We know you’re busy and might miss out on all the exciting things we’re talking about on Xbox Wire every week. If you’ve got a few minutes, we can help remedy that. We’ve pared down the past week’s news into one easy-to-digest article for all things Xbox! Or, if you’d rather watch than read, you can feast your eyes on our weekly video show above. Be sure to come back every Friday to find out what’s happening This Week on Xbox!
Play the Red Dead Online Beta Today on Xbox One Starting today, the Red Dead Online Beta is open to everyone who owns Red Dead Redemption 2 on Xbox One. Jump in to experience the vast and highly detailed landscapes, cities, towns, and habitats of Red Dead Redemption 2 in a new, living online world… Read more
World of Tanks: Mercenaries Gets a New Perspective with Commander Mode For nearly five years, we’ve carefully refined and improved the awesome experience of getting into tanks and blowing the hell out of other tanks at the ground level. But variety is the spice of life, as the cliché goes, and this December, we’re offering you… Read more
Set Sail for Shrouded Spoils, the Next Free Sea of Thieves Update The nights might be drawing in, but the future is looking bright for pirates as Sea of Thieves’ fourth free major content update, Shrouded Spoils, is available to players starting today, Wednesday, November 28. A treasure trove of new content, Shrouded Spoils responds… Read more
The Epic Journey of Floor Kids, Available Now on Xbox One It’s been quite the journey, and now it’s time for Floor Kids to launch on Xbox One. And to mark this occasion I wanted to write a personal note about this amazing experience and everyone I got to work with and learn from. I’m JonJon, the animator… Read more
New Games with Gold for December 2018 Welcome to another Games with Gold reveal for Xbox One and Xbox 360! In December on Xbox One, solve mysterious puzzles in an alien landscape in Q.U.B.E. 2, then experience the rich culture of the Iñupiat people in the atmospheric Never Alone… Read more
24/7 Railroading on the Long Island Rail Road on Xbox One Stretching east from New York City is sprawling Long Island, home to busy commuters who make their way to and from “the Big Apple” every day. Long Island is packed with energy, attitude – and the hustle and bustle of people always on the move… Read more
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for December 4 to 7 Welcome to Next Week on Xbox, where we cover all the new games coming soon to Xbox One! Every week the team at Xbox aims to deliver quality gaming content for you to enjoy on your favorite gaming console. To find out what’s coming soon to Xbox One, read on below and click on each of the game profiles for pre-order details (dates are subject to… Read more
GameStop Italy Listing Reveals New Information About Mortal Kombat 11
Last week during the 2018 Game Awards, Ed Boon – one of the co-creators of the Mortal Kombat series – walked up on stage and surprised everyone with the reveal of the 11th entry in the series. Apart from the overly violent announcement trailer above, which has received much criticism online for not including the series’ iconic music, there’s not much else known about the title.
Now, DualShockers is reporting how GameStop Italy has revealed some early details about the upcoming release, ahead of schedule. Underneath the Premium Edition listing, there’s a description explaining a bit more about what to expect from the next game in the series.
Mortal Kombat 11 will be running on an entirely new engine and there’ll be new customisation for clothing, accessories and move sets. In addition to this is a new fatality system and a ‘GoreTech’ system which will make executions even more brutal than previously. The game also promises to include a strong multiplayer component and cater to the eSports crowd with improved match-making, personalisation systems, daily news and updated rewards.
As DualShockers notes, the game’s developer NetherRealm hasn’t officially mentioned the new fighting system yet, so apart from the vague description provided by GameStop, it’s not clear how it will work. Based on the current information, it is suspected to work in conjunction with the iconic fatality system. Alongside this apparent leak, was a new image for the pre-order bonus Shao Kahn. Check it out below:
A community reveal event for MK11 will take place on 17th January 2019. Will you be picking up this game when it is released on 23rd April next year? Leave a comment below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-11-2018, 05:14 PM - Forum: Windows
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Peggy Johnson announces M12 Female Founders Competition winners
Earlier this year, our corporate venture fund, M12, took an important step in helping identify promising women entrepreneurs and accelerating their access to capital. Partnering with EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group, we launched the Female Founders Competition, awarding $4M to two women-led companies building innovative software solutions for the enterprise.
