Daily Deal – Space Engineers and Medieval Engineers Advertising App, 60% Off
The Steam Community has spoken, and we are proud to announce the finalists for The Steam Awards 2018 — but we still need your help choosing the winners!
Voting will open on December 20th, at the start of the 12th annual Steam Winter Sale. Vote in each of our 8 categories to share your top Steam games and developers from 2018 and obtain this year’s set of trading cards.
Voting closes January 3rd and winners will be announced early February 2019. Good luck to all of our nominees!
Nominees for Game of the Year
PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
HITMAN™ 2
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Nominees for VR Game of the Year
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
VRChat
Beat Saber
Fallout 4 VR
SUPERHOT VR
Nominees for Labor of Love
Dota 2
Grand Theft Auto V
No Man’s Sky
Path of Exile
Stardew Valley
Nominees for Best Environment
The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt
Subnautica
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Far Cry 5
DARK SOULS™ III
Nominees for Better with Friends
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Siege
PAYDAY 2
Dead by Daylight
Overcooked! 2
Nominees for Best Alternate History
Wolfeinstein II: The New Colossus
Assassin’s Creed® Odyssey
Hearts of Iron IV
Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI
Fallout 4
Nominees for Most Fun with a Machine
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Rocket League
NieR:Automata
Factorio
Space Engineers
Nominees for Best Developer
CD PROJEKT RED
Ubisoft
Bethesda
Rockstar Games
Digital Extremes Ltd.
Square Enix
Capcom
Paradox Interactive
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Klei
Notes on Best Developer category:
“Best Developer” proved to be a highly-contested category with a lot of close calls among the top nominees. As a result, we expanded the set of nominees to 10. In addition, we’ve excluded ourselves from this category. We appreciate the love you’ve shown us, but we want to honor the other awesome developers on Steam, so we have excluded Valve from the final tally.
Black Ops 4 Patch Notes Detail Armor Changes, Weapon Camo Support For Blackout
Following the release of Operation Absolute Zero on Xbox One and PC, Treyarch has rolled out another update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This one focuses primarily on tweaking armor durability and repair in Blackout mode, but it also makes a handful of changes specific to the PC version of the game.
As Treyarch detailed on Reddit, armor has been given an all-around nerf in Blackout mode. The durability of Level 2 and 3 armor has been reduced to match that of Level 1 armor, while the number of armor plates that can be carried at once has dropped from 10 to five.
Moreover, Treyarch has increased the amount of time it takes to use an armor plate by one second. The developer has also "slightly increased" Paladin weapon damage against armor.
"While we're pleased to see Armor lasting through more than one gunfight with this redesign, we agreed that Level 2 and Level 3 Armor was a bit too durable," Treyarch wrote. "With the durability dialed back on these, players should be able to destroy their enemies' Armor more frequently."
Along with the armor adjustments, Treyarch has added Weapon Camo support to Blackout. Now, players can apply any Camos they've earned in multiplayer, Zombies, or the Black Market to their weapons in the battle royale mode. The developer has also addressed a handful of issues across all platforms, including some stability improvements to the newest Zombies chapter, Dead of the Night.
In terms of PC-specific changes, Treyarch has fixed a bug that prevented players from changing their reticle color, as well as one "where a console prompt would be displayed in the tutorial screen when opening the Create-A-Class menu for the first time." You can find the full patch notes for the December 19 update on Reddit.
Hardware Review: To Enjoy The New BittBoy, You’ll Need To Get Your Hands Dirty
If you cast your minds back a short while, you’ll recall that we reviewed the BittBoy Portable Video Game Handheld, a dinky little Game Boy clone that came packed with 300 NES games, many of which were pretty dire – not to mention legally questionable. Despite this, we couldn’t help warming to this truly pocket-sized portable, thanks in no small part to the excellent IPS screen rechargeable battery. Tantalisingly, the unit came with a slot in its casing into which a MicroSD card would fit, but inside there was no actual card-reading tech – it was a tease, but one which the console’s manufacturer would eventually remedy.
You see, the ‘New’ BittBoy has just launched and it does support MicroSD cards – in fact, if you don’t insert one, it’s little more than a paperweight. This new model doesn’t have any games pre-loaded – a handy way of avoiding any potential legal action from copyright holders – but instead expects buyers to get their hands dirty by loading up ROM images for NES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.
Before we get into that, it’s worth noting that the New BittBoy has a larger 2.4-inch IPS LCD screen this time around, and it’s fantastic. Colours really pop and viewing angles are superb; it really says something about how far screen tech has come in the past few years that a device which costs $40 can ship with such an amazing display.
