microsoft news

Update:Telltale has confirmed earlier reports about its partnership with Netflix. Minecraft: Story Mode is coming to Netflix this fall and Telltale will publish a game based on Stranger Things for consoles and PC at a later date.Separately, we're thrilled to confirm that Telltale is developing a game based on Stranger Things that we'll publish to consoles a...

Minecraft is certainly no stranger to tie-in packs, and another one was just added to its list. This time, players can jump into Minecraft and ado the looks of their favorite Final Fantasy XV characters.The Final Fantasy XV Skin Pack released on the Minecraft Marketplace today with a whopping 43 character skins from the popular series. This pack includes F...

Snap is finally expanding to the desktop web from mobile, kinda sorta.The first step towards that appears to be a web-app for viewing stories on Snap maps. Much like when one is using the actual app, it only shows stories that you or your friends choose to post to the local story feed. You’ll be unable to see any of your friends snaps on there if you’re a current Snapchat user, and it’d be useless if that was your intention.Of course, it’s more likely that Snapchat intends non-users to use this app to view popular local stories, like say a concert nearby, or a festival in a park. If users find the concept of stories attractive, they’ll be more likely to download the app itself and give Snap ...

Facebook is testing a new story maps feature, akin to Snapchat’s own snap maps feature.For the uninformed, Snap maps showcase the locations of Snapchat users relative to their chosen friends on a map. It also allows users to see popular stories around them. If there was an event, for instance, users would be able to view snaps shared from that location to Snapchat’s ‘Our Story’ remotely.Facebook seems to be moving towards that path, with an option to share your stories to “world” being tested. This would probably let you share your stories with the world much like Snapchat’s ‘Our Story’, and then show up whenever someone checks our your geographic location.NEW: Facebook is testing a Snapchat...

Recently we reported that Microsoft has rolled out an update for Bing App on Android. The app brought a couple of changes including Better Map support. Reading this we decided to give it a shot and test what new features Microsoft had in store for us. To our surprise, the latest update made Bing app open the Google Maps website when searching for any destination, place or anything that involved location.This was strange considering the fact that Microsoftdoes have its own Maps service called as Bing Maps. What’s more surprising is the fact that Bing uses Bing Maps on web searches on the desktop but opens Google Maps when searched using Android App.To determine the exact cause of this, we che...

Yesterday, Microsoft released a new update for Bing for Android app with new improvements. This update brings improved browser experience, including video, image, tab and finding text in page. Bing team has also improved the app to offer better map and local answers.Apart from the above, this update includes several bug fixes and speed improvements that will improve the overall app experience.Download the updated app here from Play Store....

Former Minecraft business head Matt Booty was recently promoted to corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios, leaving his old position open. Now his previous role has been taken up by Helen Chiang, who served asBooty’s operations head. In an interview with PopSugar, Chiang revealed Minecraft’s outstanding active player numbers (via Windows Central). “We just recently set a new record in December for monthly active users, so now we’re at 74 million monthly active users — and that’s really a testament to people coming back to the game, whether it’s through the game updates or bringing in new players from across the world,” Chiang told PopSugar over the phone. “That’s really our goal, to k...

The new desert map in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been teased for months, and now the developer has finally revealed its full details along with new screenshots (via Steam Community).The map, called Miramar, was created to give players an experience different from the current map of Erangel. Instead of lush fields and forests, players will now be thrown into a harsh and unforgiving desert, complete with several key landmarks and urban areas. The descriptions of each can be read below.Los LeonesThe largest city in the region, Los Leones features ample shopping, a skyline filled with new construction, and a glorious, golden-hued City Center. Players should secure high vantage points by e...

One of the best features of the Microsoft HoloLens is placing virtual objects firmly fixed into a real space and finding those objects still in the same place when you leave and retu.This impressive ability, which gives virtual objects some real-wo...

Not only was today a big day in the games industry but the television world was also set ablaze with the release of the second season of Stranger Things. Netflix’s love letter to classic sci-fi horror shows became an instant hit when it first release...

Microsoft MakeCode is a web-based environment for kids and children to lea to code with physical computing devices such as the micro:bit and Circuit Playground. It brings programming to life for all students with fun projects, immediate results, and both block and text editors for leaers at different levels. Microsoft has now added support for Minecraft on MakeCode.Students can use it to progr...

Minecraft is tuing out to be quite a smart investment for Microsoft but many don’t know that the company had the chance to buy the game before 2014. In Microsoft boss Satya Nadella’s new book called Hit Refresh, the executive said that they could’ve bought the game before then but it didn’t happen. While Nadella didn’t provide further details, he did say that they initially passed on the deal. I...

The Minecraft Better Together beta, which unifies the block world on Windows 10, Xbox One and Android, has come to an end, and Microsoft has now started pushing out the final version to players on the various platforms.The news was aounced on twitter by Microsoft employee Aubrey Norris.The Better Together Update is slowly rolling out over the next day or so. Keep your eyes open for it!— Aubrey N...

In partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Minecraft is reimagining Oregon Trail as a Minecraft world dubbed The Oregon Trail Experience. This new experience includes leaing activities that complement Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and more subjects. Microsoft claims that the Oregon Trail Experience is an educational jouey through 19th century communities, from Missouri to the Oregon ...

Microsoft has shown off Minecraft on the HoloLens on a number of occasions, but very few of us have $3500 HoloLens headsets.South African startup Minecraft AR’s mission is to bring Minecraft in Augmented Reality to affordable devices, and have now ported aviewer which lets you see your Minecraft creations on iOS and Android using ARKit and ARCore.[embedded content]Their solution currently interfa...

Update:The update is now live. You can download the Minecraft beta with mouse and keyboard support from the Xbox Insider Hub. In an interview, Mike Ybarra said that more games are coming with mouse and keyboard support to Xbox One in the future. Minecraft is an incredibly popular game and it works well with an Xbox One controller. However, given the fact that you have a select numerous items in ...

Windows Maps has also seen an update for Insiders, taking it to version 5.1708. The update brings one new feature – the ability to tap on transit stops on the map to see arrival times. The app currently supports: Get driving, walking and public transport directions. See multiple searches together on one map, including addresses, businesses, restaurants, hotels and local attractions. Add notes, drawings and aotations to your road-view map with Windows Ink. Choose alteative routes to avoid things such as traffic, tolls or transfers in driving and public transport directions. Hear tu-by-tu...

While the star of today’s Xbox Gamescom 2017 aouncement is expected to the Xbox One X (which had an early preview here) it seems Microsoft is also working on a little something for their more mainstream console. Surface-phone.it reports that Microsoft briefly posted a video promoting a new Xbox One S: MinecraftLimited Edition console on the official Minecraft Facebook page, removing it after 30 minutes. The video also included a link to order the customized console here, which is currently not live, but should be later today we assume. Of course we expect much more from this evening’s eve...

Microsoft has recently released Bing Maps V8 Summer Update with many new features including support for support for custom map styles, GeoXml module and more. With GeoXML module support, developers can easily import and export common spatial file formats such as KML, KMZ, GeoRSS, GML (via GeoRSS) a...

Today the team at Telltale Games, along with Mojang, aounced that episode two of Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two will premiere on August 15, 2017. The episode, entitled Giant Consequences, will be available for download on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android-based devices. Jesse...