Pokemon Sword And Shield Had A Record-Breaking Opening Weekend
We recently saw Pokemon Sword and Shield had a striking debut in Japan, but now Nintendo has released worldwide numbers, and they're big. Fat Pikachu big. In fact, the latest from Game Freak has broken a franchise record, and very likely rocketed to a spot among the top-selling Switch games.
According to Nintendo, the game has sold 6 million units worldwide during the launch weekend alone. Nintendo notes this figure is reported sell-through to consumers. Sword and Shield also sold 2 million copies in the first two days in the United States, which makes it the highest-grossing Pokemon launch.
Given the current figures on the Nintendo Switch sales charts, that debut of 6 million already makes Pokemon Sword and Shield the #8 spot in all-time sales. That presumes the others below it--New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Super Mario Maker 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening--remain in their current positions. But given that this is just first-weekend sales for Pokemon we can expect its numbers to grow throughout the holiday season as well. The next Nintendo earnings report will refresh the sales charts early next year, factoring in software sales through the end of the year.
It's not surprising to see Pokemon rise quickly through the charts, however. The all-time 3DS sales charts show Pokemon games composing three of the top five spots. Those are occupied by Pokemon X/Y, Sun/Moon, and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, respectively.
"In collecting, battling, and exploring, Sword and Shield cut out the bloat and focus on what makes these pillars of the Pokemon games so captivating in the first place," Kallie Plagge wrote in GameSpot's review. "You're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokemon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way. This leaves you free to enjoy what Pokemon is all about, and that makes for an incredibly strong showing for the series' proper debut on Switch."
Today Epic Games have announced the acquisition of Quixel, the maker of the massive MegaScans PBR texturing library as well as texture creation and management tools Quixel Bridge and Mixer. The acquisition is a gigantic boon for Unreal Engine developers, as they will get access to the massive texture libraries for free! Additionally, even non-UE4 users benefit from this deal, as Megascans subscriptions are being improved and Mixer and Bridge 2020 are both being released for free!
Today we are thrilled to announce that Quixel, creator of the world’s largest photogrammetry asset library and bundled toolset, has joined the Epic Games family! Founded in 2011, Quixel is based in Sweden, and over 100 employees across six countries worldwide are joining the Epic Games team. Quixel’s products include Megascans, an extensive library of 2D and 3D photogrammetry assets, supported by companion applications Bridge and Mixer.
[SNIP]
As part of making the Quixel Megascans library of more than 10,000 assets free for all use with Unreal Engine, ten high-resolution packs have been shared today for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace, as well as assets from the popular Iceland collection used in the “Rebirth” cinematic short. Additional asset packs will be made available for free on the Marketplace at a future date within the Unreal Engine 4.24 release timeframe.
And more details from the Quixel blog:
Megascans becomes free for use with Unreal Engine
The Megascans library is now completely free for use with Unreal Engine.
That means that if you are using Megascans with UE4, you get free, unlimited, and instant access to all of Megascans through Bridge and Mixer, and a wealth of Megascans packs on the Unreal Engine Marketplace. Ten high-resolution packs have been shared today for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace, with additional asset packs being made available for free on the Marketplace at a future date within the Unreal Engine 4.24 release timeframe. This way, you can access the content in whatever way you prefer.
If you’re using Megascans only with UE4, we’ll refund all of your subscriptions for 2019. If you have an active subscription, log in to find out how to obtain a refund. If you have made Megascans purchases in 2019, but do not have an active subscription, we’ll reach out to you regarding refunds.
Megascans subscription prices lowered for everyone
Furthermore, with the generous backing of Epic, we’re immediately slashing the pricing of Megascans, giving you nearly twice as much content to download, and removing the resolution cap—for everyone, regardless of what engine, DCC or renderer you love and rely on. We’re also giving you a refund for the remaining duration of your subscription period to allow you to hop onto one of our new plans. If you have an active subscription, log in to find out how to obtain a refund.
