Switch Console Voice Chat Might Be More Common Thanks To Vivox
Vivox, one of the world's leading provider of voice and text chat for video games, has announced that developers can now use the company's software to add console-based voice chat to their games on Nintendo Switch. Titles that support Vivox SDK will allow you to converse with other players by simply plugging a headset into the Switch console, as opposed to going through the mobile app. This system is already live on Fortnite.
"We've already seen a great deal of success with Nintendo and the use of our voice services in Fortnite," said Vivox president Dave Verratti. "We are extremely proud to be a part of the Nintendo ecosystem. We're happy to help Nintendo continue to push the envelope in their products by bringing gamers together through enhanced communications."
Additionally, Vivox's software supports cross-platform voice and text communication. With more titles on Switch supporting cross-play with Xbox One, PS4, and PC--starting with Fortnite and now extending to others such as Rocket League and Dauntless--Vivox could allow those playing a game on Switch to communicate with their friends on other platforms, provided the game supports SDK.
Nintendo's implementation of voice chat on Switch through a mobile app has been met with a mostly negative reception. In response to the discontentment, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said, "We believe the easiest way for you to connect and have a peer-to-peer experience with voice chat is with your mobile phone. It's always there, it's always with you."
He also cited Nintendo's history of doing things differently, pointing to examples of previous company decisions that seemed bad at the time but turned out alright in hindsight. "We have a much different suite of experiences than our competitors offer, and we do that in a different way," Fils-Aime said. "This creates a sort of yin and yang for our consumers. They're excited about cloud saves and legacy content but wish we might deliver voice chat a different way, for example."
Gallery: These Awesome Switch Mock-Ups Can Make Your Dreams Become Reality
Spending anything more than ten seconds looking through a Nintendo-based online community will tell you that Switch fans want pretty much every game that has ever existed on the console. Super Mario 64? Yep. Red Dead Redemption 2? Absolutely. The 2005 PS2 and Xbox title, Big Mutha Truckers 2: Truck Me Harder? Probably.
If you fall into this category, you’ll likely enjoy the work of Super Mario Faker, an awesomely-named Instagram account posting daily pictures of video game mock-ups. From old Nintendo classics to modern greats from rival systems, these mock-ups are both convincing and teasingly exciting – you can almost imagine adding them to your collection, can’t you?
Nintendo, if you’re reading, this humble writer would snap up a copy of this one before you could say “Pianta”.
If you want to see more and be treated to future creations, make sure to give Super Mario Faker a follow on Instagram. We also share some rather lovely stuff on our very own page, so you’re very welcome to follow us, too!
Now then, the age-old question. Which one game, above all others, would you like to see on Switch? Comment section, GO!
Apple goes on legal offensive against USB charging tech patent troll
By Roger Fingas Wednesday, February 06, 2019, 09:11 am PT (12:11 pm ET)
In a twist, Apple this week took preemptive legal action against a firm called Fundamental Innovation Systems International, hoping to deter any patent lawsuits related to USB charging.
The company has filed suit through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asking it to declare that it doesn’t infringe on patents FISI acquired from BlackBerry. A formal complaint speculates that it be could be the next target for FISI, which has already used legal pressure to secure licenses from corporations like LG and Samsung.
“Defendants have claimed, through letters, claim charts, telephone calls and in-person meetings with Apple personnel in this District, that certain Apple products infringe the Patents-in-Suit and that Apple requires a license to the Patents-in-Suit,” lawyers for Apple wrote. “However, Apple’s products do not infringe the Patents-in-Suit.”
A key contention in Apple’s defense is that many of its devices and adapters use Lightning connectors, instead of adhering strictly to the USB 2.0 standards cited in FISI’s patents. Lightning cables do tap USB for power and data, but have custom endpoints and authentication technology.
Apple is nominally requesting a jury trial, but if its lawsuit has its intended effect, FISI may be forced to settle before that point.
Apple is regularly targeted by outfits like FISI, which produce no actual product and depend on lawsuits and royalties to make money. Normally they’re defeated or settle out of court, but Apple did take a major hit recently when the federal U.S. Court of Appeals denied an appeal of a 2016 jury verdict in favor of VirnetX, putting it on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Visual Studio 2019 (Preview 2 or later) with the ASP.NET and web development workload selected.
The latest Blazor extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
The Blazor templates on the command-line:
dotnet new -i Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Templates::0.8.0-preview-19104-04
You can find getting started instructions, docs, and tutorials for Blazor at https://blazor.net.
Upgrade to Blazor 0.8.0
To upgrade your existing Blazor apps to Blazor 0.8.0 first make sure you’ve installed the prerequisites listed above.
To upgrade a standalone Blazor 0.7.0 project to 0.8.0:
Update the Blazor packages and .NET CLI tool references to 0.8.0-preview-19104-04.