The other big news is that the console is packing the very capable AllWinner F1C500S system-on-a-chip – it’s not the most powerful piece of silicon on the planet but it more than gets the job done here. Elsewhere, the 3.5mm headphone socket remains in place, and this doubles as a composite AV output if you fancy running this on your TV – the image quality is predictably poor, however. The internal lithium battery has been boosted from 500mAh to 700mAh, but that still only results in around three hours of use between charges (it comes with a Micro USB cable) – pretty much the same as the original BittBoy.
The New BittBoy comes with a suite of emulators under the ‘Miyoo’ banner: NES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color. All you need to do is drag-and-drop your ROM files onto a MicroSD card and insert it into the console – the Miyoo software will automatically sort the files into their respective systems, which are then presented in three different categories from the main menu.
During play, hitting the ‘R’ button located beneath the screen brings up the emulator’s sub-menu. From here, you can adjust the ratio of the screen (‘Full’ stretches the image out so it uses all 2.4-inches, while ‘Default’ aims for the original aspect ratio, leaving black borders around the image). You can also create and load save states – which is vital as in-game saves don’t work – and toggle between the console’s display and your TV when using the AV-out cable. Holding down the R button in-game will return you to the main menu.
Outside of this menu, all other functions are mapped rather clumsily to button combinations. ‘Select’ and either A or B held together raises and lowers the volume, while ‘Select’ and either TA or TB (two additional buttons which simply replicate the action of the A and B buttons in-game) changes the brightness. It’s not an elegant system and the lack of any instructions in the box means you’re largely ignorant of such shortcuts.
So how does the New BittBoy actually perform? Well, getting it to play nice with a MicroSD card could well be your first battle. We tried three different Samsung cards (1GB, 8GB and 32GB) and only the 32GB card worked; with the other two, the console simply paused on the boot screen and refused to load up the Miyoo emulator menu. There doesn’t seem to be any hard and fast rules on which cards work and which don’t, but we’d recommend going for one with a relatively fast read/write rating (our 32GB card was an Evo variant). If your card was purchased in the past few years, you should be fine.
Once you’ve gotten past that potential hurdle, it’s relatively plain sailing. The New BittBoy recognised every ROM we threw at it and performance is generally good, especially on NES games; switch the viewing mode to ‘Default’ and you get an almost pixel-perfect replication of what these titles looked like running on a proper TV. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles, which, even when running in ‘Default’ video mode, have an odd distortion effect which makes everything shimmer when there’s movement. It’s a real shame as it makes some titles look downright ugly, although they’re all perfectly playable. Interestingly, Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulation doesn’t seem to be quite as smooth as NES emulation in the Miyoo software; during Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition we noticed a small amount of stutter when moving around the game world, and audio is also rather patchy.
Speaking of which, the New BittBoy’s mono speaker is surprisingly powerful but awfully tinny. There are a few bum notes as far as audio emulation is concerned, but sometimes it feels like it’s the fault of the speaker rather than the software, which makes certain notes seem more painful than you remember. Playing via headphones isn’t much better.
Other things to note: built quality is predictably average; there’s a lot of light bleed through the plastic casing and there was a large speck of dirt under the screen on our review unit, which we’d have to take the console apart in order to remove. These issues aside, the New BittBoy is exactly how you’d expect a $40 portable console to feel – cheap, but not so cheap that you wouldn’t dare take it out of the house. In fact, the New BittBoy makes for the perfect travelling companion, as it’s small enough to fit in your pocket and will slip into your bag without you even noticing – in fact, it would probably get hopelessly lost in most rucksacks. It’s a shame that the battery life isn’t better, but you can always carry a spare; the battery is user-serviceable and is actually an aftermarket replacement for the one inside the Game Boy Advance SP.
As with the original BittBoy, we can’t help but warm to this revised product, despite the obvious legal issues involved with sourcing ROMs to play on it – a process which, in 2018, has become a lot more difficult thanks to Nintendo’s moves to shut down sites which illegally distribute its software. Given this moral quandary, you may wish to avoid the New BittBoy if you’d rather keep your hands clean; for less ethically-minded individuals, however, this is a cheap way of keeping your hands busy when you’re travelling and rediscovering some classic titles in the process.
This year has been incredibly busy for Microsoft in Europe. We’ve launched new products, worked with customers and partners to deliver cutting-edge technology solutions, and worked towards our mission of helping every person and organisation achieve more.