Those following this industry are well aware of the hard truths women founders face when seeking funding: just 17 percent of all startups boast a single female founder; and of that small percent, only 2.2 percent of total global venture capital funding went to female founders over the past two years. While the numbers clearly indicate there’s a need to do more, many investors struggle with where to start.
There are plenty of women entrepreneurs focused on solving enterprise technology challenges, but we needed a better way of finding them. With the previous success in sourcing incredibly promising portfolio companies from our Innovate.AI competition, we decided to try a competition again, but this time focused on surfacing female founders. And the results spoke volumes.
We received hundreds of submissions from female founders building enterprise solutions that spanned a multitude of industries and countries. This competition, while a small step to shift how we sourced deals, not only showed us that there is more than one way to effectively discover talent and expand networks, but it’s our responsibility as venture capitalists to begin leveling the playing field so those companies receiving funding are a truer reflection of the world in which we live.
Today, it’s my pleasure to share the results of the Female Founders Competition, and the stories behind the two incredible women whose companies will now join our portfolio.
Acerta
Greta Cutulenco, CEO and co-founder of Acerta, began her journey as a software engineering student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, where she developed an interest in robotics and autonomous vehicle systems. While working on a research project with Sebastian Fischmeister, a professor at the university, she became fascinated with recent developments in connected and autonomous vehicles, sparking a career that led her to work with and learn from automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier-1 manufacturers before returning to her roots in research. Cutulenco, Fischmeister and another colleague, Jean-Christophe Petkovich, would go on to create Acerta, using machine learning to provide real-time malfunction detection and failure prediction in vehicles. To commercialize their work, Cutulenco spent time in local incubators and attending business and sales courses before securing Acerta’s participation in the Techstars Mobility accelerator in Detroit. Just over two years later, Acerta has grown from a team of three to nearly 20, with Greta recently being named to Forbes 30 under 30 for Manufacturing and Industry, the company gaining traction with some of the largest auto manufacturers as customers, and now becoming a winner of the Female Founders competition.
“We are thrilled for the opportunity to work with M12, EQT Ventures, and SVB Financial Group,” said Cutulenco. “The funding and ongoing support will bring a big boost to the company’s long-term growth.”
Julie Dorsey, founder and chief scientist of Mental Canvas, trained as an architect before becoming a world-class computer scientist specializing in computer graphics. Her appreciation for, and expertise in these two disciplines inspired her to create the core technology behind Mental Canvas, which reimagines sketch for the digital age by augmenting it with spatial strokes, 3D navigation, and free-form animations. As supported by its early customers, Mental Canvas is a platform that addresses a wide and varied market, with early customers spanning a variety of industries from architecture, concept development for movies, animation and games, product design, education, and scientific illustration. Dorsey is also a professor of computer science at Yale University, and previously was on the faculty at MIT, where she held tenured appointments in the departments of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Architecture. She is an inventor on more than a dozen awarded and four pending patents, and for the past two years, has devoted herself full-time to her vision of enhancing visual communication by fundamentally elevating the way people draw.
“It is a great honor to be recognized in this way,” said Dorsey. “Of course, we are pleased with the funding, but even more, we are thrilled by the recognition and affirmation this prize provides. It says to me and our team that the technology Mental Canvas is developing to bring sketch into the digital age is groundbreaking and impactful. We look forward to working with M12, EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group to make our company’s vision a reality.”
This afternoon, I’ll join the next generation of female leaders at a forum focused on building and nurturing this community and preparing them for what’s next. While it’s a great way to welcome our winners to the M12 portfolio, it’s also an opportunity to continue this journey – one that is very personal to me – of doing our part to ensure that everyone has a seat at the table.
Maybe it says something about how twisted people’s tastes can really be, but Ndemic’s Plague, Inc. was a surprise mega-hit for the one-man developer, hanging out near the top of the paid charts for years and receiving several well-received expansions. You’ve probably played it, and if you haven’t, we highly recommend that you do.
Now, we have a spiritual sequel that takes the same combination of a board-game-style map and branching development trees and applies them to the theme of rebuilding a nation after an international conflict. This time, you’re playing the good guys (hopefully), and Ndemic have put together a game that is just as if not more compelling than their previous effort.
