Category Archives: Microsoft

Train2Game News Crytek showing VR at GDC

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With GDC 2015 just around the corner, independent game developer and publisher Crytek has announced details of its plans for the annual conference and expo in San Francisco, which runs from March 4th – 6th this year.

Crytek will set up base at booth #1424 in the South Hall of the Moscone Center, where attendees will be able to take a closer look at a brand new VR demo powered by CRYENGINE and witness Crytek’s technology at work on Android-based systems.

On top of seeing CRYENGINE unleashed for VR and Android, visitors can discover how the engine is equipping developers on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Linux, and learn more about CRYENGINE Sandbox – the ultimate multiplatform toolset.

Throughout the expo, Crytek’s booth will also play host to a regular program of live theatre demos hosted by CRYENGINE licensees and Crytek staff. These demos will offer audiences a detailed look at how both major studios and indie developers are using the engine to create stunning new projects irrespective of size or budget.

For more information, visit www.cryengine.com.

Train2Game News Windows 10 coming to Raspberry Pi 2

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Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2Today the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced the retail availability of their new board, the Raspberry Pi 2 and Microsoft are joining the Foundation in also announcing that Windows 10 will support Raspberry Pi 2, which will be free for the Maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT later this year.

Recently Terry Myerson took the opportunity to share more details about Windows 10, which will usher in the new generation of Windows. Windows 10 is the first step toward an era of more personal computing. This vision guided the efforts to reimagine Windows for a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. Windows 10 will inspire and support a broad range of devices – from PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s to phones to Xbox and the Internet of Things.

Microsoft see the Maker community as an amazing source of innovation for smart, connected devices that represent the very foundation of the next wave of computing, and are excited to be a part of this community.

A spokesman from Microsoft said “Last year we took an important step in embracing the Maker movement by creating the Windows Developer Program for IoT and delivering Windows for the Intel Galileo board. We are taking the next step by bringing Microsoft’s leading development tools, services, and ecosystem to the Raspberry Pi community for free through our Windows Developer Program for IoT.”

Raspberry Pi has quickly become one of the Maker community’s favorite platforms because their highly-capable, low-cost boards and compute modules enable developers to bring their vison to life. Raspberry Pi 2 is a surprisingly powerful device that opens up the world of computing and programing to a huge range of people and skill levels.

Microsoft are excited about working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and to share that Windows 10 will support Raspberry Pi 2. They will be sharing more details about the Windows 10 plans for IoT in the coming months. You can register for the developer program on the Windows Developer Program for IoT site to get the latest information on the Maker efforts.

Train2Game News Free Assassin’s Creed Unity DLC

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Today, Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings is now available, free of charge, for all Assassin’s Creed Unity players on Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC, and will be released tomorrow January 14th on PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system in the UK.

After the events of Assassin’s Creed Unity, Arno’s quest for redemption leads him to the town of Saint-Denis, then known as Franciade. There he is sent on a mission that will take him to the depths of the city, an intricate network of catacombs and deep caves that hold the remains and best-kept secrets of past French kings.

To uncover the dark mysteries that lie beneath the Basilica, Arno is equipped with a lantern to guide his way and will gain access to the Guillotine Gun, a powerful weapon made for both long-range destruction and deadly close-quarter combat.

In Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings, players will encounter familiar faces including Napoleon and the Marquis de Sade, as well as a new enemy faction, the Raiders, merciless foes desecrating the catacombs. Players will also be able to embark on additional side quests including new Murder Mysteries, enigmas, and co-operative missions, where players can join forces for a heist mission and a special Brotherhood mission.

Both single-player and cooperative modes enable players to unlock new weapons, gear, and outfits that carry over between Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings.

Ubisoft promised it would give out Dead Kings for free to anyone who bought Unity, as a way of apologising for the game’s bug filled launch.

Train2Game News Xbox One CPU Increase

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Xbox OneAs I am sure you are all well aware some irritating people hacked Xbox Live and PSN however some good has come from it.

Whilst the Xbox One was being hacked a number of development tools to be used by game studios were revealed, including Microsoft’s generous gift to developers – the use of an extra CPU core.

There are eight in total within the Xbox One’s case, two of which have so far been reserved for running the background operating system. Now Microsoft has opened up the use of 50 to 80% of the seventh CPU, meaning that games will run faster and smoother.

The use of this seventh CPU will necessitate the ditching of Kinect – custom, game-specific voice commands, the infrared and depth sensors won’t work. Even worse, basic console commands – “Xbox Go Home”, “Xbox Go To…” will snatch back 50% of the CPU usage.

Microsoft have recognised the flaws and limitations of their seventh CPU in the documentation that goes alongside the development tools, and they are aiming to fix it at some point in the future.

Train2Game News Xbox Game Streaming

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Arcadia is the name of Microsoft’s in-development streaming games tech.

That’s according to ZDNet, which says Arcadia is being developed by a new streaming team in Microsoft’s Operating Systems Group and is designed to replace the ‘Rio’ streaming tech demonstrated last year.