We’ve rounded up ten of the biggest stories from the past year below, with the option to click on through to each one to read them in full. Thanks for reading, and have a Happy New Year!
For German car manufacturer Volkswagen, the future of the car goes beyond a mere four-wheeled chauffer and errand-runner. Our cars will also integrate with our lives in ways never before thought possible. Earlier this year, the company revealed its plans for the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud – a platform which will create a seamless experience for drivers from the moment they enter, use, and leave their cars, ushering in a new era of truly connected vehicles.
Powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud and IoT Edge platform, the Automotive Cloud will allow drivers to effortlessly remain in control of their professional and personal lives. From entering the car to the same music they were just listening to in their living room, to managing their appointments and carrying out work meetings via Skype, the car will evolve into an invaluable physical, and digital, assistant.
The financial services industry is undergoing a massive transformation. Financial technology companies (fintechs) are challenging traditional enterprises, while players from other sectors such as retail and technology are entering their turf. In addition, customers are increasingly demanding predictive, proactive and proximate services. Today’s financial institutions need to ensure that every customer interaction – no matter the channel – goes off without a hitch and delivers value if they want to be industry leaders tomorrow.
Microsoft EMEA President Michel van der Bel had the pleasure of discussing the transformation of the financial services industry with Spiros Margaris, venture capitalist, senior advisor, and international AI, blockchain and fintech influencer. Click below for their full discussion and insights.
Today’s successful retailers challenge the fundamental assumptions of commerce, from the ways in which physical spaces can be used to create unique customer experiences, to featuring products and services that one cannot find elsewhere to resurrecting the art of selling. The digital transformation of the retail (and indeed, any other) industry is no longer about simply managing costs and increasing efficiency. Rather, it enables companies to react to brutally competitive market forces with new service models, business practices, supply chains and more. At the heart of this retail revolution lies data, alongside the tools required to analyze it to help businesses continuously evolve, improve, and grow – all while creating and maintaining customer loyalty, and remaining competitive.
“When mistakes happen, patients die. I remember thinking to myself ‘What is going on here?’ We can do better. We should do better.”
When Simon Kos practiced critical care medicine in intensive care and anaesthesia early on in his career, digital technology was not well established. “I saw mistakes – avoidable mistakes – happen all around me,” he states. Now Chief Medical Officer at Microsoft, Kos is at the forefront of a medical revolution. His ambition is infectious, and his passion is fuelled by his first-hand experiences of the power that technological transformation, such as artificial intelligence (AI), can bring to our lives.
If you were asked to pick the most vulnerable demographic to tech support scams, chances are your answer would lean towards the older generation. Traditionally, the elderly have less experience/knowledge of technology, and could therefore be more at risk of falling victim to these scams.
Microsoft’s survey results, however, show that Gen Z, millennials and males are the most vulnerable to tech support scams – a surprising revelation, given that the younger generation is, on the whole, more digitally savvy. This, however, appears to be the cause of their overconfidence and false sense of security – these groups are the most likely to lose money after continuing an interaction with scammers. These demographics, the results show, engage in riskier online behavior such as visiting torrent sites, have a greater familiarity with technology companies than older generations, and are potentially hurt by overconfidence in their device and web expertise.
In collaboration with Microsoft, POLITICO Europe launched a new Elections hub to report on the upcoming 2019 European Parliamentary elections. One of the key features of the hub is a stunning interactive data visualization – built with Microsoft Power BI. The team at POLITICO Europe seeks to bring an unprecedented degree of education and insight to the European electorate as they navigate the complicated election process, which spans thousands of candidates and hundreds of parties across the EU’s 27 member nations. POLITICO Europe’s leaders worked with Microsoft to envision new ways of reporting likely outcomes of the election, and break down complex issues like coalition building, to show individual voters the impact of their vote, and draw new participants into the democratic process.
While there’s no doubt that moving data to the cloud, adopting Artificial Intelligence, and implementing remote working tools is helping businesses to scale and innovate like never before, the question on leaders’ minds is not if, but how, to digitally transform. Leaders must focus on how can technology empower their employees and drive growth.
To help businesses understand how to best empower their workforce, Microsoft spoke to more than 20,000 people working in medium and large companies, from a range of industries, in 21 different countries across Europe. Respondents were asked about the technology they use at work, and their attitudes towards their job and their job performance.
The findings clearly show that to compete in today’s cloud-first world, quality tools alone aren’t enough: for technology to be most effective, it needs to sit within a strong digital culture.
