Sony’s PlayStation 4 has now sold more units than Nintendo’s super-popular Wii, becoming the second best-selling home console of all time.

As you’ll no doubt be aware, the Wii was a hugely successful release for Nintendo, going on to shift 101.63 million units in its lifetime alongside 920.96 million software sales. Gaming consoles don’t regularly reach these mighty figures, but the PlayStation 4 has now sold 102.8 million units (as of 30th September 2019).

The news comes from Sony’s second-quarter earnings report released today, where the company revealed it has sold 2.8 million PlayStation 4 consoles between July and September this year. The new lifetime total also overtakes the original PlayStation (102.4 million units), and is now only overshadowed by the PlayStation 2’s total of 155.0 million.

Nintendo shouldn’t feel too disheartened, though; the Game Boy and Nintendo DS systems are still ahead of the PS4 at present, with 118.69 million and 154.02 million unit sales respectively. The Nintendo Switch surpassed 36 million sales after around two and a half years on the market, with many more years of shelf time to come, we’d expect.

Did you think the PS4 would defeat the mighty Wii? Do you think Switch will be able to go one better down the line? Share your thoughts with us below.

Humble are running a new bundle of interest to game developers, the Humble Learn and Play VR-AR Game Dev Bundle.  This is a collection of courses by Zenva on the topics of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality development using the Unity game engine.  Additionally it contains several VR games as well, each redeemed on Steam.

As always the bundle is broken into tiers, this bundle’s tiers are:

1$

• Intro to Augmented Realitry
• Intro to Game Development with Unity
• Create Your First 3D Game with Unity
• VR Game Development for Beginners
• VR Game Development with Controllers
• Insect Revolution VR

11$

• AR Projects – Job Training App
• AR Projects – Geology App
• VR Pointers – Space Station App
• VR Projects – Night with Mosquitos Game
• VR Projects – Space Invaders
• Intro to ARKit
• Intro to ARCore
• AR Projects Science App For Kids

20$

• Project Based Oculus Avatars and Platform SDK
• VR Projects 360 Photos Experience
• VR Projects 360 Video Quiz App
• VR Projects Puzzle Game
• VR Projects Fitness Game
• VR Projects Cabin Experience
• VR Projects Third Person Platformer Game
• VR Projects Underwater Shark Experience
• VR Projects First Person Shooter
• VR Projects Build an RPG
• AR Game Development Space Shooter
• VR Projects Exploration Game
• Stunt Kite Masters VR
• Devil and the Fairy

As with all Humble bundles, you can decide how your money is allocated, between the Publisher, Humble, Charity or if you choose (and thanks if you do!) GameFromScratch by using this link.  You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.

GameDev News VR

After a release on Monday, Apple’s AirPods Pro are available for purchase at retail now. There are some features that set them aside from Apple’s previous offerings, so let’s take a look at all of them.

Apple’s AirPods Pro

Wind-proofed Mic

The microphones on the new AirPods Pro now reside on the outside of the earpiece, rather than at the bottom of the stem.

It now has an expanded mesh microphone port versus the older AirPods, which drastically improves call quality while out and about. In our testing so far in a variety of fall weather conditions, including sun, wind, and rain, the relocation and mesh have made a big improvement in audio quality based on feedback from our call recipients.

An improved microphone cuts down wind during phone calls

Audio Transparency mode

The microphone array on the AirPods Pro don’t just improve call quality. They make Transparency Mode possible. Transparency Mode allows users to hear what is going on around them while AirPods Pro are in their ears by passing through the audio from the external microphone and mixing it with what’s being played.

Pass-through Audio Transparency mode

For instance, in an office Transparency Mode can be utilized to hear if someone is trying to talk to you while you’ve got your AirPods in. Additionally. pedestrians or cyclists can use the mode to keep an ear out for vehicles while on the go.

Active noise cancelling

Coming to AirPods for the first time is Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). Apple’s ANC technology uses the microphones to monitor external noises, and block them out with a combination of software and hardware. This functionality is best with droning or repetitive noises, like background noise on a plane, the buzz of traffic you hear while walking down the street, or the hum of appliances at home.

