Microsoft announced the introduction of chemistry into Minecraft: Education Edition, where concepts like states of matter and structures of atoms can be accessible through the use of new crafting tools designed to explain different chemistry concepts. 

Educators are already using Minecraft: Education Edition to teach concepts like coding, the water cycle, photosynthesis and renewable energy. The addition of chemistry in Minecraft allows for teachers to introduce chemistry concepts without the cost of lab equipment, making the subject more accessible to their students. 

“Bringing chemistry to Minecraft not only helps spark interest in STEM, but also helps educators engage students in the scientific process, reinforcing creative problem solving and engaging experiments,” explains Minecraft education director Neal Manegold. “Concepts like states of matter, structure of atoms and chemical reactions become accessible in Minecraft through the immersive world and these brand-new tools.”

The chemistry update is set to launch in February for all Minecraft: Education Edition customers and there’s already a lab journal for teachers looking to incorporate the program into their curriculum.

Guild Wars 2 developers donated $3,500 to a fan’s crowdfunding page after a fire consumed everything but a copy of her collectors edition of Nightfall, an expansion for Guild Wars.

As Kotaku reports, the fire struck two weeks before Christmas and destroyed the home that Siadina (real name Flora Hunsucker) lived in with her family. When returning to survey the damage to see what could be salvaged, she filmed the discovery of her unscathed collectors edition of Nightfall.

She posted the video to Twitter and tagged developer ArenaNet, and was approached shortly after by the studio’s social media coordinator asking for her address to send a t-shirt. Flora started playing Guild Wars in 2005. “It was my first MMO,” she told Kotaku. “I fell in love with it.” She has logged over 4,000 hours in the first game, and about another 2,500 in Guild Wars 2.

Later on it was revealed that ArenaNet made a $3,500 donation to Siadina’s crowdfunding campaign, and instead of receiving a t-shirt she was sent all of the Guild War games signed by the developers. 

“Thank you is so inadequate. It’s all I got. Thank you for me and my family and everything. I didn’t expect any of this,” Siadina expressed to Kotaku. “To have the Guild Wars community come up behind me so strongly and so positively, it’s a blessing without price.”

Hello, Xbox Insiders! 2017 has been a busy year for Team Xbox and the Xbox Insider Team (which now includes Mister Retr0 and the Xbox Feedback team). Our dedication to making Xbox the best place to play could not be done without the feedback and suggestions from the community.

Xbox Insiders are already familiar with the Xbox Insider Hub, Quests, Insider content, and how to report a problem. But in case you didn’t know, you can also suggest a new feature or change to an existing feature through Xbox Feedback. The feature teams working on Xbox One, Xbox on Windows, Xbox mobile apps, and Xbox Live regularly review the ideas you submit, incorporating them into their work to make your Xbox experience even better.

In 2017 we heard you, and we really liked some of the great features you voted for. We liked 274 of them so much, we implemented them! Of course some of the ideas we already had on our backlog, but your comments and explanations help us make these features in the way that you want.

Here are some highlights from some of the highest voted suggestions in 2017:

Xbox Platform Suggestions

Original Xbox backward compatibility!

24,375 Votes – Updated on 10/24
Original Xbox games are now part of Xbox One backward compatibility! Compatibility for Original Xbox titles launched with thirteen games; you can find the whole list of backward compatible games at http://www.xbox.com/xbox-one/backward-compatibility

Option to Sort Xbox 360 Games from Xbox One Games

7,192 Votes – Updated on 07/25
With the new Games & Apps, you can now sort and filter your games by platform! Open My Games & Apps, and in the Games section, use the drop down filter to choose Xbox 360 games only!