Research from Microsoft reveals that the number of girls interested in STEM across Europe, on average, almost doubles when they have a role model to inspire them. The findings from a Europe-wide study of girls and young women shows that in general, there is a clear link between role models and an increased passion for science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, with more interest in careers in these fields, and greater self-confidence.
Microsoft’s research stands alongside organisations such as UNESCO and Accenture in providing data and insights around the importance of role models in STEM, with the hope that educators, policy makers, NGOs and the private sector can all work together and invest towards bridging the digital skills gap of the future. With women only making up 30 percent of Europe’s ICT workforce and an expected shortage of up to 500,000 ICT workers by 2020, this is an issue we must all address today – and role models could help.
Medical science continues to progress, allowing doctors to push the boundaries and always achieve more. One such example is the implantation of heart valves via the groin – a procedure which has reached full swing in recent years due to it shorter recovery period and less invasive nature. Some questions, however, are still asked. Are costly procedures such as this as successful as scientific studies are? Do these innovative techniques have the effect of reducing mortality? Are the results as good in one hospital as in the other?
“Such information is crucial for all members of our multidisciplinary team of doctors, carers and paramedics – they allow us to further improve the quality of our care,” says Dr Karl Dujardin, a cardiologist at Delta General Hospital, Roeselare, in Belgium. Although these questions seem simple, it was almost impossible, until recently to answer them, he states. While both Dr Dujardin and his colleagues kept records of their procedures, for example, they lacked an overall vision of the effectiveness of the treatment – and this is where technology comes in.
In the 17th century, before the advent of drones, planes, or even balloons, the solution to creating accurate representations of areas was as time-consuming, as it was beautiful. Plan-relief maps (scale models of landscapes and buildings,) were hand-crafted in meticulous detail, recreating locations of interest in ways that no other means at the time could match.
Coveted by military leaders such as Napoleon and King Louis XIV, these plan-relief maps provided topographic details of landscapes, such as hills and harbours, in addition to showing off the layouts of cities and their fortifications. This is the story of the map of Mont-Saint-Michel—a rocky headland off the Normandy coast, with a stunning Benedictine abbey – and how it was recreated in Mixed Reality.
So, here we are – the final ‘Out Now’ of 2018. It’s been a surprisingly good week for releases, all things considered – Tropico and Rome: Total War‘s Android port being the highlights. Today also marks the final day of voting in our Reader’s Choice Game of the Year award – I’ll be closing the form later tonight, so make sure you have your say before it’s too late!
As far as the next couple of weeks go, we’re going to be operating a reduced content schedule until we’re back properly on January 2nd. We’ll be publishing articles on the following days:
Monday 24th
Wednesday 26th
Friday 28th
Monday 31st
We’ve got a couple of year in reviews, as well as Nick’s usual Boxing Day Gift Guide, and the results of the GOTY vote will go up on New Year’s Eve.
We like to highlight things that haven potential in this column, and Heroes of Flatlandia on paper seems like it might fit the bill. A premium strategy game (such a rarity these days), this seems like a very modest, almost ‘lite’ turn-based tactics outing with some basic content for genre fans. Two races, 14 units and 4 heroes, the game also features hot-seat multiplayer and a “cunning AI”.
There’s not much more to add that wasn’t covered in Brittany’s steller review, but suffice to say Tropico on iPad is a bit of a triumph. There are still some interface issues that come with management/city-builder games on this platform, but Feral have managed to port Tropico 3 intact and with all its charm. This is one premium experience you won’t want to miss out on.
Android users, rejoice! You can now purchase Feral Interactive’s other great strategy port, Rome: Total War, for your Google-powered device. Check out what Nick thought of the game back when it originally released.
You remember that dice game the fish-pirates played on the Flying Dutchman in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie? I never quite understood how that game worked. Now I might have a chance to learn, thanks to Asmodee stealth releasing a digital port of the game on mobile. Perudo, one of many games derived from the public domain game Liar’s Dice, looks exactly like that game in POTC. Amongst other things, It features pass-and-play multiplayer functionality for up to six people (as well as online), making it an excellent party game candidate.
Sales
Where to begin! There’s quite a few sales going on, especially on iOS. We’re not able to give a complete sales breakdown this week sadly, but these are some of the highlights we’ve spotted that you may be interested in. Unfortunately, a lot of these deals seem iOS only for now – we’ve cross-checked a few, but if anyone spots any additional android deals, let us know!