Bridge and Mixer 2020 will be 100% free for everyone
But that’s not all. Epic is helping us make the upcoming 2020 versions of Bridge and Mixer 100% free for everyone, with no subscription required and both fully featured. We are releasing these new free versions within a few weeks from now and I’m thrilled to finally be able to share with you the upcoming updates.
Excellent news all around! If you want to learn more, be sure to check out our video below. If you want to see Quixel in action, be sure to check out our earlier hands-on video.
By William Gallagher Wednesday, November 20, 2019, 12:46 pm PT (03:46 pm ET)
The CEO of influential magazine publisher Conde Nast says he hopes Apple News+ will be a success, but so far “the jury is out,” and his company hasn’t seen the expected impact.
Magazines in Apple News+ on an iPad (Source: Apple)
Roger Lynch, CEO of publisher Conde Nast, says its magazines —including Vanity Fair and Conde Nast Traveler —have yet to see the success on Apple News+ that was expected. The company, whose titles regularly reach 84 million readers across print and digital services, had an initial burst of new subscribers but that interest failed to continue.
According to Variety, Lynch was talking at the Recode Code Media conference about issues including both publishing and streaming.
“I hope Apple News+ is wildly successful,” he said. “[However] I think the jury is out.”
Conde Nast was one of the original publishers on Apple News+ when it launched in the US and Canada in March 2019. Lynch says that, as reported on AppleInsider within the first 48 hours of that launch, Apple News+ signed up 200,000 subscribers, but has struggled to grow further.
Apple News+ subscriptions begin with a free month’s trial, but Lynch said he was specifically talking about paying ones, so people who continued after that initial period. Users pay a single subscription and publishers earn part of their revenue through a share of that fee —the rest through advertising and selling direct subscriptions —though Lynch declined to say how much the company had earned.
He did speak to an issue that has previously concerned other publishers, that of the comparatively low price Apple News+ subscription undercutting other firms. Lynch was asked about how it affects publishers trying to build their own services, and whether it meant users could circumvent paywalls.
“We haven’t seen that effect,” he said.
Magazines on Apple News+
Lynch joined Conde Nast in April, so after the firm negotiated terms with Apple for the service, but says the publisher could ultimately quit Apple News+ if necessary. “Over time, we have options,” he said.
While Apple News+ has been available in the US and Canada for most of the year, it only began in the UK and Australia countries in September. Publishers in Europe have reported that the service is paying off for them, if not dramatically.
“We’re seeing quite good traffic from Apple News,” said one unnamed publishing executive, “but the revenue is not show-stopping.”
Nonetheless, rival organisations are seeing the potential value of a news service and CNN is reported to be planning its own competitor to Apple news+, as is Mozilla.
These services are available with a free account from the Fedora Accounts System (FAS). This account is the passport to all things Fedora! This article covers how to get set up with an account and configure Fedora Workstation for browser single sign-on.
Signing up for a Fedora account
To create a FAS account, browse to the account creation page. Here, you will fill out your basic identity data:
Account creation page
Once you enter your data, the account system sends an email to the address you provided, with a temporary password. Pick a strong password and use it.
Password reset page
Next, the account details page appears. If you want to contribute to the Fedora Project, you should complete the Contributor Agreement now. Otherwise, you are done and you can use your account to log into the various Fedora services.
Account details page
Configuring Fedora Workstation for single sign-On
Now that you have your account, you can sign into any of the Fedora Project services. Most of these services support single sign-on (SSO), so you can sign in without re-entering your username and password.
Fedora Workstation provides an easy workflow to add your Fedora credentials. The GNOME Online Accounts tool helps you quickly set up your system to access many popular services. To access it, go to the Settings menu.
Click on the option labeled Fedora. A prompt opens for you to provide your username and password for your Fedora Account.
GNOME Online Accounts stores your password in GNOME Keyring and automatically acquires your single-sign-on credentials for you when you log in.