Customizable GamerPic for your Profile Picture

6,566 Votes – Updated on 07/24
Custom Gamerpics are now available for your Xbox Live profile! You can choose any image for your gamerpic (as long as you follow the Xbox Live code of conduct). You can see more details about customer gamerpics and other new features here: https://news.xbox.com/2017/07/13/custom-gamerpics-console-co-streaming-arena-updates-roll-xbox-fans-today/

Proper HD Audio Support

4,868 Votes – Updated on 04/04
Xbox One now offers the option to pass Blu-Ray audio via Bitstream directly to your receiver for decoding! This option supports DTS:X, Dolby ATMOS, and other HD Audio formats. You can turn this option on by going to Settings > Display & sound > Audio output and setting the Speaker audio to “Bitstream out.”

Remove the 5 minute cap on recording

4,641 Votes – Updated on 04/04
Users can now record up to 10 minutes at a time with the new improved GameDVR! While playing a game, press the Xbox button to bring up the Xbox Guide, then press the View button to see your recording options. Choose “Start Recording” and the GameDVR will record up to 10 minutes of gameplay.

Halo Wars 2 on the Xbox One

4,498 Votes – Updated on 04/20
Halo Wars 2 is available for Xbox One and Windows 10!

Automatic download and install for game updates

4,243 Votes – Updated on 06/26
Xbox One now offers the ability to automatically install updates for consoles. You can set updates for the Xbox or games & apps separately by going to Settings > System > Updates and checking “Keep my console up to date” and “Keep my games & apps up to date.”

Tell me when my console has been updated!

3,839 Votes – Updated on 04/24
Your Xbox One will not provide a notification on the dashboard if your console has been updated. Selecting the notification will bring you to a description of new features. More information about console updates can be found here: http://support.xbox.com/xbox-one/console/system-update-operating-system

Family Timer that Enables Play Limitations for Child Accounts

2,988 Votes – Updated on 04/04
Parents who have child accounts can now set limitations on screen time for Xbox One! When signed into your parent account, go to http://microsoft.com/family to view and set limits for any child accounts.

Add a number value to commands like “Volume Up”and “Skip Forward”

2,002 Votes – Updated on 05/30
When you ask Cortana to turn the volume up or down, you can now add a number to the end, and say “Hey Cortana, turn the volume up 5” for a more accurate change. You can also ask Cortana to fast forward or rewind faster or slow by simply saying “faster” or “slower.” You can find more details about how to use Cortana here: https://support.xbox.com/xbox-one/console/cortana-voice-commands

Backward Compatibility

You can also find the list of Xbox 360 titles that we have completed in 2017, and vote for more titles to come in 2018! In just the last year, we’ve shipped 133 backward compatible titles for the Xbox One (not counting OG Xbox!). Here are the Top 10 (by vote count):

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II – 217,119 Votes
• GTA IV – 87,951 Votes
• Assassin’s Creed III – 68,447 Votes
• Halo 4 – 59,051 Votes
• Battlefield 3 – 58,038 Votes
• Halo 3 – 57,241 Votes
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – 51,760 Votes
• Far Cry 3 – 47,450 Votes
• Batman: Arkham Origins – 47,191 Votes
• Saints Row: The Third – 45,012 Votes

2018

Since we launched Xbox Feedback in 2014, we’ve completed over 900 ideas, and satisfied over 4 million users who voted! We’re looking forward to continuing to implement your ideas, and sharing some exciting changes for Xbox Feedback in 2018. Thank you!

-Nathan

Hamster is bringing SNK’s 1994 title Samurai Shodown II to the Switch eShop. If the first game was revolutionary this first sequel somehow managed to surpass expectations thanks to gameplay refinements such as the very welcomed inclusion of rolling and ducking which enable you to safely dodge incoming projectile attacks. You may even have the honour of being challenged to fight against the game’s iconic umpire, Kuroko!

The old roster has been expanded with four new comers joining up with all the original cast: no-nonsense Genjuro Kibagami would become a recurring character in the series; Tam Tam got replaced with the cute catgirl Cham Cham and her monkey sidekick Pako Pako; Neinhalt Sieger (which translates from German as “non stop winner”) is spreading peace and love by punching people with a giant steam-powered iron fist and finally there’s the hilarious Nicotine Caffeine, who was named after those same nasty habits sported by game director Yasushi Adachi.

