AirPods are a fan favorite, but what will the second generation look like? AppleInsider looks towards the future to find out what we expect to see in AirPods 2.0 and the things we would like to see.

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In our long-term AirPods review, we talked about how AirPods are one of Apple’s great masterpieces. That doesn’t mean, however, there isn’t room to grow.

What we expect

Leading our crop of expected features is an upgraded wireless charging case. Apple has confirmed this case is incoming when it was announced alongside AirPower and will be available as an optional accessory to existing AirPods owners.

Our main question is whether or not we will see this upgraded case bundled with the new pairs, or left as an add-on. Count us in for the former.

Also rumored for some time is baked-in support for “Hey, Siri.” This would only make sense and Siri has learned quite a few new tricks this year, so this could go a long way towards making her more accessible when the AirPods are in.

Within each AirPod, is Apple’s custom wireless chip, the W1. This power efficient chip enables class 1 Bluetooth audio for phenomenal range and performance. Last year’s Series 3 Apple Watch got the W2, so we assume that any new version of AirPods will adopt the latest chip, either the existing W2 or possibly, a yet-to-be-seen W3. This upgraded chipset should also add better connectivity, which wasn’t a huge problem in the past, but there is always room for improvement.

Many people opt to wear their AirPods for workouts, even though there isn’t much protection against liquids. This time around there should be some semblance of water or sweat resistance. Not enough to wear in the pool, but enough to take them for a jog without worrying they will be damaged.

Lastly, we expect some improvements to the ambient noise handling. A patent from last year describes the process by which AirPods could process ambient noise. Sometimes keeping it out, others letting it in.

This isn’t the same as noise canceling necessarily, but a step in that direction. Even without this amount of onboard processing, we hope Apple at a minimum develops a better way to keep outside audio out.

What we hope to see

When it comes to what we want to see in AirPods, we can dream a bit bigger.

Apple has been known to keep color options limited, which is no wonder people go gaga at the release of a new iPhone shade. AirPods are currently limited to white, but why not a black pair? Apple has added additional colors to the Mac in recent years —including a color matched space gray set of keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. It would be great to give users a new option for AirPods.

Instead of just handling ambient noise, our dream AirPods would have full-on noise cancellation. Possibly even something like the intelligent adaptive noise cancellation found in the Libratone Track+.

Controls are another area that can be improved. There is a bit of on-board control at the moment using different taps on different ears, but it feels very limited. You have to make the hard choices on whether you want to invoke Siri, change the volume, play/pause, or skip tracks because not all of them can be done at the same time. Apple has nailed gestures and touch sensitivity in the past, so it would be great to see improvements in this area.

Lastly, battery life. We don’t particularly have complaints on battery —3 hours out of the buds in a single go is pretty solid. But Apple can push this further. There are other buds out there garnering longer usage times, so with a new W2/W3 chip and over a year to work on it, we have our fingers crossed that battery life is able to increase between charges.

If you don’t have a set of AirPods, and don’t mind skipping out on some of the rumored upcoming features, you can find great deals on them by checking out the AppleInsider price guide.

This post is authored by Nile Wilson, Software Engineer Intern at Microsoft.

Imagine Cup 2018 winning teams: smartARM (first place, front and center),
iCry2Talk (second place, attired in pink), and Mediated Ear (third place, at the right).

Every year, Microsoft hosts the Imagine Cup, a global competition bringing together creative, bright, and motivated students to develop technologies that will shape how we live, work, and play. This year, tens of thousands of students from across the world registered for the competition, but only 49 teams were selected to compete in the World Finals. In addition to the first, second and third place winners, this year’s competition also awarded the top projects in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Mixed Reality.

Of the 49 finalists, team smartARM won the competition with their innovative, inexpensive, AI-enabled prosthetic hand. The team was comprised of Samin Khan from the University of Toronto and Hamayal Choudhry from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Although smartARM took home the top prize, all teams in the finals impressed the judges with their creativity and drive to have a positive impact on the world.

One other thing most all the winning teams had in common – they used AI as a core part of their solutions.

Recent developments have accelerated the application of machine learning technologies across a wide variety of fields, from self-driving cars to AI-guided disease detection. There was a palpable sense of excitement around the profound and untapped capabilities of AI among the teams that participated at this year’s Imagine Cup.