Single sign-on with a web browser
Today, Fedora Workstation supports three web browsers out of the box with support for single sign-on with the Fedora Project services. These are Mozilla Firefox, GNOME Web, and Google Chrome.
Due to a bug in Chromium, single sign-on doesn’t work currently if you have more than one set of Kerberos (SSO) credentials active on your session. As a result, Fedora doesn’t enable this function out of the box for Chromium in Fedora.
To sign on to a service, browse to it and select the login option for that service. For most Fedora services, this is all you need to do; the browser handles the rest. Some services such as the Fedora mailing lists and Bugzilla support multiple login types. For them, select the Fedora or Fedora Account System login type.
That’s it! You can now log into any of the Fedora Project services without re-entering your password.
Special consideration for Google Chrome
To enable single sign-on out of the box for Google Chrome, Fedora takes advantage of certain features in Chrome that are intended for use in “managed” environments. A managed environment is traditionally a corporate or other organization that sets certain security and/or monitoring requirements on the browser.
Recently, Google Chrome changed its behavior and it now reports Managed by your organization or possibly Managed by fedoraproject.org under the ⋮ menu in Google Chrome. That link leads to a page that says, “If your Chrome browser is managed, your administrator can set up or restrict certain features, install extensions, monitor activity, and control how you use Chrome.” However, Fedora will never monitor your browser activity or restrict your actions.
Enter chrome://policy in the address bar to see exactly what settings Fedora has enabled in the browser. The AuthNegotiateDelegateWhitelist and AuthServerWhitelist options will be set to *.fedoraproject.org. These are the only changes Fedora makes.
Level-5’s Snack World Is Finally Making Its Way To The West
Level-5’s Snack World is finally making its western console debut in Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold, which is due to launch Nintendo Switch on 14th February 2020.
A fantasy RPG with a storyline that combines humour and technology, Snack World is part of a multimedia franchise which includes toys, TV shows and – of course – video games. The series started on the 3DS with The Snack World: Trejarers in 2017, but it never made it out of Japan. Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold is an expanded version of the 3DS game, released in Japan under the title The Snack World Trejarers Gold.
Here’s the PR:
What happens when high fantasy, high comedy and a high-tech setting collide? A veritable feast of thrilling action, saucy snark and outrageous food puns! SNACK WORLD: THE DUNGEON CRAWL — GOLD, the one-of-a-kind dungeon crawling RPG from LEVEL-5, arrives on Nintendo Switch on 14th February, 2020. Check out the Announcement trailer on our YouTube channel.
Danger threatens Snack World when the evil mogul Sultan Vinegar attempts to resurrect the Deodragon, Smörg Åsbord. In this quirky adventure, customise your character and join the heroic treasure hunters Chup, Mayonna and the gang as they make their way through a slapstick comedy-filled quest to restore order to the land of Tutti-Frutti.
Before setting out, prepare for the next adventure by shopping at curiously state-of-the-art convenience stores for supplies, optimising your gear and more. During your crawl through each procedurally-generated dungeon, search for rare treasure and loot while dodging treacherous traps and defeating brutal bosses. Use ‘snacks’ to summon special allies that assist in battles; switch up your equipment, called ‘jaras’, on the fly; and capitalize on consumables to gain an edge in combat. Team up with friends to take down big bosses with even bigger attitudes in online* and local co-op for up to four players.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-21-2019, 12:31 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Pokemon Sword And Shield Sell Big In Japan In First Week
Pokemon Sword and Shield are, perhaps unsurprisingly, off to a strong start in Nintendo's native Japan. According to Famitsu (via Gematsu), the pair of Pokemon games sold a combined 1.36 million retail copies within their first three days. That makes it the best-selling opening week for a Switch game in Japan, surpassing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's 1.23 million.
That number is already a strong debut, but even stronger when you consider that the figure only includes physical game copies and download codes, not digital sales directly through the Eshop. When Nintendo factors digital sales, as well as those from other territories, it's bound to grow substantially.
