GAMES
Celebrate Disability Pride, Uplift Gaming and Disability Communities and Creators with Team Xbox
Team Xbox honors Disability Pride month for the first time, uplifting our extraordinary Gaming and Disability community. As a member of the disability community and an Xbox Accessibility Program Manager, I’d like to highlight the importance of celebrating people with disabilities. Disability Pride is about acknowledging our own unique experiences with disability as a natural and beautiful aspect of human diversity. This includes all disabilities – both seen and unseen. This is our chance to highlight the vast spectrum of people represented by this moment, including advocates past and present working to create more inclusive and accessible experiences across all facets of life. This is an opportunity for Xbox to celebrate the more than 400 million video game players with disabilities around the world (source), as we aim to create a space where people with disabilities don’t feel the need to mask or cover their disabilities, but find connection among an inclusive gaming community that celebrates us as we are.
As someone with multiple invisible disabilities, the tendency to mask and cover resonates with me. We must work to remove this barrier for so many who feel that they must hide their disabilities to fit in or make others feel more comfortable. It took many years, but with the support of friends and family I’ve learned to embrace the importance of my mental health, chronic pain, and attention-deficit-related disabilities as key aspects of my identity. Like so many others in the disability community, it drives the work I find meaningful and has led to amazing opportunities to work on projects near and dear to my heart. This includes our new Mental Health Guidelines section of our Xbox Accessibility Guidelines that launched in May.
My connection to this community began with the nonprofit work my father does with wounded veterans through Warfighter Engaged. It grew as I pursued a career in occupational therapy before joining Team Xbox. I have witnessed so many navigating their own journeys with temporary and permanent disabilities. For myself and many others, gaming commonly played a powerful role in unlocking opportunities to connect socially with others and build a community of support through fun and engaging mediums. Gaming is a staple of modern culture today, and it should be inclusive of everyone who wants to play. This inspires my work and the work of my team, as we remain vigilant in our dedication to helping the disability community feel heard, included, and supported in accessing gaming in a way that brings them joy and community.
As we honor Disability Pride, here are a few ways that Xbox is celebrating and uplifting our Gaming and Disability community in July and beyond:
Ways to connect and join our community!
Team Xbox is excited to offer features and resources that support and enable the Gaming and Disability community to come together, play, and be who they are. We remain committed to providing gaming experiences that invite all players to share in the joy and connection of gaming. Learn more.
- American Sign Language (ASL) Xbox Twitch Channel – Two months ago, Xbox launched an American Sign Language (ASL) Xbox channel on Twitch at /XboxASL in partnership with Sorenson, a communications company with the largest interpreter base in the world. Every day, the Xbox Plays team goes live on the Xbox Twitch channel, playing the latest and greatest titles from the world of Xbox. The channel features interpretation for approximately 25 hours of livestreams each week. Visit the new channel here and learn more about Xbox’s partnership with Sorenson here.
- Filter capabilities on tags making it easier to discover the next game you will love – Last fall, Xbox announced the addition of Accessibility Feature Tags for games in the Xbox Store, making it easier for players to find games that have one or more of the 20 accessibility tags that were defined in partnership with the disability community and user research. Now with over 400 titles tagged and over 100 with 5 or more tags, we are excited to share players can now search and then filter by one or more tags to find their next game! This feature was based on community feedback, and we look forward to continuing to incorporate suggestions in the future.
- Addition of required inputs for games on Family Gaming Database: Xbox is proud to support the Family Gaming Database as it makes it easier for players with disabilities to find games with control schemes that are well-suited for them. Their accessibility pages now lists the default required inputs to popular games to enable caregivers, occupational therapists, and physical therapists to more easily create adaptive gaming configurations for those in the Gaming & Disability Community they support. Check out more on the Family Gaming Database Accessibility pages.