Arcadia, which is being built around Microsoft’s existing Azure cloud network, will not just stream games but also apps – the site even says that the company at one stage saw Arcadia as a way for Windows users to access Android content. This idea has now apparently been put on hold, although recent job ads for the Arcadia team do ask for candidates with experience with iOS and Android.

ZDNet doesn’t believe Arcadia will be demonstrated at the upcoming Windows 10 reveal next month, although Xbox boss Phil Spencer will be talking.

Sony became the first console platform holder to branch out into game streaming. It acquired streaming firm Gaikai in 2012 and this year launched its PS Now service in North America. Other streaming games firms, such as OnLive, have struggled to gain traction.

Train2Game News OlliOlli being ported

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Notorious street thugs Curve Digital and the pushers of intense digital experiences over at Roll7 are pleased to announce a collaboration that sends finger-skate-em-up OlliOlli kick-flipping over gamers’ couches and grinding all up on their Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS consoles in early 2015!

For the seriously out-of-touch, OlliOlli is a 2D side-scrolling skateboard game crafted by Roll7 from a solid block of pure raditude. This ain’t your grandpa’s skating game  – OlliOlli throws you feet first into high-risk, high-reward skate lines where ‘just one more trick’ can mean the difference between pulling off a gnarly combo and becoming just a smear on the concrete.

Fresh from its critically acclaimed debut on the PC and PlayStation consoles, players will be tearing up over 250 challenges across 100 levels, utilizing the 120+ tricks at their disposal as they compete for the highest score amongst their peers and other skater strangers.

All of the wild features return in full for the new versions, such as all four game modes, including the nails-hard RAD mode and the Daily Grind, which sees players worldwide competing on the same line for the highest score possible.

The game’s release is scheduled for early 2015, when you can finally pop shove-it into your console of preference.

Train2Game News GreenShoots Funding

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CE_Primary_RGB_OBCreative England and Microsoft have announced that our highly popular Greenshoots programme is set to run for a second year and it’s bigger and better than ever before.

Speaking at EGX Creative England’s Head of Games & Digital Jaspal Sohal announced that the next round of the programme is now open, which offers £250k (up to £25k each) to 10 indie studios across England.

In a change to the first iteration of Greenshoots, investors and publishers are now involved from day one which means the supported studios have the potential to receive additional investment from the start of their project. Applicants can now also apply to develop for Xbox One with the programme no longer limited to tablet and mobile development.

The games from Greenshoots Round 1 ranged from underwater shoot ‘em ups and robot-infested puzzle games, to futuristic galaxy battles and crazy golf. All of the games, now released2, were showcased back in July to a crowd of industry experts and investors.

Jaspal Sohal, Head of Games & Digital at Creative England, said:

“Round 1 of Greenshoots proved to be a phenomenal success, helping 9 new indie studios to launch some amazing titles.

“This year the programme is an even better opportunity for burgeoning games studios; we have potential investors involved from the very start and Microsoft have extended the programme to include PC and Xbox One titles. Greenshoots Round 2 is a fantastic opportunity for any indie studio looking to develop their first IP.”

Andrew Webber, UK Microsoft Marketing Lead, said:

“At Microsoft we believe that a game developer’s success is our success. With the brilliant results from last year’s Greenshoots and the impact it has made on the participating studios, we are delighted to partner, once again, with Creative England. What’s particularly exciting this year is that Greenshoots has evolved to put the participants in front of more investors and publishers than ever before from day one.”

Paul Norris, of Greenshoots Round 1 support studio Mad Fellows, said:

“Applying to Greenshoots has been the single most important and productive decision we’ve made since founding Mad Fellows. Creative England and Microsoft have raised our profile as developers, given us access to funding and follow-on funding, introduced us to invaluable contacts, provided master classes and offered numerous opportunities to speak and present our game at high profile events.

“The Greenshoots programme has been pivotal in ensuring we made it through our first year as a company and has set us on a path for continued success in the future.”

The Greenshoots programme helps developers to kick-start development of new intellectual property (IP) and reach a global audience, plus they’ll receive support, mentorship and expertise from Microsoft and industry partners. While developing their title, Greenshoots encourages developers to push their game out across all platforms. The programme is designed to inject the business with funds for development and marketing and studios only pay back the investment when they’re making money from the game.

Applications close 9am on October 20th, 2014. To download a full set of guidelines click here and to apply Click Here.

Train2Game News Project Spark available now

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Project SparkAfter months of beta, Project Spark is now available for free on Xbox One for all to play and create.

Microsoft and Team Dakota’s fairytale-flavoured game editor, Project Spark, is finally ready for official release – the complete version can be downloaded now on Xbox One or Windows 8 PCs, free of charge, or bought in a box with some additional content and perks.

The game was announced when the Xbox One was at E3 and was one of the more innovative titles that was displayed. Project Spark is a complex yet user-friendly editing tool, which allows you to sculpt out terrain, choose behaviours for characters, fiddle with a world’s lighting or climate, set victory objectives and much more.

The game works on a free to play method where everything is playable and unlockable but to speed along your process you can use real word currency.

