The annual Microsoft Build conference is underway, and many are tuned in to see what type of innovative projects are revealed. During the Vision Keynote, Microsoft closed out its roundup of new updates for its various platforms with a tease for an augmented reality experience based on Minecraft.
We had a chance to play Minecraft Earth. Here’s everything you need to know about Microsoft’s upcoming Minecraft AR game.
There weren’t many big reveals during the Vision Keynote, and there are sure to be a few other interesting bits revealed throughout the week, but the first major session closed out with something that should be huge for the immersive technology industry. The very brief teaser showed a man leaving from a bench right after grabbing the wrong phone by mistake, with a young woman recognizing the error and jumping up to seek out the owner of the device that was left behind. Before chasing him down, though, she looks at the phone as it appears to be running an augmented reality Minecraft application. Through it, she sees a blocky pig moving around in some grass and mud. The pig also seems to respond to her presence as well, though this seems more like a scripted commercial instead of a real example of what the app can do.
Right before the correct owner returns, the app teases a full reveal on May 17 and directs viewers to the Minecraft website. The limited clip doesn’t give us insight into what this augmented reality experience based on Minecraft will be, but it’s a solid brand to have immersive technology attached to. If you would like to see the full video, you can check it out below.
While not an ideal example of the potential of AR, Pokémon Go served as an introduction to augmented reality to a massive community of players. Minecraft has evolved into a major force in gaming, one where gamers are setting world records, and it could be another widespread springboard for AR.
Pokémon Go’s initial AR experience was very rudimentary, but the brief Minecraft teases something that is at least as advanced as Pokémon Go AR Plus, which gave the creatures actual static presence in our augmented worlds as opposed to just showing a floating object transposed over our surroundings. The pig and tiles in the Minecraft teaser were static objects that should scale in size correctly as you move closer to, further from, and around them. We’ll see what the full project involves when it’s officially revealed later this month.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.