Turning on ANC from Control Center

Not only does it block out those noises, but it does it with a high-quality version of ANC. Instead of using feed-forward ANC which only uses an external microphone, it has a secondary internal microphone that listens inside your ear to be sure the audio isn’t impacted and that it can cancel out any other internal noise it hears.

Apple says it samples and corrects itself up to 200 times every single second to ensure the best possible noise cancellation.

Apple H1 chip

Baked into all of Apple’s latest headphones, is the H1 chip. It debuted with the AirPods second-generation earlier this year and has since shown up in other headphones such as the PowerBeats Pro.

This Apple-designed system-in-package is what handles everything for the headphones including audio processing, “Hey Siri” support, and noise cancellation. It is packed with ten audio cores for incredibly low latency and real-time noise cancellation.

It allows for the simple setup process with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and the effortless hand-off. It is unique to Apple and one of the biggest benefits any model of AirPods have, even if it isn’t visibly noticeable from the exterior.

Force sensor

Within each of the AirPods Pro stems is a force sensor. This new sensor replaces the tapping gesture found on the original AirPods that could be awkward or dislodge the earpiece.

AirPods Pro force sensor

One squeeze can play/pause music or answer a call, two squeezes will skip to the next song, three squeezes will go back, and a long hold will change modes from noise-canceling to transparency.

Not much pressure is required to activate. When you’ve done so, you can hear a tiny click from the earpiece.

USB-C

This time around, Apple has included a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box —same as with the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. This is a great addition for owners of Apple’s newest hardware. Every Mac currently shipping has a USB-C port, and the iPad Pro does too.

A Lightning to USB-C cable is included

Of course, AirPods Pro can charge wirelessly with any Qi-enabled charging mat, but it is nice to have a cable included to work with all of Apple’s latest gear. You could even use the cable to charge your AirPods Pro from the bottom of your USB-C iPad Pro.

Sweat resistant

Apple has given the AirPods Pro an IPX4 water and sweat resistance rating which means whether you are deep in a heavy workout at the gym, or getting caught in the rain, AirPods Pro will hold up.

AirPods Pro after getting caught in the rain

You can’t wear them swimming. You probably shouldn’t wear them in the shower. But, you don’t need to worry about sweat or a rain shower breaking them.

Available now

Apple AirPods Pro retail for $249 and are carried by these top retailers:

AirPods and AirPods Pro specifications

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 29, 2019 — Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) on Tuesday announced it will be transferring the securities exchange listing for its Euro-denominated 2.125% Senior Notes due 2021, 3.125% Senior Notes due 2028, and 2.625% Senior Notes due 2033 debt securities (collectively, the “debt securities”) from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Bond Exchange, effective Nov. 8, 2019, after market close. The debt securities are expected to begin trading as Nasdaq-listed securities on Nov. 11, 2019.

Their respective trading symbols and CUSIP numbers are as follows:

Microsoft is transferring the listing of the debt securities to Nasdaq to consolidate under one exchange its equity and debt listings relationships.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, financial analysts and investors only:

Investor Relations, Microsoft, (425) 706-4400

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at https://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers, and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.

Fedora 31 is available now. You’ll likely want to upgrade your system to get the latest features available in Fedora. Fedora Workstation has a graphical upgrade method. Alternatively, Fedora offers a command-line method for upgrading Fedora 30 to Fedora 31.

Upgrading Fedora 30 Workstation to Fedora 31

Soon after release time, a notification appears to tell you an upgrade is available. You can click the notification to launch the GNOME Software app. Or you can choose Software from GNOME Shell.

Choose the Updates tab in GNOME Software and you should see a screen informing you that Fedora 31 is Now Available.

If you don’t see anything on this screen, try using the reload button at the top left. It may take some time after release for all systems to be able to see an upgrade available.

Choose Download to fetch the upgrade packages. You can continue working until you reach a stopping point, and the download is complete. Then use GNOME Software to restart your system and apply the upgrade. Upgrading takes time, so you may want to grab a coffee and come back to the system later.

Using the command line

If you’ve upgraded from past Fedora releases, you are likely familiar with the dnf upgrade plugin. This method is the recommended and supported way to upgrade from Fedora 30 to Fedora 31. Using this plugin will make your upgrade to Fedora 31 simple and easy.