Winning AI Solutions

From helping farmers manage diseased plants to helping new parents identify the meaning of their babies’ cries, the Imagine Cup 2018 winners tackled a broad spectrum of problems. Although these solutions addressed different problems, their paths to success have a similar underlying structure – each team began by identifying a problem they were passionate about. Next, they carefully considered the resources available to them, including AI, and cleverly used those resources to build prototypes and solutions with potentially outsized impact. AI is truly in the mainstream now, empowering motivated individuals to turn their great ideas into reality and have impact on the world.

smartARM

Team SmartARM from Canada won the first place with their AI-infused robotic prosthetic arm, which is designed to provide users with a low-cost, multi-grip prosthesis. When individuals with upper-limb amputations decide whether they want to use a functional prosthesis, they are typically faced with the choice of purchasing a simple, single-grip arm or spending tens of thousands of dollars on a more advanced myoelectric arm. The high cost of advanced prostheses prevents many from having access to a device that could greatly aid in their day-to-day life. smartARM reduces this barrier by providing multi-grip functionality for approximately $100.

The smartARM on the stage of the Imagine Cup 2018 World Finals.

The trick to the low price achieved by SmartARM is the use of 3D printing and readily accessible low-cost cloud technology. The camera in the palm of the smartARM captures a video of whatever is in view of the arm. Once the user points the palm towards an object of interest, the video frames are sent to the Azure cloud where the Cognitive Services Custom Vision model helps to identify the object and returns most appropriate grip, based on the object’s size and shape. The grip determined by the model is then actuated on the smartARM once the user sends the activation signal.

This allows users to interact with a variety of objects, ranging from picking up house keys to holding a cup.

It’s a truly intriguing solution, the notion of integrating a camera and vision into a prosthetic arm. In a companion blog post, we plan to big a bit deeper into the smartARM story and the underlying technology. Meanwhile, to learn more about smartARM, you can visit their Imagine Cup team page and LinkedIn company page.

iCry2Talk

Team iCry2Talk from Greece won second place with their mobile app, which is designed to aid parents in identifying the needs of their crying baby. New parents and especially parents with hearing-impairments or mothers with postpartum depression often have difficulties when it comes to immediately identifying the needs of their crying baby. This result is unwanted stress for both the parents and the child, typically multiple times each day.

Promptly responding to the cry is essential for the healthy physiological and psychosocial development of the infant. Although babies cannot articulate their needs through the use of language, they do give hints through their cries and body language. The cries themselves contain information that could help parents identify what the baby’s immediate needs are, but these cues can be hard for untrained ears to pick up.

Team iCry2Talk strives to improve the quality of the communication and the relationship between parents and babies by helping parents understand their child’s cries.

Mother and child looking at the iCry2Talk app. Photo courtesy of the iCry2Talk team.

How does the app work? The parent records the cry of their baby through the app using a smart phone or a digital assistant, like Alexa or Cortana. This audio clip is then sent to the cloud, processed, and classified using their custom Deep Learning models. The result is then sent back to the phone or digital assistant within seconds, and the parent is notified of the meaning of the cry through text, image, voice feedback, and sign language.

The team takes a holistic approach by not only focusing on the technology, but by also building and engaging with a community consisting of parents and doctors, in addition to designing for inclusivity, accessibility, and personalization.

iCry2Talk continues to collect donated audio clips of cries from parents involved in their community effort and is constantly improving their models. Parents with babies up to 12 months old who wish to contribute to the database and join the community can contact iCry2Talk through their Facebook page or e-mail them directly at icry2talkinfo@gmail.com.

To learn more about iCry2Talk you can visit their Imagine Cup team page or their website.

Mediated Ear

Team Mediated Ear from Japan took the third place with their mobile app designed to help the hearing-impaired clearly hear the voice of specific persons in noisy environments. Individuals with hearing loss may use hearing aids to amplify sound, but often find it difficult to isolate single speakers in noisy environments. This can make conversations in public settings and meetings difficult as multiple people may be speaking at once. The team began to develop Mediated Ear when a friend of theirs with hearing loss talked about their challenges when communicating in noisy, multi-speaker environments.

Speaker registering their voice to be recognized by the Mediated Ear mobile app. Image courtesy of the Mediated Ear team.

Clearly isolating individual speakers from each other and from background noises is not a simple task. The team had to work hard to develop an approach that would reliably isolate individual speakers from a mixed audio source. Mediated Ear works as a smartphone application that listens to the current conversation and allows the user to adjust the volume for individual speakers played through their earphones.