Replace any package reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Browser with a reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.
Replace BlazorComponent with ComponentBase.
Update overrides of SetParameters on components to override SetParametersAsync instead.
Replace BlazorLayoutComponent with LayoutComponentBase
Replace IBlazorApplicationBuilder with IComponentsApplicationBuilder.
Replace any using statements for Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.* with Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.*, except leave Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Hosting in Program.cs
In index.html update the script reference to reference components.webassembly.js instead of blazor.webassembly.js
To upgrade an ASP.NET Core hosted Blazor app to 0.8.0:
Update the client-side Blazor project as described previously.
Remove any package reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.App or Microsoft.AspNetCore.All
Upgrade any non-Blazor Microsoft.AspNetCore.* package references to version 3.0.0-preview-19075-0444
Remove any package reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Design
To enable JSON support, add a package reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.NewtonsoftJson and updateStartup.ConfigureServices to call services.AddMvc().AddNewtonsoftJson()
Upgrade the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Server package reference to 0.8.0-preview-19104-04
Add a package reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Server
In Startup.ConfigureServices simplify any call to app.AddResponseCompression to call the default overload without specifying WebAssembly or binary data as additional MIME types to compress.
In Startup.Configure add a call to app.UseBlazorDebugging() after the existing call to app.UseBlazor<App.Startup>()
Remove any unnecessary use of the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Server namespace.
To upgrade a Blazor class library to 0.8.0:
Replace the package references to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Browser and Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Build with references to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Browser and Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Build and update the versions to 3.0.0-preview-19075-0444.
In the project file for the library change the project SDK from “Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web” to “Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor”.
Server-side Blazor is now ASP.NET Core Razor Components in .NET Core 3.0
As was recently announced, server-side Blazor is now shipping as ASP.NET Core Razor Components in .NET Core 3.0. We’ve integrated the Blazor component model into ASP.NET Core 3.0 and renamed it to Razor Components. Blazor 0.8.0 is now built on Razor Components and enables you to host Razor Components in the browser on WebAssembly.
Upgrade a server-side Blazor project to ASP.NET Core Razor Components in .NET Core 3.0
If you’ve been working with server-side Blazor, we recommend upgrading to use ASP.NET Core Razor Components in .NET Core 3.0.
To upgrade a server-side Blazor app to ASP.NET Core Razor Components:
Update the client-side Blazor project as described previously, except replace the script reference to blazor.server.js with components.server.js
Update the ASP.NET Core app hosting the Razor Components to .NET Core 3.0 as described previously.
In the server project:
Upgrade the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Server package reference to 0.8.0-preview-19104-04
Add a package reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Server version 3.0.0-preview-19075-0444
Replace the using statement for Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Server with Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Server
Replace services.AddServerSideBlazor with services.AddRazorComponents and app.UseServerSideBlazor with app.UseRazorComponents.
In the Startup.Configure method add app.UseStaticFiles() just prior to calling app.UseRazorComponents.
Move the wwwroot folder from the Blazor app project to the ASP.NET Core server project
Switching between ASP.NET Core Razor Components and client-side Blazor
Sometimes it’s convenient to be able to switch between running your Razor Components on the server (ASP.NET Core Razor Components) and on the client (Blazor). For example, you might run on the server during development so that you can easily debug, but then publish your app to run on the client.
To update an ASP.NET Core hosted Blazor app so that it can be run as an ASP.NET Core Razor Components app:
Move the wwwroot folder from the client-side Blazor project to the ASP.NET Core server project.
In the server project:
Update the script tag in index.html to point to components.server.js instead of components.webassembly.js.
Add a call to services.AddRazorComponents<Client.Startup>() in the Startup.ConfigureServices method.
Add a call to app.UseStaticFiles() in the Startup.Configure method prior to the call to UseMvc.
Replace the call to UseBlazor with app.UseRazorComponents<Client.Startup>()
If you’re using dependency injection to inject an HttpClient into your components, then you’ll need to add an HttpClient as a service in your server’s Startup.ConfigureServices method.
Previously to get tooling support for Blazor projects you needed to install the Blazor extension for Visual Studio. Starting with Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2, tooling support for Razor Components (and hence Blazor apps) is already included without having to install anything else. The Blazor extension is now only needed to install the Blazor project templates in Visual Studio.
Runtime improvements
Blazor 0.8.0 includes some .NET runtime improvements like improved runtime performance on Chrome and an improved IL linker. In our performance benchmarks, Blazor 0.8.0 performance on Chrome is now about 25% faster. You can now also reference existing libraries like Json.NET from a Blazor app without any additional linker configuration:
There are a couple of known issues with this release that you may run into:
“It was not possible to find any compatible framework version. The specified framework ‘Microsoft.NETCore.App’, version ‘2.0.0’ was not found.”: You may see this error when building a Blazor app because the IL linker currently requires .NET Core 2.x to run. To work around this issue, either install .NET Core 2.2 or disable IL linking by setting the <BlazorLinkOnBuild>false</BlazorLinkOnBuild> property in your project file.