Gaming and Impact with Microsoft Rewards
Microsoft Rewards members in the United States and the United Kingdom can earn and donate points to organizations supporting gaming and disability communities with Xbox. The organizations below will be featured on console throughout July:
- SpecialEffect: We put fun and inclusion back into the lives of physically disabled people by helping them to play video games. We are transforming the lives of physically disabled people across the world through the innovative use of technology. At the heart of our work is our mission to maximize fun and quality of life by helping people control video games to the best of their abilities. (US and UK)
- The AbleGamers Foundation: Creating opportunities that enable play in order to combat social isolation, foster inclusive communities, and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. (US)
- Warfighter Engaged: Warfighter Engaged Is a 501c3 non-profit. Their mission is to improve the lives of severely injured and disabled warfighters with custom adapted video game controllers, recreational items, and other solutions to provide greater independence. (US)
- DAGERSystem: DAGERSystem is a nonprofit focused on gaming journalism through the lens of accessibility. Our goal is to educate disabled gamers and their support systems, while providing meaningful employment for disabled professionals. (US, featured mid-July)
Xbox gamers can earn Microsoft Rewards points in various ways, such as playing or purchasing games after downloading the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox. Earn points and redeem them for real rewards. Join us today and donate through Xbox.
Xbox Ambassadors Feature Stories about Gaming and Disability
Throughout Disability Pride Month, we will be spotlighting stories about accessibility in gaming from Xbox Ambassadors within the community with disabilities. These are their stories.
Discover Games Curated by Disability and Neurodiversity Communities at Microsoft
People with disabilities and who are neurodiverse are among the talented people that work on and play games, and have been for as long as games have existed. During July and beyond, Microsoft Store on Xbox or Windows visitors and Xbox Game Pass members can easily access games created by and reflecting the experiences of neurodiversity and people with disabilities related to chronic or complex illness, mobility, hearing, vision, speech, learning, and mental health.
Check out a few highlights from the Xbox and Windows games collection that include creators, leads, experiences, and character creation options that include features like prosthetic limbs.
Citizen Sleeper (Available with Xbox Game Pass) – Roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism, this game explores the complexity of a body that functions differently than the mind. In order to keep your artificial body alive, you must acquire technology that is high in demand and hard to come by, creating a playable experience that is parallel to the obstacles of having a disability in today’s modern world.
Forza Horizon 5 (Available with Xbox Game Pass) – Forza Horizon 5 improved character creation options to include prosthetic limbs and pronoun options. Accessibility features also include American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) support for in-game cinematics, a game speed modification setting, customizable subtitle options, High Contrast mode, Color Blindness mode, and more.
The Vale: Shadow of the Crown – Play as Alex, a princess who was born blind, in this audio-based adventure created in partnership with people who are blind. This action-adventure game also won Best Blind/Low Vision Accessibility, and Indie Excellence Awards from Can I Play That? in 2021.
Fractured Minds – Created by Emily Mitchell with the hope of aiding in understanding and awareness of mental illness, this game explores anxiety and mental health through a journey into the human psyche.
Psychonauts 2 (Available with Xbox Game Pass) – This fun action-platformer explores the psyche of its characters and is praised for its approach to mental health. Dr. Raffael Boccamazzo is an autism self-advocate and was consulted as a mental health expert.
View the collections in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. Visitors to both the Xbox and Microsoft Store on Windows can find disability and neurodiversity community picks by searching for “Disability”, “Neurodiversity”, and related terms. Content is subject to availability by country.
Celebrate with New Disability Pride Gamerpic, Profile Themes and Avatar Items!
In partnership with gaming and disability communities at Xbox, we’re introducing a new gamerpic, profile themes, and avatar items! The gamerpic and profile theme will be available on console and the Xbox PC app. Get your avatar items here. Content is subject to availability by country.
To learn more about what Xbox is doing to making gaming more accessible and inclusive for everyone on the planet, check out the Xbox Gaming Accessibility Page for the latest resources, discover the updates shared at GAAD or find support for accessibility features on our support page.