Those strong sales make it likely to appear on a future edition of Nintendo's all-time sales charts. Pokemon games tend to make appearances on those charts. Currently Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee occupy the #5 spot for all-time Switch software sales, with 11.28 million units. For a look at how dominant Pokemon can be, though, the 3DS chart shows a Pokemon game occupying three of the top five, bested only by Mario Kart 7.
"In collecting, battling, and exploring, Sword and Shield cut out the bloat and focus on what makes these pillars of the Pokemon games so captivating in the first place," Kallie Plagge wrote in GameSpot's review. "You're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokemon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way. This leaves you free to enjoy what Pokemon is all about, and that makes for an incredibly strong showing for the series' proper debut on Switch."
There is another Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, this one is the Humble Music and Sound Effects for Games, Films, and Content Creators Bundle. It is a collection of audio resources including music packs, special FX and voice overs. As always the bundles are organized into pricing tiers, where if you buy a higher dollar value tier, you get all of the lower value tiers below it.
The tiers of this bundle are:
1$
Cute GUI Sound Set
Christmas Music Pack
Christmas Ambience Pack
Christmas SFX Pack
Sassy Character Sidekick Voicepack
Aggressive Female Celebratory Phrases
Voice Over Young Male
RTS Game Orc Troop Voice
Game Jingles and 8-Bit Sound FX
SHMUP Music Pack
Casino SFX Pack Lite
Home and Office SFX Pack Lite
13$
Pirate Game Sounds Pack
Horror Music Atmospheres
Fantasy Game Sounds
Evil Alien Tech Sound Pack
Horror SFX Pack
Short Female Interjections
Sword & Knife SFX
Horror & Halloween Character Voice Pack
RTS Game Builder Goblin Voice
RTS Game Hero Troop Voice
RTS Game Hero Builder Voice
WW2 Soldier Voices
Retro Platformer SFX Pack
8Bit Brave Adventure 4 Pack
Footstep Sounds
25$
Mega Music Collection
Dark Fantasy Studio Megapack
Puzzle SFX Pack
Puzzle Music Pack
Zombie Voice Samples
Cowboy Voice Samples
Gun Sound Pack
Sci Fi Sounds and Sci Fi Weapons
Aggressive Female MOBA Style Voicepack
Aggressive Female Guiding Voice Voicepack
Fighting Game Announcer With Effects
RPG Magic SFX Pack 2
Casual Game SFX Pack
Fantasy/RPG Music Pack
RPG Battle Themes
Pixel Platformer Music Pack
As with all Humble Bundles, you get to decide how your money is allocated, between the publisher, Humble, charity, or if you so choose (and thanks a ton if you do!) to support GameFromScratch using this link. You can learn more about the bundle in the video below. The license terms of the bundle are available here.
This is the Police spin-off ‘Rebel Cops’ is coming to mobile
By Joe Robinson19 Nov 2019
Admittedly, we weren’t the biggest fans of This is the Police. While the management/tactical strategy series had potential, a lot of it was wasted on terrible characters and a questionable premise, which is something that wasn’t really addressed in the sequel either (despite other improvements).
One thing that always worked well though, regardless of everything around it, were the tactical battles. Perhaps the developers realised this too because in September this year they released Rebel Cops, a spin-off to This is the Police that focuses purely on the tactical strategy elements. To summarize from the official blurb:
Lead a ragtag squad of cops in rebellion against their town’s new criminal power to see how long you can hold out when you’re constantly short on supplies and a single shot can cost a cop their life.
It still sounds like it’s trying to be edgy, but you can forgive a lot with an engaging tactical layer, so on paper this still has potential. As the headline states, this is now coming to mobile, which is why we care:
There’s no release window, other than “soon”, sadly, but we do know that it’ll contain roughly 15 hours of gameplay, will be a premium title, and won’t contain ads or micro-transactions (and it’s not going to Apple Arcade). We’ll let you know more as it comes in.
