At E3 2017, developer Mojang shared plans to bring the various different Minecraft communities across consoles, PC, and mobile devices under one umbrella in the form of the “Better Together” update. That patch is currently being tested by Xbox One players who opted into a beta and the preview confirmed the introduction of a long-requested feature.
The current version of the beta allows Buy Now fans to test Xbox Live multiplayer and other functionality in the new “Bedrock Edition” of the game. On top of that, there is a nifty option hidden away in a menu screen that can be used to select a keyboard and mouse as the primary input device rather than the standard Xbox One controller, according to OnMSFT.
This is pretty big news. Minecraft started out on the PC and as such many players are most comfortable building their creations and navigating the game world with the freedom of control afforded by a mouse. There have been numerous requests from fans for this functionality to be implemented in the console version of the game and it seems that those wishes have finally been granted.
It remains to be seen whether the PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft will also receive official support for keyboard and mouse control schemes somewhere down the line. Sony declined to take part in the Better Together update, so the system is currently positioned separately to the central strand of the game’s development moving forward.
The fact that Minecraft is adding keyboard and mouse support on the Xbox One might suggest that this control scheme will become a more prominent component of the console’s identity. Microsoft has made no secret of its intention to bring Windows 10 and the Xbox One closer together and since so many of its big releases are cross-play and already have keyboard and mouse control schemes established, it should not be too difficult to set up.
The Better Together update for Minecraft will see the Xbox One, Windows 10, Nintendo Switch, and mobile versions of the game drop their platform specific-branding and enable players using different hardware to create alongside one another. There is currently no official release date for the final version of the patch.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.