GAMES
This Week’s Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale
GAMES
The German Empire Marches to Italy in a Free Expansion Today
We have a new expansion for our WW1 Italian Front FPS game Isonzo releasing today! It’s the first part of our Caporetto season of free expansions, and features a whole new faction with the arrival of the German Empire on the Italian Front, and brings a new map for the Offensive game mode. There will be two more releases in the Caporetto season, each one with a new map to ultimately link together into a three map Caporetto Offensive.
The German faction comes with more than ten new weapons, as well as historically accurate uniforms and equipment. This first Caporetto map sees you taking part in the early stages of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, with German troops assaulting Italian positions on the road to Caporetto. Historically it was a military disaster for Italy which brought down the government – but maybe things can go differently with you on the battlefield?
The update sees new uniforms and equipment from the German Empire for Isonzo’s six classes: Rifleman, Assault, Engineer, Officer, Marksman and Mountaineer. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, each class has different weapon, gear and perk options that allow you to specialize your play style within the overall focus of the class. For instance, Marksmen are always sharpshooters, but a lot depends on your loadout. You could be a long-range sniper and observer identifying and eliminating high value targets with a scoped rifle, or you could equip body armor to take and hold a front line position with deadly accurate mid-range fire. Every class has choices to make in this regard.
In Isonzo’s signature Offensive game mode, one side must attack and break through multiple defensive lines. Thick layers of barbed wire, trenches, and whatever extra defenses the enemy engineers put together will stand in the way of a successful attack. Objectives can be taking and holding key points, or planting dynamite to sabotage enemy supply stashes or heavy artillery guns.
The new Caporetto map – the first of three in the season – is a huge battlefield based on the strategically important Monte Kolovrat. There are five defensive lines, where each line has two objectives for the attackers before they can advance further. While in the historical Battle of Caporetto both German and Austro-Hungarian forces were involved, in Isonzo we’ve chosen to focus on the German contribution, so the map recreates the stunning German advance from the town of Tolmein all the way to Kolovrat Ridge. It’s a damp, overcast day when the attack begins, and the attackers must first cut their way through lines of wire to break into a devastated town – including capturing a church defended by multiple heavy machine gun positions. Fortunately, in Isonzo there are many tactical options available to deal with such strong points: artillery barrages, smokescreens, snipers, rifle grenades, even poison gas. From there, it becomes a literal uphill battle for the German attackers as they begin to climb towards the peak of Kolovrat Ridge. They’ll need to sabotage bunkers and capture command posts while navigating rocky trenches and steep forested slopes. At the penultimate fourth defensive line there is a huge siege mortar to sabotage and a cluster of houses providing cover to the Italian defenders – then it’s one last climb to reach the final objective: Hill 1114. If the Germans can take it, the Italians will finally be the ones fighting uphill as their reinforcements stream in to try and counterattack.
Of course, things are no walk in the park for the defenders either – although it’s easier to maneuver when going downhill, and it’s much simpler for officers to deploy flares to call in support, the extensive trench lines can become a liability once the Germans get a foothold, providing cover as they advance. Some of the Italian defensive positions can be exposed against the sky, making it easy for German marksmen to pick off targets. Italian engineers should make good use of their construction abilities to put down additional sandbags and lay out extra wire to prevent German assault troops sneaking through the trees to flank trenches with their grenades or light machine guns.
As we mentioned before, historically the Battle of Caporetto was a disaster for the Italians. Appalling leadership led to poorly motivated and unprepared troops falling apart in the face of the combined Austro-Hungarian and German armies using cutting edge infiltration tactics. The Italian soldiers were not allowed to retreat until too late, and in the end hundreds of thousands would surrender. After Caporetto the top Italian general was fired and replaced by someone far more competent, who managed to turn the war around for the Italians. In Isonzo, it’s a more fair fight where both sides have an equal chance of winning, if they can use all the tactical options available better than their opponents.