ELOH
Kingdom Rush Frontiers
Kingdom Rush Origin
Motorsport Manager Mobile 3
Bastion
Lords of Waterdeep
Out There
Project Highrise
Crowntakers
Age of Rivals
Grimvalor
There may be more, so make sure you keep an eye out if you’re looking to pick up some extra games for the holidays. If you’re someone who’s still not jumped onto Civilization VI on iOS, your frugal patience has been rewarded. From now until January 1st, the ‘Full Game Unlock’ IAP is now $14.99, making it as cheap what it is on PC currently (Steam Winter Sale). It’ such a good deal, I almost feel sorry for people who purchased it at the previous 50% discount entry point, or even full price! In addition to that, there’s a schedule for the scenario packs, which will rotate every 48 hours – the current ones, Vikings and Poland, are free, and the full schedule is as follows:
12/30 – 1/1 Khmer and Indonesia Civilization & Scenario Pack (Reg: $8.99)
So you have until tomorrow to pick up those first two scenario packs if you don’t have them already.
That’s all we have time for this week – we hope everyone has a good holiday break, and The Weekender will return as normal on Friday, January 4th, 2019!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-22-2018, 09:17 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Xbox One Games With Gold For January 2019 Revealed
With the end of December drawing near, Microsoft has announced the Xbox Games With Gold for January 2019. It's a solid lineup of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games that anyone with an Xbox Live Gold membership will be able to download for free during various times throughout the month. Let's take a look at the first games that will be available in the new year.
Between January 1-31, Xbox One owners can download Celeste. This pixelated platformer is all about jumping and dashing through expertly designed (but seriously challenging) obstacles as you make your way to the peak of a mountain. It has simple, tight controls that you'll need to master in order to make it through terrain riddled with things like pits, spikes, bounce pads, and toxic black goo. Thankfully, the checkpoint system is forgiving enough that you're never put too far back after your many inevitable deaths.
The other Xbox One freebie is the racing game WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship. This realistic rally game puts you face to face with all manner of challenges, including mud, fog, darkness, and ice, plus car troubles like engine breakdowns and punctured tires. If you're up for it, you can grab WRC 6 between January 16 and February 15.
The Xbox 360 Games with Gold for January are acclaimed titles as well, and thanks to backwards compatibility, you can play them both on Xbox One. You can pick up the two-player action/puzzle game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light from January 1-15. And between January 16-31 you can grab Far Cry 2, an open-world shooter some fans consider superior to its numerous sequels.
That's what's coming in January. Right now it's not too late to download some of December's Games with Gold, including QUBE 2, Never Alone, and Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.
For those who don’t know, Killer7 is a visually striking action-adventure developed by Suda51’s development company, Grasshopper Manufacture. It was originally released on the GameCube and PlayStation 2 back in 2005, but a remaster appeared on Steam just last month.
In an interview with Fandom, Suda was asked about the possibility of the game coming to Switch one day, especially considering the recent Steam port. As you might expect, he’s completely open to the idea, but ultimately it isn’t his decision to make.
“I’d love to bring Killer7 to Switch. However, Capcom owns 100% of the rights to that game, it’s really thanks to them that the PC version came out at all just because they OK’d it and a publisher came along to help distribute it, which is really great. But I’d have to talk to them again to see if it’s possible to get the ball rolling on Switch. The thing about Killer7 is that it really was a sudden release, we weren’t able to do much promotion for it before it came out, so I really feel like I have a duty to make sure that people are even aware that it exists.”
Do you have any memories of playing this on GameCube? Would you like it to come to Switch? Let us know in the comments below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 12-22-2018, 09:17 AM - Forum: Windows
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Mixed reality year in review — and what’s to come in 2019
Hi everyone!
I hope this month’s blog finds you well. Before we dive in, I wanted to take a quick moment to wish you all a happy holiday season and a great end to 2018. May the next few weeks bring you an abundance of joy and time well spent with those closest to you.
As we come to the end of 2018, I’ve been reflecting on what an incredible year it’s been for mixed reality. Not just for the team at Microsoft, but for the developers, customers, and partners who have joined us on this journey.
The next year is going to be a big one for mixed reality—and below I will share some of what’s on my mind as we get ready for 2019. But first, let’s take a quick look back on 2018 and the year that was!
We ❤ MR
Dynamics 365 and MR have come together: Earlier this year, we shared a broad vision for business applications at Microsoft. As part of that, we focused quite a bit on why mixed reality has joined the Dynamics 365 family. Customers are at the center of Dynamics 365, and we see them reimagining their businesses to remove silos and leverage the vast amounts of data available across their organization in new, powerful ways. Mixed reality provides unique value because it helps employees visualize this powerful data in the context of their jobs, so they can produce greater impact for their organizations.