To isolate a given speaker’s voice from other voices and background noise, the user hands the phone over to the speaker of interest and asks them to speak into the phone for one minute. After the speaker reads the passage displayed through the app, the audio file of the voice is sent into the cloud, where it is processed and fed into a modified WaveNet deep learning model. Once the model learns the speaker’s voice, the app allows the user to pick up on the speaker’s voice and selectively amplify it, making it easier for the user to understand what is being said and confidently engage in the conversation.

With Mediated Ear, people with hearing impairments have control over who they hear and have an easier time focusing on the people they want to listen to in noisy environments.

Want to learn more about Mediated Ear? Visit their Imagine Cup team page or their website.

SochWare

Team SochWare from Nepal won the AI Award for their mobile app to help farmers identify plant diseases and take steps to mitigate crop damage. Agriculture plays a critical role in the livelihood of Nepal and its people, but difficulties in farming have led to a decline in agriculture. When farmers notice a diseased plant, it is often difficult to recognize what kind of disease the plant is inflicted with. The challenge of disease identification makes it hard to properly address the situation. Farmers often suffer losses when they either do not treat crops or apply improper chemicals to handle disease. There are also situations where excessive chemical use on crops leads to negative health effects on consumers.

Local farmer checking plant disease status with the E-Agrovet mobile app. Photo courtesy of the SochWare team.

Understanding the vitality of agriculture to their country and their families, Team SochWare decided to focus their efforts on developing a solution for this problem. Their solution takes the form of E-Agrovet, a mobile app that uses computer vision to help farmers identify plant disease and learn the proper next-steps for treatment.

How does E-Agrovet work? The farmer takes a photo of the plant of interest through the app. This photo is then sent to the cloud, processed, and fed into their Cognitive Services Custom Vision model. A report is generated based on the results of the Deep Learning image classification model and is sent back to the notification hub on the mobile phone. This report informs the farmer of what the disease is, how to mitigate it, and may also connect the farmer with experts to allow them to act.

Through E-Agrovet, SochWare strives to aid farmers and reduce the use of unnecessary chemicals on crops, improving the quality of life for everyone.

Want to learn more about SochWare? Visit their Imagine Cup team page or their website.

DrugSafe

Team DrugSafe from India won the Big Data Award for their consumer-side and vendor-side apps that help fight the consumption and distribution of counterfeit drugs. The development all began when a friend was suddenly in a lot of pain. The team was surprised to find that their friend had unknowingly taken counterfeit drugs for his diabetes and suffering as a result. Upon further investigation, the team became aware of widespread drug counterfeiting, estimated to be a $75 billion industry in 2010, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Realizing the widespread prevalence and severity of fake medicine, and its role in the unnecessary spread of disease and suffering, the team sought to develop a solution. Because this is such a large-scale problem – one that affects both consumers and legitimate drug vendors – the DrugSafe team decided to develop both a consumer-side and vendor-side solution via mobile apps and an online dashboard.

The Drugsafe mobile app (consumer side). Image courtesy of the DrugSafe team.

What do these apps do?

The mobile app consists of a simple interface that allows users to take photos of drug labels to check for anomalies in the text and label color. The app sends the photo through a custom pipeline involving Azure Cosmos DB and Cognitive Services and notifies the user of the validity of the drug. Users have the option of reporting the drug if it is found to be illegitimate. Selecting to report the issue will take the user to the built-in chatbot to expedite the reporting process. The app also has a community component and can warn users about pharmacies that are seeing an increase in counterfeit drug selling.

The vendor app allows drug vendors to monitor the conditions of their deliveries using an MXChip IoT Board, to ensure that their drugs are delivered safely. The IoT board records information such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and acceleration, which can help vendors monitor the condition of their shipments.

Through the adoption and use of the DrugSafe app, the team hopes to reduce the spread of disease and help individuals gain access to authentic safe medication.

To learn more about DrugSafe you can visit their Imagine Cup team page.

The Impact of AI

The number and quality of AI-centric entries at this year’s Imagine Cup tells us that the next generation of developers recognize AI’s game-changing potential. Although each of these student projects addressed very different needs, teams took a holistic approach and appropriately infused their solutions with AI.

We are inspired by the boldness of these young innovators. Their work reinforces our own mission, to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”. We couldn’t be more excited to support the next generation of developers at future Imagine Cups and to see how their ideas – coupled with AI – will move and shake the world.

If you are interested to build your own intelligent solutions, we recommend getting started with the AI School – we have free tutorials that provide step-by-step instructions on how to build real world solutions on the Microsoft AI platform.