If you pay for the game then you will receive the following:

– Champions Quest: Void Storm Adventure
– Sir Haakon the Knight playable champion
– First Contact Sci-Fi theme pack
– Yeti’s Rage content pack
– Arctic Glaciers winter landscape
– Massive World Builder Pack expansion
– 1 Month of Project Spark Premium membership (earn credits twice as fast)

If you don’t fancy creating in the game then you can play one of the seventy thousand levels, which over a million creators spent four million hours creating.

Train2Game News Windows 10

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MicrosoftMicrosoft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its next Windows operating system, Windows 10, and gave a first look at an early technical preview for the PC available Oct. 1.

The announcement highlighted advancements designed for business, including an updated user experience and enhanced security and management capabilities. The company also introduced the Windows Insider Program, kicking off its largest-ever open collaborative development effort to change the way Windows is built and delivered to best meet the needs of customers. Program participants will receive the technical preview of Windows 10 and a steady stream of builds through the development cycle to use and give feedback on.

“Windows 10 represents the first step of a whole new generation of Windows, unlocking new experiences to give customers new ways to work, play and connect,” said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Operating Systems group at Microsoft. “This will be our most comprehensive operating system and the best release Microsoft has ever done for our business customers, and we look forward to working together with our broader Windows community to bring Windows 10 to life in the months ahead.”

Windows 10 adapts to the devices customers are using — from Xbox to PCs and phones to tablets and tiny gadgets — and what they’re doing with a consistent, familiar and compatible experience, enabling even greater productivity. Windows 10 will run across the broadest range of devices ever from the Internet of Things to enterprise datacenters worldwide. Microsoft is also delivering a converged application platform for developers on all devices with a unified app store. Developers will be able to write an application once and deploy it easily across multiple device types, making discovery, purchase and updating easier than ever for customers.

Windows 10 builds nearly everything that businesses need right into the core of the product — including enterprise-grade security, identity and information protection features — in ways that can reduce complexities and provide better experiences than other solutions. One area of advancement is in the work Microsoft has done with user identities to improve resistance to breach, theft or phishing. Windows 10 will also help advance data loss prevention by using containers and data separation at the application and file level, enabling protection that follows the data as it goes from a tablet or PC to a USB drive, email or the cloud.

Management and deployment have been simplified to help lower costs, including in-place upgrades from Windows 7 or Windows 8 that are focused on making device wipe-and-reload scenarios obsolete. Businesses will also have the flexibility to choose how quickly they adopt the latest innovations and influence continued improvements. In addition, organizations will be able to customize an app store specific to their needs and environment. The intent is an app store that will allow for volume app licensing, flexible distribution, and the ability for organizations to reclaim or reuse licenses when necessary.

The early technical preview of Windows 10 demonstrates new levels of flexibility, navigation and familiarity through the Windows experience. Features include these:

  • Expanded Start menu. The familiar Start menu is back, providing quick one-click access to the functions and files that people use most, and it includes a new space to personalize with favorite apps, programs, people and websites.
  • Apps that run in a window. Apps from the Windows Store now open in the same format that desktop programs do. They can be resized and moved around, and have title bars at the top allowing users to maximize, minimize and close with a click.
  • Snap enhancements. Working in multiple apps at once is easier and more intuitive with snap improvements. A new quadrant layout allows up to four apps to be snapped on the same screen. Windows will also show other apps and programs running for additional snapping, and it will even make smart suggestions on filling available screen space with other open apps.
  • New Task view button. The new Task view button on the task bar enables one view for all open apps and files, allowing for quick switching and one-touch access to any desktop created.
  • Multiple desktops. Instead of too many apps and files overlapping on a single desktop, it’s easy to create and switch between distinct desktops for different purposes and projects — whether for work or personal use.

The introduction of the Windows Insider Program demonstrates Microsoft’s continued commitment to working closely with customers to help shape the future of Windows. Windows Insiders will be able to give feedback on early builds of the product throughout the development cycle. The program will include various ways for Windows Insiders to engage in a two-way dialogue with Microsoft, including a Windows Feedback app for sharing suggestions and issues and a Windows Technical Preview Forum for interacting with Microsoft engineers and fellow Insiders. More information on the Windows Insider Program and the technical preview can be found at http://preview.windows.com.

Train2Game News Mojang sale to Microsoft Confirmed

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MojangThe rumours have been confirmed and Mojang is selling to Microsoft for $2.5 Billion. So what does this mean for Minecraft and the company?

In a blog on www.Mojang.com the deal was confirmed today with a few details about the sale and the reasons why.

The main reason Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder of Mojang has decided to sell is that he feels that Minecraft and Mojang have become to big on a global scale. He has attempted to make smaller games again to no avail and he feels that is because he has had to spend to much time and energy focused on the global phenomenon that is Minecraft.

There are only a handful of potential buyers with the resources to grow Minecraft and Mojang have worked closely with Microsoft since 2012. They have been impressed by their continued dedication to the game and its development.

The other versions of Minecraft will still continue to run but as for what happens with future multiplatform projects is yet to be seen. That will be down to Microsoft to decide.

The founders: Notch, Carl, and Jakob are leaving Mojang with nothing confirmed of what they are going on to do.

The main points to take from this sale is that Minecraft will continue to evolve and thrive and that small project you are working on may net you $2.5 Billion.