1. Update software and back up your system

Before you do start the upgrade process, make sure you have the latest software for Fedora 30. This is particularly important if you have modular software installed; the latest versions of dnf and GNOME Software include improvements to the upgrade process for some modular streams. To update your software, use GNOME Software or enter the following command in a terminal.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Additionally, make sure you back up your system before proceeding. For help with taking a backup, see the backup series on the Fedora Magazine.

2. Install the DNF plugin

Next, open a terminal and type the following command to install the plugin:

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

3. Start the update with DNF

Now that your system is up-to-date, backed up, and you have the DNF plugin installed, you can begin the upgrade by using the following command in a terminal:

sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=31

This command will begin downloading all of the upgrades for your machine locally to prepare for the upgrade. If you have issues when upgrading because of packages without updates, broken dependencies, or retired packages, add the ‐‐allowerasing flag when typing the above command. This will allow DNF to remove packages that may be blocking your system upgrade.

4. Reboot and upgrade

Once the previous command finishes downloading all of the upgrades, your system will be ready for rebooting. To boot your system into the upgrade process, type the following command in a terminal:

sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

Your system will restart after this. Many releases ago, the fedup tool would create a new option on the kernel selection / boot screen. With the dnf-plugin-system-upgrade package, your system reboots into the current kernel installed for Fedora 30; this is normal. Shortly after the kernel selection screen, your system begins the upgrade process.

Now might be a good time for a coffee break! Once it finishes, your system will restart and you’ll be able to log in to your newly upgraded Fedora 31 system.

Resolving upgrade problems

On occasion, there may be unexpected issues when you upgrade your system. If you experience any issues, please visit the DNF system upgrade quick docs for more information on troubleshooting.

If you are having issues upgrading and have third-party repositories installed on your system, you may need to disable these repositories while you are upgrading. For support with repositories not provided by Fedora, please contact the providers of the repositories.

CIRCLE Entertainment and developer Dotoyou Games have revealed that Incredible Mandy, an action-adventure game previously released on Steam, will be heading to Switch next week.

The game has you exploring the memories of a brother and sister, buried deep within their dreams. You’ll be tackling obstacles, unlocking puzzles, defeating huge enemies, and collecting these forgotten memories on your adventure, which follows a tragic accident affecting the game’s sibling protagonists.

You see, while Mandy looks for memories, she’ll also be guiding her brother; he lost his right hand in this accident, but can now summon the Excalibur of Light which symbolises positive power and can be used in a number of clever ways. You can learn a little more about all of this in the feature list below:

Features:
• Incredible settings and a beautiful, emotive soundtrack.
• Solve a variety of elaborate and clever environmental puzzles.
• Outwit powerful and intimidating enemy bosses.
• Use the Excalibur of Light as a sword, bow and more besides.
• Collect lost memories to uncover the story.

Incredible Mandy launches on Nintendo Switch on 7th November, with pricing still to be confirmed.

Do you like the sound of it? Have you played this one before on PC? Let us know in the comments.

This week at Bungie, there’s a lot going on.

We’re already into week three of Season of the Undying. The Iron Banner is up and running and we have some new things lined up for next week. Master Nightmare hunts begin next week. These will be the most difficult Nightmare hunts to date, so equip your best weapons and gear.

That’s not all. The Exotic Quest for Leviathan’s Breath will also go live for all season pass owners. Rumor has it that Banshee knows something about where to start.

The Show Must Go On

The infamous Hunter known as Paul “The Big Show” Wight is stopping by our studio this weekend. He’s going to join us on stream to play some Destiny. That means that some of you will have a chance to win an Emblem. This will be a Bungie Bounty, but we are going to mix up the activities. We’ll play a few Strikes, some Vex Offensive, and then finish up with some Crucible so Big Show can pound some Warlocks into dust.

The usual rules for a Bungie Bounty apply: For Crucible, you will need to match into our game and be on the winning team. For everything PVE, you only need to match with us fight the good fight to earn the new Bungie Bounty emblem.

The last time we did a Bungie Bounty we played on Xbox. This time we will be playing on PS4.