Nile

It’s been a few months since we talked about how we want to approach shipping games with controversial content. In that blog post we talked about some of the tools we felt we needed to build and we thought it would be good to give you an update on where we are. We’ve done a number of things since that post, some which may seem unrelated, but if we are going to maintain an open view of what gets onto the Store, then you’ll need good tools to find the games you want, as well as avoid the things you don’t.

The first set of our changes focused on improving how you can find new games. We’ve added Developer & Publisher homepages so you can easily get from a game you love to others made by the same creators, or follow them if you want to be notified whenever they say or make something. We significantly reworked how our Upcoming Games Lists functioned, so they’re much better at showing you upcoming games that you might be interested in, or upcoming extra content for a game you’ve been playing a bunch.

A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can ignore things you’re not interested in. In the past you’ve been able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or Early Access) you didn’t want to see again. But now we’ve added ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers, publishers, and curators.

We’ve also improved the game tag filters on your account preferences. Previously, it was a list of 3 game tags that you wanted to see less of. We’ve now increased the number of tags you can list to 10, and made them into a harder filter – in short, the Store now assumes you want to ignore all the games that feature any of those tags in their most popular tags, instead of just using them as suggestions to our recommendation engine.

We did our best to ensure you can safely ignore swaths of games in the store, but still find them if you look directly via the search tool. If the game that we think you’re searching for is hidden due to your mature content settings, we identify that and let you know in a safe way. For example, if you have your preferences set to hide mature games with violence, but you search for The Witcher 3, you’ll see this:

If there are games that your search should contain that you’re ignoring for other reasons (due to its developer, or game tags, for instance), we’ll still include it in the list, but we’ll blur it out and when you hover over it you can see why it is darkened. For example, if you’ve chosen to ignore games by Valve, and then search for Left 4 Dead, you’ll see this:

A third set of changes focused on allowing you to have better control over the kinds of mature content you see. So far, the Store has allowed you to filter out games that feature Frequent Violence/Gore or Nudity/Sexual Content. After looking at the mature content in submissions we’re receiving, and at some games that are already in the Store, we’ve added two more options. The first is a general Mature Content filter. We often see developers who tell us their game contains mature content, but not sex or violence, and you can now filter those games out if you wish. The second is an Adults Only filter, which allows you to filter out games that feature explicit sexual content.

We’re also now requiring developers of games with violent or sexual content to describe the content of their game, and we’re using that information to help you decide whether a game is something you’re comfortable with. We think the context of how content is presented is important and giving a developer a place to describe and explain what’s in their game gives you even more information when browsing and considering a purchase. When you’re looking at the store page of a game with mature content, we’ll display that developer-written description to you. We’re also displaying it on the interstitial page we show you if you ever follow a direct link from outside steam to a game that should be filtered for you:

Finally, we’ve continued our efforts in removing bad actors from the Store. Last year we made changes to Trading Cards to address the ways a small set of developers were producing ‘games’ that generated revenue without anyone actually buying and playing them. Recently we made more changes to address other ways these bad actors were continuing to do it. We’ve also permanently banned several developers of games that we felt fit the “straight up trolling” description of games we’re not going to allow onto the Store. There’s actually a surprisingly small number of individuals behind almost all of these games, and their bans have been a straightforward series of decisions, thus far. You can read more about the shorthand of “straight up trolling,” and the process of making those decisions in the Q&A below.

With these sets of changes, we hope you have a better sense of how we’re approaching building a store that works for all developers and players. There’s still plenty of work to do. In our previous post we identified a range of things, from parental controls to tools for developers to manage their communities. In addition, some of the changes described in this post will require more options when we see new kinds of content in game submissions. Going forward, we aim to continue this strategy of shipping features as they’re finished, and posting periodic updates as to the nuts and bolts and the thinking behind their development.

Q&A

Q: What about games that are already in the store that include mature content?

A: Every developer will be encouraged to update their game with the customer-facing descriptions outlined above but in most cases Valve moderators will going back through the catalog and making sure games are complying with the new requirements.

Q: What do you mean, in practice, when you say you won’t ship games that are “outright trolling?” That seems vague.

A: It is vague and we’ll tell you why. You’re a denizen of the internet so you know that trolls come in all forms. On Steam, some are simply trying to rile people up with something we call “a game shaped object” (ie: a crudely made piece of software that technically and just barely passes our bar as a functioning video game but isn’t what 99.9% of folks would say is “good”). Some trolls are trying to scam folks out of their Steam inventory items, others are looking for a way to generate a small amount of money off Steam through a series of schemes that revolve around how we let developers use Steam keys. Others are just trying to incite and sow discord. Trolls are figuring out new ways to be loathsome as we write this. But the thing these folks have in common is that they aren’t actually interested in good faith efforts to make and sell games to you or anyone. When a developer’s motives aren’t that, they’re probably a troll.