Keep an eye out for when Rebel Cops releases on iOS and Android.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-20-2019, 05:43 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Microsoft Azure now available from new cloud datacenter regions in Norway
Today, we’re announcing the availability of Microsoft Azure from our new cloud datacenter regions in Norway, marking a major milestone as the first global cloud provider to deliver enterprise-grade services in the country. These new regions demonstrate our ongoing investment to help enable digital transformation and advance intelligent cloud and intelligent edge computing technologies across both commercial and public sectors.
DNB, Equinor, Lånekassen, and Posten are just a few of the customers and partners leveraging our cloud services to accelerate innovation and increase computing resources. This new offering of Microsoft Azure delivers scalable, highly available, and resilient cloud services to Norwegian companies and organizations while meeting data residency, security, and compliance needs.
Our President, Brad Smith, recently visited Norway to celebrate this important launch and to discuss how vital trust is for those we serve, not only to help bring forth innovation but to ensure our customers are protected.
“Our customers have entrusted us to protect, operate, and develop our platform in a way that keeps their data private and secure. This is an immense responsibility that we can’t just claim, but a responsibility that we must earn every single day.” – Brad Smith, President, Microsoft
Accelerating digital transformation in Norway
As we further our expansion commitment, we consider the demand for locally delivered cloud services and the opportunity for digital transformation in the market. Azure enables our customers and partners to increase their utilization of public cloud services and accelerate investments into private and hybrid cloud solutions. Norwegian organizations can now embrace these benefits to further innovation and build digital businesses at scale. Below are just a few of the customers and partners embracing Microsoft Azure in Norway.
The Norwegian banking industry is recognized for its rapid technology adoption, digitalizing the services that build the best products for customers. As Norway’s largest financial services group, DNB Group is a major operator in several industries, for which they also have a Nordic or international strategy. With Microsoft Azure, DNB will be able to migrate to the cloud in accordance with Norwegian data handling regulations to modernize, gain operational efficiency, and secure the best experience for its customers.
“The possibility of data residency was a decisive factor in choosing Microsoft’s datacenter regions. Now we are looking forward to using the cloud to modernize and achieve efficiency and agility in order to ensure the best experience for our customers.” – Alf Otterstad, Executive Vice President, Group IT, DNB
Equinor, a broad energy company developing oil, gas, wind, and solar energy in more than 30 countries worldwide, has chosen Microsoft Azure to enable its digital transformation journey through a seven-year consumption and development agreement. With this strategic partnership, anchored in cloud-enabled innovation, and by moving its whole system portfolio to Azure, Equinor is aiming to achieve a more cost-efficient, safer, and more reliable operation. Equinor will utilize a variety of cloud services like machine learning and advanced analytics to improve performance, decrease costs, and increase safety. Through the partnership with Microsoft and leveraging capabilities within Azure, Equinor seeks to be a leader in the transformation of the energy industry worldwide and a growing force in renewables.
“Equinor’s ambition is to become a global digital leader within our industry. We have a long history of innovation and technology development. The strategic partnership will, through cloud services, involve development of the next-generation IT workplace, extended business application platforms, and mixed-reality solutions.” – Åshild Hanne Larsen, CIO and SVP, Corporate IT Equinor
Lånekassen, the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund, has over 1.1 million customers, composed of former and current students. By moving to Azure, it seeks to develop new and transformative citizen services, based on cognitive and analytical technologies. Lånekassen’s purpose is to make education possible, and to provide the Norwegian workforce with relevant competences. It aims to strengthen student funding as well as maintain and increase the already high level of automatized customer services and application processes.
“It has been a priority for Lånekassen to focus on how we can utilize new technology to deliver an even better service for our students and manage our student financing schemes even more efficiently. As we move our core solutions into the cloud, it will give us increased opportunities to innovate. We have already had great success with using machine learning, and we are now looking forward to optimizing our operations further.” – Nina Schanke Funnemark, CEO, Lånekassen
Posten Norge AS has chosen to use the Microsoft Azure platform to meet ever-changing market demands by modernizing some of its existing applications estate and creating new services for its customers and partners. Posten’s next-generation logistics system will provide its workforcewith new digital toolsets to deliver even better customer experiences.