The release will also bring other improvements to the game, including a prestige mode and higher level cap. Additionally, for those who want more options for visual customization of their character, the Royal Units DLC is releasing alongside the free expansion and contains uniforms from the German Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. Though part of the German Empire, these states had their own distinctive uniforms which we’ve carefully recreated with the same accuracy and attention to detail as with the other uniforms in the game.
The Battle for Caporetto Begins…
Isonzo is available right now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox, and the free Caporetto expansion is out today! Plenty of time to master the art of mountain warfare before the German Empire joins the action on the Italian Front. Follow us to get the latest development news as we add the finishing touches!
We’ll see you in the trenches!
Isonzo
BlackMill Games
$29.99
World War One expands to the mountains of the Italian Front – beautiful but deadly in equal measure. Inspired by the two year struggle for control of the Isonzo river valley and the Alps during World War One, Isonzo elevates the WW1 Games Series, figuratively and literally.
From the makers of Verdun and Tannenberg…
Take part in historical offensives from the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo to the Strafexpedition. Reflecting the course of the actual battles, as the attackers advance the fighting will shift through vastly different landscapes within a single offensive: from hillside fortresses to mountain trenches and fierce urban combat on city streets. Everything is recreated based on research and field trips, from sound effects and uniforms down to the houses, vineyards and trenches you’ll be fighting over.
The new Offensive game mode puts you right in the middle of key historical offensives on the Italian Front. Lead the charge across stunning Italian landscapes as you choose your path to victory – cut paths through barbed wire, flank your enemies by following mountain trails, or man a mortar to blast a way through. Shape a dynamic battlefield by laying sandbags and wire, placing ammo crates, deploying trench periscopes or sniper shields, and more.
Call in support with a unique historically accurate flare system: flare guns can mark targets for artillery or biplane flybys, or different colored flares can be used to guide your team. Once the big guns have softened up the enemy, finish the job at close quarters with an Arditi dagger or mountaineer’s pickaxe. Man heavy machine guns, mortars and even mountain guns for more direct fire support.
Choose from six classes based on historical combat roles and build your loadout from a selection of weapons, equipment and perks linked to that class, giving flexibility and variety while staying grounded in what real soldiers might have carried. You’ll be operating wire cutters, bandaging yourself and wounded teammates, and blowing the whistle to start an assault. One shot can kill and even lighter injuries can lead to quickly bleeding out.
Being an effective soldier in Isonzo is not just about being a good marksman. Mastering the terrain is also key – the mountain can be a friend or foe. Learn how to navigate well to maintain cover and surprise your enemies or support your allies.
Finally… watch out for the dreaded poison gas. You’ve never experienced WW1 action quite like this!
Isonzo key features include:
• MOUNTAIN WARFARE: Assaulting mountain fortifications, battling through ruined towns, and fording rivers are just a few of the challenges you’ll face as you fight your way through numerous enemy positions
• TACTICAL MULTIPLAYER FPS: Choose your role and loadout carefully to survive this high altitude combat – play a sniper to pick off the enemy engineers before they can cut your wire, use rifle grenades to clear enemy machine guns, and much more
• WORLD WAR ONE GAMEPLAY: Historical Offensive game mode based on real battles and focused on the unique challenges of Alpine warfare. Fight with 30+ WW1 weapons, poisonous gas attacks, and intense artillery barrages
• BUILD FOR VICTORY: Place your own wire, sandbags, trench periscopes, and more! Whether you’re digging in or on the attack, shaping the battlefield to your advantage will be key to victory
• FACES OF WAR: Make every class your own by picking from a variety of historically class-appropriate uniforms, accessories and headgear. As a finishing touch, you can even pick your mustache from several famous period-accurate styles!
• AUTHENTIC WW1 ATMOSPHERE: Accuracy in everything from maps and weaponry to music and the uniforms – fight for the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
MORE GAMES IN THE AUTHENTIC WW1 GAME SERIES
Immerse yourself in more WW1 action with our other standalone titles Tannenberg and Verdun. Experience trench warfare on the Western Front in Verdun, or maneuver for control of key sectors in Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. These authentic WW1 shooters let players choose from a range of squads from across the war, as they fight for control of the ever-changing frontlines.
