Businesses of all sizes are experiencing exceptional disruption and change as they grapple with strategies to stabilize and return to growth. In this new environment, human ingenuity, innovation and adaptability will be critically important.

As a result of COVID-19, businesses’ digital transformation is accelerating more rapidly than ever before. As Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, recently observed during our earnings announcement, “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.”

However, as people move to distributed working and companies move essential workloads to the cloud, what isn’t instantly apparent is the growing role artificial intelligence (AI) is playing at the heart of digital transformation. For some organizations, its use had already accelerated. Others are looking at bringing forward the benefits AI can deliver.

AI is helping us discover, learn, ideate and make decisions. It’s making business operations more efficient, enhancing product and service development, and enabling new customer experiences. In industries like health care, it’s helping improve patient outcomes and save lives.

Before the pandemic, most of our customers were addressing a similar challenge: How do they ensure their people have the right skills and mindset to thrive in a world where AI is driving real business impact?

To learn more, Microsoft carried out a major international research project* focusing on AI and skills, and discovered the most successful organizations are as focused on developing the skills of their people as they are with deploying new AI-powered technology.

The business environment has changed significantly over the past few months, but the insights we gathered from our research, and the roadmap they provide, still hold true.

The core finding: “In this new environment, companies will need ingenuity to help restart their businesses,” says Azeem Azhar, AI industry expert and founder of the Exponential View. “In the context of new rules for engaging with customers, partners and stakeholders, innovative and adaptable organizations will do better. This research identifies that AI-leading firms are better positioned because they are investing more in a wide range of skills and are more focused on how new technology can augment their workers.”

Today, we are proud to announce that Jeff Ma has joined Microsoft as General Manager of Microsoft for Startups supporting our global efforts around the world. If you have ever seen the hit movie 21, you already know part of his story. Based on their mastery of mathematics and probability, Jeff and his fellow MIT friends were able to win millions in Las Vegas through their ingenious approach to card-counting which inspired the film. Since then Jeff has launched four successful companies including CircleLending (sold to Virgin) Citizen Sports (sold to Yahoo) and tenXer (sold to Twitter.)

Beyond his work as a founder, Ma is a best-selling author and speaker who has applied his deep understanding of analytics to help professional sports teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Portland Trail Blazers and media powerhouses like ESPN and Major League Baseball Advanced Media make better decisions using data.

We had the chance to catch up with Jeff and ask him a few questions.

Can you tell us what led you to Microsoft for Startups?

As a four-time founder myself, I understand and have deep empathy for the startup journey and what founders need to build a successful business. The prospect of working with startups with the incredible backdrop of Microsoft was extremely exciting.

Before I was even approached about the position, I was speaking with a friend about Microsoft’s resurgence in the past few years. We discussed how under Satya’s leadership the company’s culture has evolved in a meaningful way. By culture, I mean the cumulative effect of what people within the company do and more importantly how they do it. When I began to meet with people within the company, I was struck by their commitment to diversity and inclusion. The level of investment in supporting traditionally underrepresented communities was something that really resonated with me on a personal level.

What exactly does the Head of Microsoft for Startups do in role?

My responsibility will be to lead our Microsoft for Startups efforts in the 140 countries it services around the world. I’ll also work closely across the company to ensure that startups have pathways to learn about and leverage the best that Microsoft has to offer.

Is there a specific area that you’re passionate in supporting?

Earlier this year, Microsoft for Startups partnered with PitchBook and All Raise to launch a report that looked at the latest data and trends for gender diversity in the VC ecosystem. Analyzing 2019 data, the report delved into current investment trends across the US, looking at how valuations, investment sizes, time to exit and other measures differ by gender, as well as the impact women have as investors on the entrepreneurial gender gap. I’m looking forward to exploring how we can improve the equation for female founders in a substantive way.

What will be at the top of your list of action items?