“Unable to generate deps.json, it may have been already generated.”: You may see this error when running a standalone Blazor app and you haven’t yet restored packages for any .NET Core apps. To workaround this issue create any .NET Core app (ex dotnet new console) and then rerun the Blazor app.
These issues will be addressed in a future Blazor update.
Future updates
This release of Blazor was primarily focused on first integrating Razor Components into ASP.NET Core 3.0 and then rebuilding Blazor on top of that. Going forward, we plan to ship Blazor updates with each .NET Core 3.0 update.
Blazor, and support for running Razor Components on WebAssembly in the browser, won’t ship with .NET Core 3.0, but we continue to work towards shipping Blazor some later date.
Give feedback
We hope you enjoy this latest preview release of Blazor. As with previous releases, your feedback is important to us. If you run into issues or have questions while trying out Blazor, file issues on GitHub. You can also chat with us and the Blazor community on Gitter if you get stuck or to share how Blazor is working for you. After you’ve tried out Blazor for a while please let us know what you think by taking our in-product survey. Click the survey link shown on the app home page when running one of the Blazor project templates:
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 02-06-2019, 08:23 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Why Xbox Live Coming To Nintendo Switch Isn't Surprising
Yes, you read that right. Microsoft has announced plans to bring Xbox Live to Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android, with more details coming in a GDC talk next month. The company says bringing the network to more consoles will "enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs."
Until the publisher reveals more at GDC, we're not entirely sure what the move will involve, precisely. What we do know is Microsoft wants us to take our Xbox profile, including our Achievement history, friends list, clubs we're in, and more, to every screen--even rival consoles.
That ties into a wider recent Microsoft strategy to get its services on as many devices as possible. Gone are the days when it only wanted you to buy an Xbox One to be your "all-in-one" entertainment solution; now the company wants you to buy a Switch and play with your Xbox friends on it. Trying to pressure everyone into buying a Windows Phone didn't work--and was costly, thanks to the $6.2 billion (£4.7bn) acquisition of Nokia. Now, Microsoft Office runs on iOS, with a subscription fee for professional use. Instances like ex-CEO Steve Ballmer calling open-source OS Linux a "cancer" are in the past; instead, current chief executive Satya Nadella declares the company's "love" for Linux. It only makes sense for this platform-agnostic approach for Microsoft as a whole to involve Xbox. Sure enough, it's possible to play a huge selection of Xbox games on PC with Play Anywhere, and taking Xbox Live to other platforms seems a natural next step.
"I think if you get so focused just on hardware sales at this point, as gamers, we lose sight of what's going on around the console business," Xbox boss Phil Spencer told GameSpot in 2017. "Console's important. I love the console space, but it's part of the gaming business, it's not total.
"I look at those in aggregate, and so it's not actually about how many Xbox One Xs do I sell, or how many Ss do I sell, or even how many of one individual game that I sell. I look at, are we growing the number of people who have a relationship with Xbox in some way? [It] could be an Android customer in China playing Minecraft, but that's a person who's connected to our platform who's able to use Mixer, who's able to connect to Xbox Live, meet their friends online. That's really the metric for growth right now."
Ultimately, the real metric for growth is money. Microsoft's latest financial report states the company's revenue has increased 12%. Profit has increased by 18%. The company's share prices have tripled in the five years since Nadalla took over and began implementing this collaborative strategy.
In that sense, it seems an obvious move to bring Xbox Live to other consoles and to mobiles: it gets the Xbox brand to, potentially, an additional 2 billion devices by Microsoft's calculations. Nintendo in particular are the gateway to gaming for millions of children around the world--Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida once said the games industry "needs Nintendo to be very successful" for this very reason. Those children will soon possess not only a gateway, but a direct pathway to the Xbox ecosystem.
Children will soon possess not only a gateway, but a direct pathway to the Xbox ecosystem
But there's an elephant in the room: Sony is, thus far, not mentioned anywhere in Microsoft's plans for Xbox Live expansion. Whether that's because the PlayStation-maker wasn't asked, or because it didn't agree with Microsoft's collaborative strategy, isn't clear. What is clear is that the Japanese company has been less willing when it comes to joining forces than its competitors: it resisted the temptation of cross-play, for example, for many years, saying the PS4 was the best place to play and that's the end of it. It finally succumbed to the pressure, but only in Fortnite at first, and only in beta form.
