keeper will probably not win many new players to the genre thanks to its confusing tone and fixture on arcane busywork.
The first question for a mobile adaptation is: how are the controls? In menus, you get to tap and scroll through interface elements directly, but in the game world you use basic on-screen buttons and a static d-stick instead of swipe-anywhere controls. The d-stick is better than many, especially as it features an animated bounce back when released that visually reminds you to replace your thumb in the center.
It’s fiddly, though, and perhaps a little too sensitive, and I often found myself stuck on scenery or walking around objects I just wanted to approach. It seems to me a system where movement were locked to a grid might work better. There also seem to be a few too many buttons. The ‘work’ and ‘select’ actions could be combined into one control, since work is always held down for several seconds and select is always merely tapped. With a swipe for the rarely-used attack command, the devs could reduce the on-screen controls to a mere menu button.
Unlike similar management games like Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper doesn’t have daily tasks to give rhythm to march of time. Certain events, like meeting important characters that only happen on particular days, are about as far as it goes. Compounding this problem, the game uses a weird alchemical-symbol system to track its six-day week, making it impossible to hold in your mind when things need to get done. Is the bishop free on male-symbol day or on sun-day?
Instead, Graveyard Keeper‘s tasks are long multi-step processes that inevitably require a lot of time grinding for experience or materials and building one of seemingly dozens of crafting stations. I played for days and only buried one body, occupied as I was with making every part of every tool out of logs, rocks, and raw iron. Then there are tech trees for gardening, preaching, and writing books among others, three different kinds of skill points, and “faith” and “science” are resources in themselves. There’s a certain zen to it at times, but at other times it feels like a lot of busywork. That said, there’s a great deal of freedom and an awful lot to do, so if planning out long multi-stage tasks is your jam, you’ll love it.
Tonally, the game is strange. It wants to be both goofy and morbid and it works sometimes, especially when the game uses its medieval setting to satirize modern life. The funniest part to me was the unending bureaucracy of stamps and permissions required to get anything done in this supposedly-medieval town. A good joke, but also one that’s frustrating to deal with from a gameplay perspective. I can’t sell this bit of meat I took from a cadaver unless I bribe a thief for the right stamp? Are we just going to gloss over the cannibalism aspect of this situation first? Part of the problem is that NPCs don’t have strongly-defined personalities beyond one-note jokes. (The skull is a drunk. The donkey is a communist.)
There’s clearly a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail influence here, but the Pythons had the good sense to satirize the ignorance and bloodlust of a witch trial but then cut away before the actual execution. Not so in Graveyard Keeper, where your protagonist watches a burning without comment and is then tasked with putting up flyers for the next one. It’s darkness for its own sake, and rather off-putting.
Graveyard Keeper is a full-featured, PC-quality indie game, which is enough of a rarity on mobile to make it worth a glance. Fans of crafting will probably find a lot to like in Graveyard Keeper‘s incredibly baroque skills tree and endless tasks. It would be a good game for zoning out and listening to podcasts on a long plane trip. Players who are not on board the crafting bandwagon should probably try something like Stardew Valley.
Humble Unity Game Development Bundle–Featuring GameDev.Tv
There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, specifically Unity game developers. This is the Humble Unity Game Development Bundle, and it consists of a collection of Udemy courses by GameDev.tv, mostly on the subject of Unity, although a few other topics such as Git and Blender are also covered. As always the bundle is organized into tiers, where if you buy a more expensive tier, you get all of the content at the lower tiers.
The tiers in this bundle consist of:
1$ Tier
How to Get A Job in the GameDev Industry
Finish It! Motivation and Processes for Game & App Development
20$ Tier
Locked content Blender Environment Artist
Git Smart: Learn Git The Fun Way With Unity Games
25$ Tier
Complete C# Unity Developer 3D
RPG Core Combat Creator
Complete C# Unity Developer 2D
Locked content Unity 3D Game Kit – Make Games Without Coding
All contents in the bundle consist of Udemy product keys, so you need to have a Udemy account and you have to redeem the keys within a year of purchasing. As always you can decide how your money is allocated, between Humble, the publisher, charity and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS. The bundle is available here, you can learn more by watching the video below.