One level of Rebel, Inc. is enacting initiatives that help build stability in the region, improve your reputation, and enable new ways to deal with problems that crop up. Civilian initiatives like improving hospitals and water systems primarily affect stability directly, while Government initiatives often act as ‘buffs’ that speed the adoption of your other initiatives or mitigate their consequences. Military initiatives are how you get the units you can command on the battlefield, but also support and improve the effectiveness of those units.
Initiatives are rolled out around the region automatically. You give the order, and your subordinates make it happen. At first it can be difficult to understand the effects of your orders, since they are rolled-out piecemeal and sector by sector. However, you’ll definitely appreciate the improved roads you put down when your national army has to run from one end of the map to the other to put down an insurgent group.
The costs of these initiatives are measured not only in dollars spent, but also in inflation and increasing corruption. Pouring money into an ailing nation sounds like a great idea, but too much at one time will cause prices in the region to rise, meaning you need to instead carefully drip new programs in like an IV. Also, implementing new programs that are supposed to help people means that other potentially less scrupulous people have to be put in charge, which lets them skim some off the top and can lead to more problems later. Balancing budget, inflation, corruption, stability, reputation, and insurgent activity is the core of the game.
The next layer of the game is the military tactical level, which, although it might not appear so at first, is heavily dependent on the policy layer. Here, you move units around the map to deal with insurgents that pop up, which is always at the most inopportune times. If the insurgents manage to control a sector, they will quickly drain your reputation, so it’s a good idea to keep your soldiers in the thick of it. Once defeated, however, they will scurry off into a neighboring sector, which can lead to you chasing them all around the map. To actually eliminate an insurgent group, you have to corner them so that there is no escape. It’s a game of cat and mouse, but one where the cat also has to worry about not antagonizing the local civilians and is subject to being recalled at the end of a tour of duty.
Finally, there’s plenty of dilemmas that will appear and require careful judgement. These will spell out the probabilities of different consequences depending on what you choose–typically you trade cost in dollars against a change in reputation or a risk of additional corruption or emboldening insurgents. Do you pay off the warlord, or try to arrest him and risk him joining the insurgency? These dilemmas are also how the game handles issues like civilian casualties from your airstrikes (Do you cover it up, or admit responsibility? It becomes more difficult over time.) They ultimately direct the endgame, as you negotiate with the rebels to bring peace to the region without losing too much face.
There are a lot of systems interacting in the background in Rebel, Inc., which serves to take some of the pressure off the player but also makes some of the game a bit opaque. Key to success are the Government initiatives that control corruption, speed implementation of Civilian initiatives, and make other tools more effective–but you might not realize that at first since those initiatives don’t have as immediate or visual an impact on your situation as a new military unit. Once you get the hang of it though, Rebel Inc offers a lot of challenge and requires careful thought to keep its many plates spinning through its harder difficulty levels and maps. Yet, it’s still a game that you can easily pick up and put down thanks to the high-level of automatic administration that’s taken care of for your governor.
Some people will question the taste level of this kind of simulation in this day and age. Rebel, Inc. doesn’t have the same problem that Afghanistan ’11 had because its rebels are only elliptically related to the Taliban, so there’s no need to fear Apple removing this new game on the same (incredibly silly) grounds. There are probably valid criticisms to make of Rebel, Inc.‘s portrayal of reconstruction, but only because any simulation is going to have to simplify a massively complex situation in order to shrink it down to our phone screens. This simplification could reasonably make people doubtful of the message the game is sending–if only the idea that it is even possible to “win” a counter-insurgency.
However, in this case I think the material is handled with enough gravity and care, and the developer is engaged-enough with players that any problems that might surface will be considerately dealt with. The game primarily portrays the difficulties in rebuilding a country after a war, the compromises that are made and the ultimate costs, and that overall message is a powerful and necessary one in our recent decades of jingoistic adventures in the Middle East. For that reason alone, we might hope that Rebel, Inc. equals its predecessor’s popularity in the App Store. But it also deserves to make it to the top of the charts on its own, for being a complex but easy-to-play sim game.