GAMES
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
Today, we proudly share a sneak peek into the development of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition, and how we managed to bring the full transport tycoon experience to Xbox.
Transport Fever is a very popular and highly rated transportation tycoon franchise on PC. Its latest entry, Transport Fever 2, delivers a level of size and detail never before seen in the genre. The goal of the game is to build a successful transportation company by constructing railroads, streets, water and air lines. Starting in the 19th century, the player connects towns and industries to transport both passengers and cargo. In addition to a customizable free game mode, there is also a fully-fledged campaign mode with challenging missions set in real-world transportation history.
After the huge success of Transport Fever 2 on PC, it was only logical to bring the experience to consoles as well. Not only that, but no efforts were spared to give the console community the full experience that made the game great on PC. In order to achieve this, the engineers at Urban Games had to pull some rabbits out of their engineers’ hats.
Always providing the freshest layer of paint
One of the most cherished features of Transport Fever 2 are its highly detailed vehicles. The game comes with more than 200 lovingly hand-modeled trains, ships, and airplanes, each sporting multiple 4k textures and normal maps.
On PC, it is easily affordable to have all the models and textures in memory whenever needed, as a typical rig has 16 GB of RAM and a GPU with a dedicated extra memory. Consoles, however, are built differently. They have a unified architecture with an overall smaller amount but ultra-fast memory. The key to make it work on consoles is texture streaming, which allows to clear textures of models that are not in view anymore. Moreover, this technology is used in Transport Fever 2 to constantly load textures at the highest affordable resolution to present the stars of the show, like the classic Class A 3/5 steam locomotive, in their best coat of paint at all times.
Keeping the ground like a console pro
A trademark of Transport Fever 2 are its huge maps. During development of the game, it was always paramount to provide a real sense of scale. The engine should allow for maps where a high-speed train, such as the famous Japanese Shinkansen, can really make use of its superior speed. So, a lot of effort was put into designing a highly effective terrain rendering pipeline that can handle maps of more than 120 sq miles of size with a detail resolution of almost 1 yard. Central to this is a dynamic terrain tessellation algorithm on the CPU that, while costing a bit of extra memory, makes sure the engine can render these maps on a wide variety of PCs.
Now, enter the world of consoles with their incredibly well-designed GPUs and graphic APIs. Here, the hardware can be leveraged very well for terrain rendering by making use of the GPU tessellation feature. This feature generates the render mesh for the terrain fully on the graphics card, saving valuable processing time for the complex economy and city growth simulations. While generating more triangles, the hardware approach still costs less memory overall due to its efficiency. So vast maps can be viewed from a bird’s view high up in the sky and seamlessly zoomed in down to individual rocks on a riverbank.
Inspiring the inner architect
Finally, let’s talk about constructions, a central and defining part of the Transport Fever 2 experience. Constructions are large assemblies that consist of dozens of assets, street segments, ground decals and terrain modifications. Think of structures like airports, train stations, docks, highway crossings, and many more. Anything that is needed to build a vast transportation empire.
For a smooth construction experience, it is key that the player really feels that he has precise control over the building placement. On PC, constructions are typically built using the mouse. As the average PC user is very well adjusted to this method of input, it is sufficiently performant to calculate the entire construction each frame and place it under the cursor. However, on consoles, the best way of building constructions is to have them always kept in the center of the screen and move the camera along the map for placement. And moving the camera needs to be as smooth as silk.
So, for the console release of Transport Fever 2, the construction preview pipeline was overhauled. All dynamic calculations are now performed in the background while a static preview of the structure and its underlying ground plan are shown. Not only are constructions now completely stable in terms of FPS, but they also give feedback to the player on what environment features the construction would tear down when built.
Let’s get tycooning on console
We are very excited to bring the Transport Fever franchise to consoles for the first time ever with the release of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in February 2023, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did developing it.
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