From a technology standpoint, we currently offer startups up to $120k of Azure cloud credits as well as access to powerful tools like GitHub Enterprise and Visual Studio – I’ll be looking at ways we can expand that portfolio. On the business side, we offer a streamlined path for startups to sell alongside Microsoft. In the past year alone startups in the program are on track to secure over a $1BN dollars in sales opportunities. Particularly in today’s environment, I will be working with the team to make it dead simple for startups to connect their innovative solutions with Fortune 1000 companies.

The release date for the upcoming bubble gum brawler Ninjala has been postponed by a month. Yes, just a week after the beta test – which experienced some technical issues, GungHo Online Entertainment’s official Twitter account for the game has now announced it’ll be arriving on 25th June instead of 28th May.

The delay is tied to the spread of coronavirus, although the developer did not go into any detail beyond this. It’s not the first thing to be impacted by the global pandemic – with many gaming conventions being called off, and various other titles such as The Outer Worlds being delayed.

Believe it or not, but Ninjala was first revealed at Nintendo’s E3 Direct in 2018. When it does finally arrive on the Switch eShop, it’ll be a free download for all users. Will you trying it out on release? What did you think of the beta? Share your thoughts below.

This is a small trick I learned the hard way. When working through the massive amounts of emails, I often wondered: how to get only the unread ones in Gmail that are also in the primary tab?

Queries like these happen quite frequently when working with Gmail. As it turns out, there’s a simple solution:

Simply type the following command in your search bar:

in: category:primary is:unread

For coders, this is an easily understandable filter operation. We want to retrieve all emails from your inbox (in:) that are also in your primary tab (category:primary) and that are also unread (is:unread).

As it turns out, Gmail comes with powerful filtering options even way beyond what you’ve seen here. Here are all the search and filtering operators in Gmail (screenshot from this source):

Simply bookmark this page and come back if you run into the next Gmail search issue.

Yesterday we talked about Rider for Unreal Engine, but did you also know that Rider can be used to develop Godot games as well?

There are a few things you are going to need to get started.  First off obviously is JetBrain’s Rider, which is available with in a 30 day free trial.  However if you are a student or are an open source contributor there are free licenses available.

Next you are going to need to download and install the Godot plugin from the JetBrains plugin repository.  Simply click the blue Get button to download the required zip file.  By the way, there is also a community contributed GDScript plugin available here, but that is not what we will be covering today.

To install the plugin simply select File->Settings, locate the Plugins option on the left, then click the Gear icon and select Install Plugin from Disk…

Then select the just downloaded zip file.  This will now required a restart of the IDE.  You now have Godot support in Rider.

In Godot you do need to enable Mono debugging however.  This is available under Project->Project Settings, then on the left hand side locate Mono->Debugger Agent, then turn on Wait for Debugger.

You can see the entire process in action in the video below.  If you Rider isn’t your IDE of choice, perhaps you want to check out using Visual Studio Code with Godot instead.

GameDev News Applications Godot

And the winner of the most ridiculous video game title of all time goes to… Romancing Saga Reuniverse. Let’s all give it a big round of applause. It’s an upcoming brand new entry in the long-running JRPG series that rolls the clock right back to a time when pixels were cool.

It takes place in a world trapped in a cycle of destruction, with an apocalypse ending life every 300 years. This is all thanks to a group known as the Sinistrals, who As is ever the case with JRPGs, it’s your job to gather up a big party of heroic individuals and put a stop to the bad guys once and for all.

And you do that Gacha-style. This is a free-to-play RPG that features all of the usual trimmings: summoning heroes, automatic battles, and grinding for upgrade resources. It also shares a lot in common with its JRPG forebears though, with gorgeous hand-drawn character art, beautiful pixel visuals, and a bunch of roles and skills to unlock for each character.

It’s not the first entry in the series to arrive on mobile. Romancing Saga 2, 3, and Saga: Scarlet Grace, a port of the PlayStation Vita entry, are all available right now on the App Store or Google Play.

At this point, you’ve probably got a good idea about whether or not you want to play this. If you’re in the former camp, and can’t wait to check it out, you can pre-register right now on the App Store or Google Play. According to the App Store, Romancing Saga Reuniverse will launch on mobile on June 23.