Bungie Bounty

Platform – PS4

October 19 2PM – 4PM Pacific

PC, you are on deck. More on that later…

Shifting Sands

We have a few tweaks coming to the combat sandbox in update 2.6.1, which is currently being targeted to deploy on October 29. Here is the Destiny Dev Team to give you the details.

Super Energy Refunding Kills

Goals:

For a while now, Trample and Everlasting Flames have been an outlier, especially in PvP. We’ve previously done a pass to add diminishing returns to this but it’s proven to not be enough. In this update, we’ve tightened the curve a bit and split it out over PvE and PvP. This should allow Guardians to keep dunking on combatants for longer while being less oppressive against one another.

Additionally, for Striker, we’ve increased the cost of the light attack to make dashing across the map a little less forgiving. We still want this to be used as a way to run people down or dodge and be shifty, but this change should make it costly enough as to be prohibitive as a form of long distance travel. Finally, regeneration will no longer proc on melee kills while in super. The combination was just too strong and overly forgiving of strategic or positional mistakes.

Striker – Code of the Juggernaut (Bottom Path)

• Trample:
• Tuned the amount of Super energy returned per kill
• Reduced amount returned possible per kill from 15% to 13% (before diminishing returns)
• Reduced the low end of the diminishing returns from 5% to 3.25%
• Changed the kills for the diminishing returns by splitting them out between players and combatants
• Previously it was 15 kills. Now it is 14 combatant kills or 7 player kills (players count for 2X towards diminishing returns)
• Cost of light attack in super increased by 50% from 2% to 3%
• Regeneration on kill no longer procs on super kills

Dawnblade – Attunement of Flame (Bottom Path)

• Everlasting Flames: 
• Tuned the amount of Super energy returned per kill (handled differently than Striker as this attack in an AoE)
• Increased the low end of the diminishing returns from 0.75% to 0.95%
• Changed the kills for the diminishing returns by splitting them out between players and combatants
• Previously it was 30 kills. Now it is 21 combatant kills or 7 player kills (players count for 3X towards diminishing returns)

Quality of Life and Bug Fixes:

Sentinel – Code of the Protector (Top Path)

• Ward of Dawn:
• Armor of Light timer now correlates with the life of the Ward of Dawn
• Particle FX move more rapidly towards the end of the Ward of Dawn’s life

Nightstalker – Way of the Wraith (Middle Path)

• Shattering Strike: 
• Fixed a bug in which Shattering Strike activation window was reduced to 3 seconds along with Truesight
• Shattering strike last the proper 9 seconds once again

Shoulder Charge

We’ve removed a bug that allowed players to shoot immediately before activating shoulder charge, which allowed players to apply the 1-2 Punch damage buff to shoulder charge. This bug was caused by a quality of life change made for Tempest Strike. Before Shadowkeep, if player’s had the sprint button configured as “hold to sprint”, then they would need to be holding the sprint button while sliding in order to activate Tempest Strike. With the release of Shadowkeep, we added a small window of time where players could activate Tempest Strike after letting go of the sprint button. This change had unexpected effects on other melee abilities, so we have reverted this change until we can find a better fix for Tempest Strike.

We’re also aware of feedback about other abilities and gear not mentioned above. We have our eye on One Eyed Mask – expect a change in a future update.

Patch Note Preview

Along with the sandbox changes we already mentioned, we have a preview of some of the other patch notes coming up in update 2.6.1:

Steam

Fully Operational Art Station

As you immerse yourself in the world of Destiny, there is a lot of beauty to take in. The environments, the characters, the weapons, every little detail is lovingly crafted by talented artists who help bring this game to life. We wanted to showcase some items they have helped work on and give you some links to see more of their work below.

Armor Two Point Zero

One of the new systems rolled out along with Shadowkeep is the new Armor 2.0 system. We have been monitoring the feedback around the system. Today, the Destiny Dev Team has some goals for Armor 2.0 and some upcoming changes that are coming.

Hi everyone! We wanted to check in and talk a little about Armor 2.0, its goals, your reactions, and upcoming additions and tweaks to the system.