Our review of something that may be “a troll game” is a deep assessment that actually begins with the developer. We investigate who this developer is, what they’ve done in the past, their behavior on Steam as a developer, as a customer, their banking information, developers they associate with, and more. All of this is done to answer the question “who are we partnering with and why do they want to sell this game?” We get as much context around the creation and creator of the game and then make an assessment. A trend we’re seeing is that we often ban these people from Steam altogether instead of cherry-picking through their individual game submissions. In the words of someone here in the office: “it really does seem like bad games are made by bad people.”

This doesn’t mean there aren’t some crude or lower quality games on Steam, but it does mean we believe the developers behind them aren’t out to do anything more than sell a game they hope some folks will want to play.

Q: Sometimes I see blurred out games on my Store front page. Why is that?

A: There are a number of sections on the front page that we fill with games, and to ensure the servers behind it don’t melt down as everyone tries to use it, we do a lot of data caching. This works great for data sets that we can easily pre-compute – so if there’s a game you shouldn’t see due to your mature content filters, you’ll never see it on the front page. But if you’ve chosen to do some more personal filtering of particular developers, or specific games, we can’t do that pre-computation as easily. As a result, it’s possible you’ll see a blurred out game on the front page because your personal filters should cause it to be hidden. In practice, though, this will only happen if you’ve filtered out so many games that it can’t find enough to fill a section of the front page, and again, like the search results, we’ll blur that game out and tell you why.

Q: Why do you KEEP asking my damn age throughout the store?

A: We’re with you on this. Unfortunately, many rating agencies have rules that stipulate that we cannot save your age for longer than a single browsing session. It’s frustrating, but know we’re filling out those age gates too.

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Venice, California

“VR” is an industry buzzword right now. And the majority of the technology that has been created in this space has been focused on the development of hardware and content for spaces such as gaming and entertainment, ignoring the range of possibilities available in retail. At our core, we are merchandisers and storytellers which drives us to believe that virtual reality has the potential to reinvent the consumer experience—with an experience we call contextual commerce.

We are looking for an experienced Lead Technical Artist with a skill set that includes some Unity expertise.  You will be part of an amazing team helping to shape the future of immersive experiences, global V-Commerce, and interactive media. 

This is the opportunity to get in early at a stealth company currently being incubated in Los Angeles by Walmart’s tech incubator, Store No 8.  Spatialand was acquired by Store N° 8, Walmart’s incubation arm for developing capabilities that will transform the future of commerce. At Store N° 8, the Spatialand team will develop and explore new products and uses of VR through immersive, interactive, and hyper-real VR environments. Our new venture is currently operating in stealth mode as we work out of our beautiful Venice, CA office.

In this role, you will: 

• Work with in-house multidisciplinary teams of artists and engineers to build high-end retail focused real-time experiences for VR
• Develop tools, pipeline, and workflows for utilizing game engine technology for VR, AR, and other interactive platforms
• Provide technical supervision and support on multiple projects
• Use Unity’s framework to create tools to improve asset pipeline and automation
• Factoring external direction and team feedback into design decisions
• Work with emerging technologies to create new tools and systems for interactive real-time production
• Lead a group of 3-6 3D artists, and (at times) multiple contractors. Provide mentorship, advice, and feedback towards final goals

Requirements: 

• Experience and vast knowledge of real-time graphical and rendering pipelines
• Advanced knowledge of Unity
• Keep up to date with the technological advancements
• Expert proficiency with Maya
• Experience with shader creation for real-time content
• Ability to create hard surface and/or organic models with a high level of realism
• Basic knowledge of programming and scripting languages such as C# and Python
• Superior eye for lighting, value, color, details, and the ability to use them in creating efficient and impactful visual elements
• Understanding of performance and optimization requirements and experience diagnosing and profiling content costs
• Ability to juggle multiple projects simultaneously, work against a deadline, and have a high degree of comfort with constant change
• Self-motivated and proactive.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Proven ability to work successfully within and across teams
• Bachelors in related field or equivalent experience
• Experience with VR and/or shipped at least one AAA game

Additional Skills (not essential to the position but assists in choosing candidates):

• Fluent in at least one programming language such as C#
• Shader programming experience
• Good 3D mathematical skills
• Experience with scriptable render pipelines 

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

Throughout its celebrated history, Konami’s award-winning Pro Evolution Soccer series has consistently captivated players by providing an unmatched realistic recreation of the sport of soccer, and this year is no exception. You can finally experience the “power of football” for yourself in Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (PES 2019), which launches today in the Americas on Xbox One, and will launch globally on August 30.

