With many schools shut down, Minecraft is looking to help parents enhance their children’s education in a fun way.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer told gamers and parents in a statement on Tuesday, March 24, that Minecraft can show everyone that we’re “living and learning through this together.”
Spencer believes Minecraft is a great way for children to stay in touch with their friends while adhering to social distancing guidelines and hopes to help further children’s learning during this difficult time by adding educational content to the Minecraft Marketplace. All content is free through June 30 and is available on all versions of Minecraft for Bedrock platforms, including all current-generation home consoles, PC, Android, and iOS.
By downloading different worlds, kids can take part in lesson plans that feature various tasks such as creative writing assignments, puzzles, and build challenges. Players can take an educational journey to the International Space Station thanks to a partnership with NASA, visit historical landmarks in Washington D.C., and learn how to code with the assistance of a robot pal. Other topics covered include marine biology, Greek history, renewable energy, and how to build 3D fractals. Microsoft credits Everbloom, Jigarbov, Lifeboat, Razzleberries, The World Foundry, Blockworks, and Imagiverse as the creators of these new worlds.
Spencer notes that Minecraft has a wide array of family settings, so parents can set restrictions for their children while playing. He hopes that screen time limits and content filters will help families “balance gaming with offline schoolwork and other responsibilities.” If children are unfamiliar with the popular game or have accessibility needs, there is a copilot feature that can help teach them how to play and aid them as it allows two controllers to control the game.
“We understand the important role gaming is playing right now to connect people and provide joy in these isolating and stressful times,” Spencer told fans in his open letter. “Our teams are working diligently to ensure we can be there for our players. To that end, we are actively monitoring performance and usage trends to ensure we’re optimizing the service for our customers worldwide and accommodating for new growth and demand.”
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.