The most frequent questions and feedback come from the energy affinity system, which determines which mods can be socketed into which armor pieces. We wanted to kick this discussion off with a little bit more information on the reasons why the energy system came about, and what it’s intended to accomplish. The armor energy system has the three following primary goals:

1. Give players the freedom to experiment with builds, while also requiring players to make creative choices when putting together those builds. The biggest reason why mods became unlocks instead of consumables is to encourage players to experiment with perk combinations. The energy type and cost of a mod asks players to consider which mods they value most for a particular build, sometimes requiring them to make choices or come up with creative combinations of armor energies across all five equipped armor pieces.

2. Give players the ability to balance mods above and beyond pure effectiveness. When mods have no restrictions on their use (as was the case prior to Armor 2.0), each mod is only evaluated on its strength and usefulness (or access, in the case of consumables). Giving mods an energy cost gives us a knob to turn that gives weaker mods value and stronger mods a drawback. Giving mods an energy type allows us to limit the scope of combinations within a single armor piece (making their use cases easier to predict and balance for), and also gives us room for other perks and mods (for example, artifact mods) that break these restrictions. This means the perks and mods that break the rules can be compelling choices, without them having to also be significantly stronger to be appealing.

3. Relieve information overload pressure on the mod UI. Early playtests, which did not have the energy system, had all mods for a particular slot visible each time you moved your cursor over them. This resulted in a huge amount of information overload, and also made it hard to quickly find, and change out, mods that you were seeking. Cutting down on the number of mods visible for a particular armor piece makes it easier to process this information.

There’s a lot more to it than that, but those are the most notable points.

When it comes to deciding which weapons were associated with which affinity, there were three main criteria used to choose where to put them:

1. Ammo Type: Each energy type needed to have a good mix of primary, special, and power ammo weapons.

2. Range: Each energy type needed to have a good mix of short, middle, and long-range weapons.

3. Thematics: Each energy type should have weapons that are similar thematically, when possible, and feel like the kinds of weapons that match other mechanics associated with that energy type.

We have seen feedback suggesting that, instead of locking mods into an energy type, the affinity should simply be a discount on the energy cost of the mod. That’s actually what the broad-category mods (such as Rifle Loader, Precision Weapon Targeting, etc.) are meant to represent: a higher cost for gaining the benefit with a weapon not normally associated with that energy type. So, instead of having to display every mod for that slot when you move your cursor over the socket, you see only the two to three broad-category mods in that socket, plus the ones with energy types associated with it.

Of course, not every mod type got a broad-category version, notably the mod types that affect the ammo economy. That’s because any mods that tinker with the ammo economy have a lot of caveats and exceptions, mostly due to weapons that use ammo types not normally associated with that weapon archetype, such as Eriana’s Vow, the Mountaintop, Whisper of the Worm, and so forth.

We needed a bit more time to build the broad category versions of these mods and test them thoroughly, but at the start of next season there will be broad-category mods for both the ammo finder and ammo scavenger categories, and they will be automatically unlocked for all players (no need to hunt them down!). This should help round out your builds more easily, and give you more options for tinkering with your ammo no matter what armor energy type you use. We’re also working on some broad category ammo capacity mods, but those need some more work before they’re ready for primetime.

Another big change coming up is the loosening of stacking restrictions on Armor 2.0 mods. Starting next season, the restrictions on having multiple mods of the same type in a single piece of armor will be removed (with a few exceptions). So, you’ll be able to run two Hand Cannon Loader mods, or two Shotgun Ammo Finder mods, and so forth. The only exceptions to this stacking come from mods that provide no benefit when stacked, such as Fastball and Traction. We needed a little more time to make sure that stacking mods wouldn’t cause any major technical issues, and think that stacking mods of the same type gives more flexibility in crafting your build, provided you have the armor energy to spend in socketing them in.

One thing to be aware of with mod stacking: In most cases, stacking up identical mods will provide diminishing returns on their effectiveness. For example, two Hand Cannon Loader mods don’t provide twice the benefit; instead, they provide about 1.5x the benefit of one Hand Cannon Loader mod. However, this puts them on equal footing with the enhanced mods. So, two Hand Cannon Loader mods provide the equivalent benefit of a single Enhanced Hand Cannon Loader. We’re also going to be lowering the energy costs of some of the armor mods to better reflect the value of an enhanced mod.