No gears, no glory! Control gigantic robots and duke it out across fantastic cityscapes in this 3D mech-based brawler! Epic and explosive battles await with distinctive mechs in local and online versus mode, party co-op with two to four players, and a single-player campaign.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-11-2018, 10:57 AM - Forum: Lounge
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The Witcher's Geralt Is Coming To Monster Hunter World
Capcom has pulled back the curtain on a load of new content on the way to its hit action RPG, Monster Hunter World. Along with the "massive" Iceborne expansion, the publisher announced that a new collaboration featuring Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is coming to the game, and it'll be available early next year.
The famed Witcher finds himself in the New World after being transported by a portal. According to Capcom, players will "get to utilize his signature fighting style" to take on an assortment of Witcher-inspired quests, which will "offer a unique gameplay experience blending RPG mechanics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with Monster Hunter World's game systems."
No further details on the Witcher collaboration have been announced yet, but Capcom says it will share additional information "at a later date." The crossover event is slated to arrive as a free update on PS4 and Xbox One in early 2019, with a PC release set to follow soon afterward. You can watch the first trailer for the Witcher 3 Monster Hunter World collaboration above.
The crossover event is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of new content on the way to Monster Hunter World. Next fall, Capcom will release the aforementioned Iceborne expansion, a "massive" update that will introduce new quest ranks, environments, monsters, and gear. Iceborne will also add a new storyline that picks up after the ending of the base game.
Before either of those arrive, Capcom will bring back the Kulve Taroth Siege beginning December 20. This time around, the quest will feature a more formidable Arch-Tempered version of the monster that offers a chance to get even more powerful rewards. The publisher also announced it is hosting an Appreciation Fest in January to celebrate the game's first anniversary. This will encompass new anniversary quests that give players a chance to earn "special equipment."
In the meantime, there is still time to take part in Monster Hunter World's current seasonal event, the Winter Star Fest. The event is scheduled to run through December 17 and features "almost all" previous Event Quests, along with a handful of new ones, daily limited bounties, and new hunter and Palico gear to forge.
Panic Button Unleashes Hell On Switch With A New Performance Update For DOOM
Panic Button is absolutely killing it on the Nintendo Switch right now. Its expertise porting games across to the new Nintendo system extends to a variety of major third-party releases. Most recently, the developer’s focus has been on bringing Digital Extremes’ free-to-play third-person shooter Warframe to the hybrid platform.
Somehow, in between all of this, the Texas-based company has been able to find time to update the Switch version of DOOM, originally released in November 2017. The update coincides with the 25th anniversary of the series, which publisher Bethesda is currently celebrating in style by handing out a bunch of exclusive goodies for the upcoming release of DOOM Eternal.
In the new DOOM update for Switch, the game’s performance has been further improved and recent players you’ve competed with or against online can now be added to your friend list. A video capture option has also finally been added to help you record your most brutal moments. Once again, it’s great to see Panic Button’s post-release commitment, when it’s still pumping out updates for games that are now more than one year old.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-11-2018, 10:57 AM - Forum: Windows
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Over 140 educators to recap the best of 2018 in Dec. 18 TweetMeet
Wow, 2018 has been a remarkable year for educators. Our #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets have brought us together every month and unfurled so much knowledge, we’re going to need some extra help looking back and capturing the highlights. Well, with over 140 hosts joining us for this special Best of 2018 TweetMeet, we just might do it!
Over the last twelve months, many of you joined the Microsoft Educator Community and have taken part in the courses, learning paths, lesson plans and other resources it offers. The global MIEExpert community continues to grow with incredible collaboration projects taking place between classrooms around the world.
This month we’re offering more simultaneous language tracks than ever before, for a total of 17. New this month are Македонски (Macedonian), हिंदी (Hindi) and Česky (Czech).
For each language track, we have one or more hosts to post the translated questions and respond to educators. As always, we’re super grateful to all current and former hosts who are collaborating closely to provide this service.
The #TweetMeetXX hashtags for non-English languages are to be used together with #MSFTEduChat so that everyone can find the conversations back in their own language. For example: Portuguese-speaking people use the combination #TweetMeetPT #MSFTEduChat. English-speaking educators may all use #MSFTEduChat on its own.