“Posten’s vision is to make everyday life simpler and the world smaller. With this vision, we aim to simplify and increase the value of trade and communication for people and businesses in the Nordic region. With the opening of Norwegian datacenter regions, we hope to accelerate and fuel our vision further.” – Arne Erik Berntzen, CIO, Posten AS
Bringing the complete cloud to Norway
The new cloud regions in Norway connect with Microsoft’s 54 regions via our global network, one of the largest and most innovative on the planet, spanning more than 130,000 miles of terrestrial fiber and subsea cable systems to deliver services to customers. Microsoft brings the global cloud closer to home for Norwegian organizations and citizens through our transatlantic system Marea, the highest-capacity subsea cable to cross the Atlantic.
The new cloud regions in Norway are targeted to expand in 2020 with Office 365, one of the world’s leading cloud-based productivity solutions, and Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, the next generation of intelligent business applications and tools.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-20-2019, 05:43 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
‘Where is my package?’ Easing the pains of courier delays
Making sure no parcel is missed
Delivering over 40 million shipments every year, Romania’s preferred courier company Urgent Cargus is taking it one step further. With its system managing between 110,000 – 150,000 shipments at any given time and a fleet of over 2,600 courier vehicles, Urgent Cargus found itself handling millions of different requests. In such a large operation, with an even larger volume of orders to fulfill, the company needed a way to predict how much data processing and storage was required to deliver on its commitment to customers.
“We operate in an unpredictable industry. Depending on the season or festivity, we often find ourselves needing to handle a very high volume of deliveries throughout the year,” said Chief Information Officer, Marian Pletea at Urgent Cargus. “There can be as many as more than one million new requests every 24 hours, which makes it impossible to predict what data storage resource we require.”
“We also wanted to mitigate the risk of system downtime. Without the right availability, we don’t ship parcels at the right rate, nor receive the customers’ bookings, which could lead to serious business blockages.”
To address this issue, Urgent Cargus moved its customer job booking application onto the cloud and adopted a Platform-as-a-Service approach – purchasing additional resources when and if they need it. A move that gives a self-service option to customers, from booking to invoicing, as well as minimizing the risk of downtime in the event of an unpredictable peak.
According to Marian: “We recognize AI as a transformative technology, which is why we’re testing it to automate certain services to make our customers’ lives easier. This will also free-up our employees to tackle more.”
Data driving cross-border deliveries
With parcels placed into the system, sorted and distributed, companies like Budapest-headquartered Waberer’s International specialize in delivering goods and supplies over long-distances across Europe – getting packages to their destination as quickly as possible. Racking up nearly 500 million kilometres of road travel each year, the company meets demanding customer requirement with a fleet of over 4,300 modern vehicles and its bespoke logistics warehouse.
Needing to move away from hand-written notes and paper-based spreadsheets, Waberer’s International digitized its scheduling processes to better account for every journey and the over 1,000 transactions they process each day. With the help of AI, the company developed a planning platform called WIPE. WIPE uses complex algorithms to allocate drivers, load and journey schedules in the most efficient way. It’s a one-stop-shop for Waberer’s International to oversee all of their logistical operations in one place. This automated process means the business can track deliveries at all times and decide where and when resources are best placed.
In addition to driving efficiencies in resourcing and deliveries, the company has also been able to improve bottom-line performance. Thanks to the automated truck scheduling function, Waberer’s International achieved a better than an industry-average loaded ratio of 92%.
With an ever-increasing and demanding customer base, and some retailers promising same-day delivery, there’s no doubt that postal services and logistics companies face many challenges.
By digitizing processes and gleaning predictive insights with technology like the cloud and AI, these examples show how data-driven decisions make processes more efficient and customers more satisfied. Perhaps AI should be top of everyone’s wish list this year!