Off the pitch, there’s been a major shift to Konami’s licensing strategy for this year’s edition, which focused on delivering exciting and fresh content to the series. As a result, PES 2019 boasts more licenses than ever before in its franchise history. This year’s iteration continues to build on past titles and bring new experiences to players with an extended portfolio of all-new, fully licensed leagues, stadiums, partnerships and Legends, on top of its existing premier partnership with FC Barcelona.

New and renewed team partnerships include: Brazilian clubs Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo FC; national teams from Chile and Peru; Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers; German club FC Shalke 04; French clubs AS Monaco and AC Milan; and the International Champions Cup (ICC) to name a few.

Not to mention, there’s a handful of exciting new leagues that will be featured in the 2019 edition: Superliga Argentina, Chile’s Campeonato Scotiabank, Danish Superliga, Portugal’s Liga NOS, Swiss Super League, Scotland’s Ladbrokes Premiership, Turkish Süper Lig, and new and exclusive to PES 2019, the Russian Premier Liga.

You can get your copy of PES 2019 in one of two editions: Standard Edition with FC Barcelona star Philippe Coutinho on the front cover; and a special David Beckham Edition featuring England’s all-time greatest footballer. Also available now is a digital-only Legend edition. Check out all the details for each edition at: www.konami.com/wepes/2019.

For all the latest PES 2019 news, reveals and updates, be sure to follow @OfficialPES on Twitter and Instagram.

Civilization VI, a turn-based strategy game developed by Firaxis Games, will be available on Nintendo Switch this November, it has been confirmed.

Civilization is a turn-based strategy series which has typically seen releases on PC over the years, with the occasional title finding its way to a Nintendo platform in the process such as Civilization Revolution on Nintendo DS. This latest entry to the franchise sees you build an empire to stand the test of time; you’ll be exploring a new land, researching technology, conquering your enemies, and going head-to-head with history’s most renowned leaders as you attempt to build the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – to give it its full title – will include the latest game updates and improvements on Switch, as well as four pieces of additional content which adds four new civilisations, leaders, and scenarios. These are the Vikings Scenario Pack, the Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack, the Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack, and the Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack.

We hope you like your game feature lists because we’ve got a pretty hefty one for you today courtesy of the game’s website. Here are some of the things you can expect to get up to in the game:

Game Features:

– PLAY YOUR WAY: The path to victory is the one you determine. Become the most scientifically advanced civilization, dominate through sheer military power, or become the foremost destination for the cultural arts.
– THE WORLD’S GREATEST LEADERS: Play as one of 24 different leaders from various countries around the world and throughout history. Build an empire of lucrative trade routes with Cleopatra of Egypt, flex the military might of your legions with Trajan of Rome, or develop a powerhouse of culture with Hojo Tokimune of Japan. Each of the leaders can be played any way you prefer, with unique abilities, units, and infrastructure in their quest for victory.
– EXPANSIVE EMPIRES: See the marvels of your empire spread across the map. Settle in uncharted lands, improve your surroundings, build new districts, and see your cities – and your civilization – prosper.
– ACTIVE RESEARCH: Unlock boosts that speed your civilization’s progress through history. To advance more quickly, use your units to actively explore, develop your environment, and discover new cultures.
 –DYNAMIC DIPLOMACY: Interactions with other civilizations change over the course of the game, from primitive first interactions where conflict is a fact of life, to late game alliances and negotiations.
– EXCITING AND UNIQUE SCENARIOS: Civilization VI for Nintendo Switch includes four playable scenarios, each with a different setting and style of gameplay inspired by history. Be part of the colonization of Australia in “Outback Tycoon,” defend Poland from invaders in “Jadwiga’s Legacy”, choose a Viking leader to plunder Europe in “Vikings, Raiders, and Traders!”, or conquer the known world in the “Conquests of Alexander.”
– COOPERATIVE AND COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER: Up to 4 players can cooperate or compete for supremacy via a wireless LAN.

Civilization VI will find its new home on Switch on 16th November.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this one with us in the comments. Have you played any games from the Civilization series before?