Descenders is Now Available on Steam Early Access and is 10% off!*

Descenders is extreme downhill freeriding for the modern era, with procedurally generated worlds, and where mistakes have real consequences. Will you lead your team to glory and become the next legendary Descender?

*Offer ends February 16 at 10AM Pacific Time

Nintendo wants the Switch to appeal to more people, regardless of age or gender, but that desire also represents the device’s biggest obstacle. 

Speaking during its quarterly investor Q&A, a number of Nintendo heads weighed in on the risks facing the Switch now that it’s approaching the end of its first year on the market. 

One way Nintendo is looking to expand the age range the Switch appeals to is through products like Nintendo Labo. While the cardboard-creation kit is, on the surface, geared at children, Nintendo director and managing executive officer Shinya Takahashi says that Labo serves to introduce the Switch to parents as well.

“We introduced Nintendo Labo the other day as one way of addressing that issue,” says Takahashi. “By creating an environment where parents and children can play together, and where children can play under adult supervision, we hope to gain even the interest of people like mothers.”

The key to expanding the Switch’s appeal lays with finding more ways to leverage the unique features of the Switch and introduce new forms of play, explains the panel.

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto says that the idea is to popularize the Nintendo Switch to the point where the device can exist between smart devices and other video game systems all on its own. That ideal situation would eliminate the bulk of the risk surrounding the hardware in its current state and open the company up to creating “new and very Nintendo genres of play.”

Hello again, Xbox Insiders!  Whenever we announce a System Update Preview with new features, one of the more common questions we see is “When will [this feature] be available for Preview?” We know you’re excited to try out everything an update has to offer, but in some situations we announce an upcoming feature for Preview that won’t necessarily be in the very first build we release. This is especially true for our Alpha members, who get the updates earlier than other members of the Xbox Insider Program. Another thing to keep in mind when reviewing early System Update Preview Announcements is that there are also instances when a feature is only released to a specific Preview group for testing, and sometimes doesn’t leave a particular ring when the update is released to the public.

So, how can you be sure a feature is actually available for testing when we release an update? The best way to know what features are immediately available in a particular build is by checking the Xbox Insider Hub app. We put all of the latest Preview update information directly in the app so you can see what’s new in each build, along with information about fixes we’ve made and even known issues with a specific Preview update.  You can also find that information here on the Xbox Insider Blog, as well as the Preview Announcements section of the Xbox Forums.

So what should you do if you don’t see a particular feature that you believe should be available to your current Preview ring? Let us know by reporting it through the “Report a Problem” tool on your console. When you do submit feedback, make sure to include what specific feature you are expecting to see in your description. These brief details really help us narrow down what might be going on.

We continue to look forward to your input on upcoming features and updates and want to thank you again for all your valuable feedback!

-Jon

Nintendo has waved goodbye to one of its most influential – and longest serving – voices with the news that producer and developer Takehiro Izushi has officially retired at the age of 65. 

The legendary figurehead joined Nintendo in 1975, where he was involved in the mechanical design of the Beam Gun Custom, a series of wooden, beam-rifle toys. He went on to play an influential role on the Game & Watch line, including programming Donkey Kong for the Multi Screen series in 1982.

He continued to make a significant impact in both Nintendo’s hardware and software development, working on Game Boy Colour in the mid to late ’90s and several Pokémon titles. He’s worked on plenty of entries in the Fire Emblem series (including Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 on Super Famicom and The Binding Blade/The Blazing Blade for Game Boy Advance), and even worked on Star Wars Episode I: Racer. Izushi-san stepped away from development in 2014 to serve on the General Affairs team. It’s staggering to think the man spent 43 years helping shape many of Nintendo’s most important consoles and games.

Let us know what you make of the news of Izushi-san’s departure.It’s sad news to hear, but incredible to know how storied his career has been.

Planetoid Pioneers is Now Available on Steam and is up to 25% off!*

Welcome to Planetoid Pioneers, a cooperative sci-fi Physicsvania where kooky old astronauts fall over themselves with QWOP-like action to explore the Asteroid Belt beyond Mars. It’s been built on the unique Crush2D physics engine and can be played on your couch with or against your friends in seamless pick-up-and-play Co-Op and PvP action.

To celebrate the launch from Steam Early Access, the Contributor Edition is 25% off*. Owners of Cortex Command receive an additional 25% off the Contributor Edition.*

*Offers end February 15 at 9AM Pacific Time

We just moved into a new office this week, so we don’t have very much to show you in a new snapshot. That said, have a new snapshot anyway! It has some bug fixes so that’s always fun.

Following the news last week that the Update Aquatic has been merged into Minecraft 1.13, Dinnerbone tweets:

Don’t expect any Update Aquatic features this week. We want to get all the technical changes out before we start snapshotting new content again.

A full changelog can be found on Minecraft.net:

• Added new command /bossbar
• Added really basic entity selector suggestions in the command UI (@eetc)
• Updated translations from crowdin
• Fixed bug MC-4923 – Flint and steel and fire charges can place fire at invalid positions
• Fixed bug MC-5037 – Riding a pig / horse with a cape causes it to not behave as expected
• Fixed bug [………….] x 9

This command allows you to create a custom boss bar, change how it looks, and choose who to show it to.

To create a bossbar called foo:bar, use /bossbar create foo:bar "Name of my boss bar".

[…]

Bossbars persist across restarts and leaving/rejoining the world. If a player is added to a boss bar and reconnects, they will be re-added to the bossbar unless a new set .. players is ran without them in it.

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 1.13 will have a lot of experimental snapshots that may break everything and smell funny. This may be one of those snapshots. This is what happens when Mojang are changing all the things! 

Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!