You can add some over the top “Engrish” to round up the whole package. While still on the subject of translations, the original Japanese name for the game is Shin Samurai Supirittsu: Haōmaru Jigokuhen which translates as “True Samurai Spirits: Haohmaru Hell Change” which we still believe around the NL office is a reference to Haohmaru’s very bad hair day displayed in the game’s cover.

There is no other way around this: Samurai Shodown II remains the finest game in whole series. Any fond memories of this one back in the day? Will you be slashing you way to the eShop on February first? Fight fair in the comments below.

Ojiro “Moppin” Fumoto – best known for the award-winning mobile title Downwell – has joined Nintendo.

Fumoto made the announcement via his Twitter account, and his profile now features the text “Downwell / Nintendo”.

While “serious” gamers often look down on smartphone titles, Downwell is one of those rare cases of a mobile game being really good. Despite its simple controls, it delivers one of the most intense and challenging gameplay experiences you can have on a smartphone, and boasts some striking pixel visuals which call to mind the twitch arcade classics of yesteryear. It’s since been ported to Windows, PS4 and PS Vita.

This (very roughly) translates as: 

I got a job on the Nintendo DS! I’ll do my best to

It will be interesting to see how Nintendo uses Fumoto’s unique talents, and it’s good to know that the company is hiring such fresh talent. 

Welcome aboard, Moppin!

SOS is Now Available on Steam Early Access!

SOS is an interactive game show where 16 entertaining performers are dropped onto La Cuna Island with one simple goal – get off La Cuna Island. Players must find a relic, signal for extraction, and grab a spot on the rescue chopper while out-thinking opponents and fending off monster hordes. Survivors will be rewarded with fame and fortune, not to mention their lives.

According to the ESA’s annual assessment, the U.S. game industry once again saw a year-over-year increase in revenue, with this year’s numbers coming in at $36 billion in revenue between hardware, peripherals, software, in-game purchases, and subscriptions. 

By the ESA’s count, that makes for an 18 percent increase over the $30.4 billion reported in 2016. Those numbers were based on the NPD Group’s annual year-end reporting and supplemented with App Store and Google Play data from the mobile analytics firm App Annie.

Keep in mind however that the NPD’s reporting on game and downloadable content sales, particularly digital, isn’t an exact measurement. The report notes that its numbers don’t include digital sales for Switch and 3DS games, or PC digital sales from Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Battle.net, Origin, or Uplay. 

Game developers should be aware that data gaps like that have led to amended reports in the past, but, with that in mind, the NPD’s overall reports still offer a useful glimpse at larger trends in the game industry as a whole.

Looking at just the NPD Group’s record of game industry sales for 2017, video game hardware brought in a total of $4.7 billion in 2017, a 28 percent increase from the $3.6 billion sold in 2016. That same report clocked a 6 percent increase year-over-year in physical and digital games sold on consoles and handhelds, though these numbers exclude digital sales on Nintendo platforms. 

PC games, however, saw a 20 percent decrease in game sales between 2016 and 2017 on the platforms tracked by the NPD Group. By the NPD’s count, PC game software saw $275 million in sales this year, down from the $342 million reported in 2016. 

Across all platforms, the NPD says that Call of Duty: WWII saw the most money brought in from both physical and digital sales in 2017 though, as mentioned above, not all platforms or storefronts provided digital sale information to the group. Following that, NBA 2K18 falls in second place with Destiny 2 coming in third overall.

Looking at just December and, again, ranked by dollars in sales, Call of Duty: WWII was the highest selling game when comparing sales on all major platforms. Additionally, the game topped the charts for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One individually. Meanwhile, the Xbox console exclusive PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds saw the next most sales on the Xbox One while the runner-up on PlayStation 4 looks to be Star Wars: Battlefront II.