What's odd is that Sony was once the frontrunner in this space: Portal 2 on PS3 allowed cross-play with PC players through Steam. More PlayStation games have allowed limited cross-play functionality since then, but only Fortnite and Rocket League allow full cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One. At least that's some sign of progress, though, and if Xbox Live on Switch is a success, more pressure will mount on Sony to follow suit and allow Microsoft's service on to PS4.
When I was growing up, the thought of playing Call of Duty or FIFA with my other-console-owning friends was a mere dream. With Microsoft's plans to bring Xbox Live to competitors' consoles, that dream is a step closer to becoming reality.
"When you look at Twitch and you look at Steam, look at PUBG, look at Minecraft," says Spencer. "People on Minecraft on Switch are playing with people on an iPhone. They don't own a Windows machine or an Xbox, but they own our game, and they're using Xbox Live across multiple devices. That's what gaming in the future's about, right?"
The corrupt wizard Gaufroi has kidnapped your master, and only YOU have any hope of saving him. Explore 10 deadly dungeons, decipher mind-bending puzzles, avoid terrifying traps, and vanquish hordes of vicious monsters? in VR.
Unruly Heroes is an action-adventure game inspired by the famous chinese legend ?A journey to the west? better known as the Monkey King Legend. Through this epic adventure, the game will make you live a fantastic and unforgettable experience. The game can be played in coop up to 4 players, but you can decide to play online in fierce Player vs Player modes. Who will be your favorite character?
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 02-06-2019, 05:58 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Watch the Mages of Mystralia devs explain their custom spell system
This week, Mages of Mystralia landed on the Nintendo Switch, two years after Borealys Games released its custom spellmaking title on PC and consoles. To mark the occasion, a few of the developers behind Mages of Mystralia were willing to jump on the GDC Twitch channel to share some insight on developing and marketing their game.
If you’d previously read developer Patric Mondou’s breakdown on game’s spellcrafting logic on Gamasutra, you’ll want to check out his followup discussion about the games’ technical art, which you can see in the video above! If you’re running an indie studio yourself, you may also appreciate Louis-Felix Cauchon’s stories about how the team was able to fund and market Mages of Mystralia.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 02-06-2019, 05:58 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Peter Moore quit video games, but the Liverpool FC chief still fears Fortnite
Game industry veteran Peter Moore left the business behind when he left Electronic Arts in 2017 to become CEO of the Liverpool Football Club, and now he’s afraid it’s coming after him.
“I’m concerned as a CEO of a football club that relies on the next generation of fans coming through,” Moore recently told Arabian Business magazine. “There’s so much pressure on time now and only 24 hours in a day, [and] there are only so many hours to play Fortnite.”
It’s interesting to see that even in the world of one of the world’s biggest international sports, video games (especially free-to-play juggernauts like Fortnite) offer sizable competition for young people’s time and money.
The interview also reveals Moore is applying a lot of what he learned in the game industry to his work of selling football (including tickets, broadcasts, and merch) to the next generation of paying fans.
“That’s something I learned in video games. I can push you all kinds of stuff on particular players, but if you’re only interested in [striker] Mohamed Salah, and I don’t know that, my outreach is wasted,” Moore said. “You might like [midfielder] Gini Wijnaldum. The more we learn about you, the more we can push Gini Wijnaldum stuff that you’ll click or engage. The key is that I need to know who you are.”
The rest of his comments make for interesting reading over on the Arabian Business website.
Starting at 2:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Skip Ahead and Preview Alpha Rings will begin receiving the latest 1904 Xbox One system update (19h1_release_xbox_dev_1904.190128-1920). Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1904 system update.
New Features:
Mini Keyboard
We are flighting a new Mini Keyboard and would love your feedback. If you prefer or require the bigger keyboard for accessibility, it is still available in Settings -> Ease of Access -> Magnifier -> Larger Keyboard. This mini keyboard floats over the UI, so will position itself smartly around textboxes. If you see any positioning or general issues, please file bugs with as much detail as possible (app you were using, screenshot etc.) as we deliberately have minimal logging around text entry for privacy reasons. Keep an eye out for a quest and survey!
Media Remote Programmable Buttons
We are flighting a new feature that enables you to reprogram buttons on your Media Remote. Choose your favorite app to launch when you press the OneGuide button on a media remote.
Access this via Settings>Kinect & devices>Media remote.
Fixes:
My Games and Apps
Fixed an issue where Borderlands 2 DLC is not recognized.
Fixed an issue where players would get an incorrect version error when playing Borderlands 2 onlin
Known Issues:
Disney Adventures
We are tracking an issue where this title may not launch.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Skype
We are aware of an issue with skype that when a user clicks on a conversation and/or pressing X to start a video call seem to freeze and eventually crash Skype.