One last bit of news on Armor 2.0. When we created the system, we wanted to include armor mods in Collections, so you can see how many you have gathered, and where they can be acquired. This also presented a good opportunity to do some housekeeping on the Collections tab in general, but, unfortunately, proved to be a little more time-intensive than we’d hoped, so the changes didn’t come alongside Shadowkeep. Good news, though! In the 2.6.1 patch, coming later this month, armor mods will be visible in your Collections, allowing you to browse through all the possibilities and see which ones you have already collected. Additionally, starting next season, the armor mod Collections will get a UI upgrade, allowing them to display armor energy type and cost on the icon, just like they do in your armor socket.

Fashion Week

It’s fashion week. In a previous update we showed you The Levante Prize, a fancy new emblem we will be giving out to fashion-focused Guardians.

Do you think you have an eye for style? Submit a picture of your best dressed Guardian on Bungie.net or in a reply to our Fashion Week tweet. We will choose our favorites and feature them in next week’s TWAB. Please include a link to your Bungie.net profile with your submission to help us out with granting your emblem if you win.

Since fashion is never finished, we will plan on doing this regularly, hopefully once a month.

Cyber Sleuths

We’ve been tracking bugs and already deployed a few fixes since Shadowkeep launched earlier this month. Player Support has the latest.

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.6.0.4

This week, we deployed Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.6.0.4 to players on all platforms. This hotfix resolved several issues to emerge in the player experience since launch. Here are some highlights:

• Fixed an issue where the Servitor spawning in the Gofannon Forge could crash the game.
• Fixed an issue where Nightmare Hunts Time Trial Master triumph would not progress correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Nightfall: The Ordeal would not drop a powerful reward for players who had already completed the Vanguard Strikes Challenge.
• Fixed an issue that provoked the temporary deactivation of rally banners and the “Tire Game” in the Sanctuary vendor space on the Moon.

As with all updates and hotfixes, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net for the latest details as soon as they are available.

PC Migration

Since launch, we’ve been investigating player reports regarding a subset of issues which may cause PC Migration to fail for PC players importing their accounts from Battle.net.

While investigations are ongoing, we’ve deployed several fixes to Bungie.net over the past two weeks which are expected to resolve a number of issues encountered by players. If your account has failed to migrate, to include the transfer of characters, Silver, and/or licenses, we encourage you to try again. As a reminder, once PC Migration has been initiated, it cannot be undone.

Aside from issues being investigated in the migration process, we’ve also observed reports from players who’ve linked the wrong Battle.net or Steam accounts to their Bungie.net profile, resulting in migration either to or from an undesired account.

Players who linked and migrated from a different Battle.net account than desired can perform migration again. To do so, players must link their intended Battle.net account to a new Steam account through Bungie.net and perform a new migration.

Players who link and migrate to a different Steam account than desired must log in to that account on Steam in order to access their characters, Silver, and licenses. Once migration is initiated, these cannot be transferred to another Steam account.

Players encountering process issues with PC Migration may opt to assist us in our efforts to aggregate information. Player who wish to do so should submit a response to our contact form. Please note that this form is designed to gather information about PC Move issues, and that each ticket may not receive a personalized response.

As a final note, we’ve also observed confusion from players believing that their Forsaken licenses did not transfer from Battle.net to Steam, because the Forsaken campaign was not available from Amanda Holiday. Unlike the Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind campaigns included in New Light, which are received from Amanda Holiday in the Tower Hangar, the Forsaken campaign begins with players launching directly into the first mission from the Tangled Shore destination map.

Destiny 2 Known Issues

Destiny Player Support monitors player reports on our local #Help forum and tallies the latest issues into our Known Issues thread. Listed below is a selection of recent issues that have been reported by players:

• The Black Armory Key Mold cannot be obtained by players who did not receive it before Season 8.
• Players who have the “Invitation from the Emperor” and “Golden Hero” quests on multiple characters can’t unlock the Tribute Hall.
• Warlocks wagering Weak Motes in Reckoning are receiving Titan armor.

As always, players who encounter issues are encouraged to report them to our #Help forum.

Prime Time

It’s time for Movie of the Week. This is where we pick a few of our favorite community videos of the week and share them out for all to see. The winners will receive a special emblem. If you are chosen as a winner, please post links to your Bungie.net profile in the description of the video and let us know what platform your active account is.