The monthly #MSFTEduchat TweetMeets by Microsoft Education themselves underwent significant changes in 2018 as well. Our events are now multilingual and more global than ever. Team TweetMeet, which organizes the events, now consists of three people: Marjolein Hoekstra, Francisco Texeira and Anica Tričković.
Last September we decided to move all preparations for these Twitter events to Microsoft Teams. The switch to the Teams platform allows Team TweetMeet and our expert hosts to collaborate more effectively, because it combines the power of group conversations, file sharing and meetings all in one system. Being able to add guests to our teams is an incredible benefit, too.
Celebrating 2.5 years of TweetMeets
The first Microsoft Education TweetMeets were held in the summer of 2016. To celebrate their 2.5 years in existence, and to close 2018 in style, we decided to invite all former hosts to return once again. As many as 143 of these former hosts immediately accepted this invitation. They are very much looking forward to your best experiences, products and resources from 2018.
With so many hosts coming together for this special occasion, we just had to make a video to introduce (or re-introduce) them all to you:
More ways to participate
Post-event summary: We will publish a new post after this #MSFTEduChat event summarizing the key lessons from the conversations during the TweetMeet. The hosts will collaborate to curate a top selection of the tweets and trends they found most significant. For even more highlights from the TweetMeet, the blog post will offer multiple Twitter Moments – curated stories and conversations from Twitter. Look for this blog post on Thursday, December 20.
TweetMeet fan? Show it off on your Twitter profile: Every month more people discover the unique nature of the TweetMeets and become passionate about them. Well, you can now show your passion for the TweetMeets right from your Twitter page. The dimensions of our Twitter Header Photo are 1500×500 – the perfect size for your Twitter profile. Get this month’s image here: #MSFTEduChat Twitter Header Photo.
Why join the #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets?
TweetMeets are monthly recurring Twitter conversations about themes relevant to educators, facilitated by Microsoft Education. The purpose of these events is to help professionals in education to learn from each other and inspire their students while they are preparing for their future. The TweetMeets also nurture personal learning networks among educators from across the globe.
We’re grateful to have a support group made up exclusively of former TweetMeet hosts, who volunteer to translate communication and check the quality of our questions and promotional materials. They also help identify the best candidates for future events, provide relevant resources, promote the events among their networks, and, in general, cheer everybody on.
Our hosts are thrilled about this upcoming TweetMeet. Watch how each of them has their own exciting way of inviting you to the event:
When and how can I join?
Join us Tuesday, December 18 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT on Twitter using the hashtags #MSFTEduChat, #Bestof2018and#MicrosoftEDU (which you can always use to stay in touch with us). To find the event time for your specific location, use this time zone announcer.
From our monthly surveys we know that you may be in class at event time, busy doing other things or maybe even asleep – well, no problem! All educators are most welcome to join after the event. Simply take a look at the questions below and respond to these at a day and time that suit you best. You can also schedule your tweets in advance. In that case, be sure to quote the entire question and mention the hashtag #MSFTEduChat, so that everyone knows the right question and conversation to which you are responding. Mark the exact timings – they are different this month.
How can I best prepare?
To prepare for the #MSFTEduChatTweetMeet, have a look at the questions we crafted this time. Because of the enormous scale of the December event, we will have 4 questions this month. This will give everyone more time to engage with each other.
TweetMeet Questions
Hosts
With 143 educators on this month’s #MSFTEduChat hosts team, it’s not possible to list everyone’s profile in this announcement like we normally do. We did once again make a Twitter list so you can easily follow everyone.
What are #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets?
Every month Microsoft Education organizes social events on Twitter targeted at educators globally. The hashtag we use is #MSFTEduChat. A team of topic specialists and international MIE Expert teachers prepare and host these TweetMeets together. Our team of educator hosts first crafts several questions around a certain topic. Then, before the event, they share these questions on social media. Combined with a range of resources, a blog post and background information about the events, this allows all participants to prepare themselves to the full. Afterwards we make an archive available of the most notable tweets and resources shared during the event.
Please connect with TweetMeet organizer Marjolein Hoekstra @OneNoteC on Twitter if you have any questions about TweetMeets or helping out as a host.
Join for next month’s topic: Transforming classroom time