We launched Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout: I am very proud of our team for building and launching our first two mixed reality business applications! These two applications provide out-of-the-box value for our customers using Microsoft HoloLens and help address some of the unmet needs of Firstline Workers. Firstline Workers represent more than two billion people who are in roles that make them the first points of contact between a company and the world it serves. They are often the first to engage, the first to represent a company’s brand, and the first on the scene to address a problem. These two mixed reality solutions help our customers use technology to understand data in context to solve problems and make decisions more quickly.
HoloLens expanded to 41 markets and is available to rent: We made it easier to get your hands on HoloLens by expanding into the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, as well as making it available to rent in the US and Canada so companies can evaluate prior to purchase or temporarily increase their inventory to support tradeshows or events. We’re thrilled to work with many more customers and partners around the world!
Our partners ❤ MR!
Trimble’s Hard Hat Solution and Trimble Connect: Our long-term partner, Trimble, announced Trimble Connect for HoloLens and a new hard hat solution for HoloLens that improves the utility of mixed reality for practical field applications. Trimble has paid close attention to supporting HoloLens as a high-value tool for Firstline Workers and continues to increase their impact on the market.
PTC and BAE use mixed reality to change the way employees learn: BAE Systems makes the electric propulsion systems for HybriDrive® buses. BAE is working with PTC, a Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner, using their ThingWorx Studio to create mixed reality solutions that dramatically improve the efficiency of Firstline Workers. BAE and PTC used ThingWorx Studio to easily create a guided, step-by-step training solution for HoloLens to teach workers how to assemble a green energy bus battery. Using these tools, BAE can now create guides for Firstline Workers in just a few hours at a tenth of the cost, training new people 30–40 percent more efficiently.
Our customers ❤ MR!
Chevron: Chevron is already achieving real, measurable results with its global HoloLens deployment. Previously they were required to fly in an inspector from Houston to a facility in Singapore once a month to inspect equipment. Using Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, they can now put any inspector or expert anywhere in the world in under a minute.
ZF: A great way to see Remote Assist and Layout in action is through the work of ZF Group, a German car parts manufacturer headquartered in Friedrichshafen and an early partner on our journey. We have worked closely with ZF Group to ensure their valuable insight from Firstline Workers using Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout are built directly into the product. In developing these apps with customers, we are not only looking to make great software—we’re looking to empower the Firstline Workers using the apps.
Toyota: With their mixed reality solution, Toyota can now take their existing 3D CAD data used in the vehicle design process and project it directly onto the vehicle for measurements, optimizing existing processes, and minimizing errors. This has transformed a process which previously took one to two days and multiple people to execute into a task requiring four hours and one person.
Mae Jemison and Defying Gravity: Women in Space: This year, Microsoft, Dr. Jemison, and Smithsonian Magazine joined forces with the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum to sound a rallying cry for representation and inclusion on Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day. They came together to create Defying Gravity: Women in Space, a mixed reality experience at the Intrepid that shares the stories of previously unsung women who’ve made critical contributions to the US space program.
What the future holds
Wow! What a year! As we look to 2019, I see so much opportunity for us to work with all of you to continue to define what the future of computing looks like with mixed reality. There are opportunities to reshape the way we work, learn, and visualize our world. Here are a few areas I am particularly excited about:
For many of our customers, equipment and processes are mission critical, and any downtime can have an enormous impact on their business, so ensuring employees are working safely and efficiently is paramount. With Microsoft HoloLens, employees can experience realistic 3D training at scale, and integrated with their existing productivity tools. This provides companies the flexibility to train their employees at lower costs but with high-quality results. This is an urgent area for customers as their workforce shifts, and we see huge opportunity with mixed reality.
Beyond Microsoft, the growth of mixed reality as a category this year has truly been inspiring. There are now more end points that allow people to visualize data in the context of the real world, whether that be through a headset or a mobile device. With Dynamics 365, we deeply understand a customer’s workflow and believe there are contextual mixed reality solutions that are relevant across all the devices they use in their work – and we’re going to make sure we’re ready to help.
Through the insights we’ve learned from our customers and partners about their industries and workflows, it’s clear to us that there’s an incredible opportunity to better connect their physical space into their business applications. We believe that our customers will benefit from real-time insights from sensors, IoT devices, and computer vision enabled devices. More to come here as we learn about the highest value scenarios.
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