Movie of the Week: Interview with Shaxx

Honorable Mention: Just Trying to Kill Some Bugs Sir

<3 Cozmo

Another week has gone by and we’re busy trampling bugs here at the Mojang office. Apart from that we’re now letting everyone take part of our obfuscation maps which should make your life easier if you’re interested in creating mods for Minecraft: Java Edition.

You can find the full news post on Minecraft.net:

• Obfuscation maps are now published with all future releases of the game
• Added features found in other Minecraft editions
• Honey bottles are now less filling
• Fixed bugs

MODDING

In an effort to help make modding the game easier, we have decided to publish our game obfuscation maps with all future releases of the game, starting today. This means that anyone who is interested may deobfuscate the game and find their way around the code without needing to spend a few months figuring out what’s what. It is our hope that mod authors and mod framework authors use these files to augment their updating processes that they have today. These mappings will always be available, instantly and immediately as part of every newly released version. This does not, however, change the existing restrictions on what you may or may not do with our game code or assets. The links to the obfuscation mappings are included as part of the version manifest json, and may be automatically pulled for any given version.

Prefixed to every obfuscation map is the following legal disclaimer:

© 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This information is provided “as-is” and you bear the risk of using it. This information does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any Microsoft product. You may copy and use this information for your internal, reference purposes. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

PARITY

Things from other editions of Minecraft have arrived to Java Edition!

• Trying to sleep in a bed during daytime will now set the player’s spawn location to that bed
• Bells will now ring if powered with a redstone signal
• The doInsomnia game rule can now be switched off to prevent phantoms from spawning during nighttime
• The doImmediateRespawn game rule can now be switched on to have players respawn immediately without showing the death screen
• The drowningDamage, fallDamage and fireDamage game rules can now be used to prevent certain sources of damage
• Sponges now dry out when placed in the Nether
• Fireworks dispensed from a dispenser now travel in the direction they were fired

• MC-117914 – Entities crossing dimensions through nether portal causes tremendous lag
• MC-140507 – Overloading a chunk with data will cause it to revert to its old state
• MC-158677 – Ender dragon freezes the server if there’s no end stone in the end
• MC-158978 – “Create New World” button in the world creation menu is enabled after returning from the world customize menu, allowing world names to be left blank
• MC-159359 – Dispensers ignore honey level when collecting honey from hives/nests
• MC-159370 – Bees suffocate when against a solid block ceiling
• MC-159383 – Copying a bee nest/hive with NBT duplicates the bees inside of it as well, causing multiple bees with the same UUID to exist in the same world at the same time
• MC-159385 – Bees are not affected by Bane of Arthropods enchantment
• MC-159395 – Honey level of bee hives does not increase, as opposed to bee nests
• MC-159419 – Custom beehive item can be used to spawn any entity, including command blocks
• MC-159424 – Hostile bees will not sting you if you have a flower in your hand
• MC-159441 – Bees stay leashed when leaving a bee hive, despite having dropped their lead when entering it, thus duplicating the lead
• MC-159508 – Ctrl + Pick block on beehives and nests does not copy their honey levels
• MC-159515 – Bees don’t sleep at night
• MC-159518 – Bees stop their animations when standing still, even when still in the air
• MC-159558 – Bees attempt to sting the player even after they’ve already stung the player
• MC-159560 – Semi-transparent pixels on bee textures
• MC-159584 – When a bee nest/hive with a bee inside is destroyed on Creative, the bees inside disappear
• MC-159743 – Bee textures have inconsistent amounts of nectar
• MC-159880 – Bee duplicate passenger entities when entering and leaving hives
• MC-160008 – Drinking honey bottles doesn’t immediately make sound
• MC-160254 – Bees do not pollinate on lilac, rose bush and peony

UPDATE:

Dinnerdone has confirmed that the mappings for 1.14.4 will also be released as discussed on Twitter:

I’ve been pushing for this for a while, so I’m really happy that we were finally able to release the obfuscation mappings public. @SeargeDP had a great idea to release the 1.14.4 mappings as comparison, so those are going out right now.

— Nathan Adams (@Dinnerbone) September 4, 2019