GAMES
Celebrate Earth Day with Team Xbox
Today, Team Xbox is excited to celebrate Earth Day. Our mission is to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We also recognize the impact that gaming has on our environment. Microsoft has set ambitious commitments to significantly reduce the company’s environmental impact and operate as a carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste company by 2030. In support of this, Xbox is also working to reduce its negative environmental impact while continuing to produce the high-quality gaming products and experiences our fans know and love.
Team Xbox is making changes across all stages of the product lifecycle in order to meet our corporate sustainability commitments. You can read more about these efforts and what you can do to help reduce your impact in our recent Xbox Sustainability wire post.
To find more ways you can reduce your impact on the environment while playing in the Xbox ecosystem, check out what you can do in our latest blog post. We also recently launched our all new Xbox Sustainability Hub. We invite the community to visit and stay current with the latest updates from Xbox.
We look forward to celebrating all that Xbox is doing to drive change and make positive impact in sustainable gaming. Here are some of the ways that team Xbox is celebrating and increasing environmental awareness on Earth Day:
Gaming and Impact with Microsoft Rewards: World Wildlife Fund, Water.org, and The Nature Conservancy
Microsoft Rewards members in the United States can earn and donate points to support select environmental organizations with Xbox. The below organizations will be featured on console throughout April:
- World Wildlife Fund – As the world’s leading conservation organization, WWF works in nearly 100 countries. At every level, they collaborate with people around the world to develop and deliver innovative solutions that protect communities, wildlife, and the places in which they live. Their mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.
- Water.org – 1 in 10 people lack access to safe water and 1 in 4 people lack access to a toilet. Water.org is a global nonprofit organization working to change this. They help people living in poverty get access to safe water and sanitation at home – giving women hope, children health and families a bright future.
- The Nature Conservancy – The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. Their mission is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.
- Additionally, for every dollar that Microsoft Rewards donates in April, The Nature Conservancy will plant a tree as part of their Plant A Billion Trees program. Learn more about this program here and plant your tree today!
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 Plays Celebrating Earth Day week with Streamer Takeovers
During the week of April 18 through 22, the Xbox Twitch Channel celebrated Earth Day by featuring environmentally focused streamer takeovers.
Explore Amazing Worlds This Earth Day with Xbox Game Pass
While many fans continue to experience widespread social distancing and isolation, we invite our Xbox community to explore amazing worlds through gaming! From building, crafting, or exploration on earth or other worlds, Xbox Game Pass has created an Earth Day inspired collection. Other games feature survival themes in challenging environments and elements of creating or caring for life in sustainable ways. Enjoy exploring!
Featured Games
- Jurassic World Evolution (Cloud, Console): Bioengineer dinosaurs that think, feel and react intelligently to the world around them and face threats posed by espionage, breakouts and devastating tropical storms in an uncertain world where life always finds a way.
- Subnautica: Below Zero (Cloud, Console, PC): Dive into a freezing underwater adventure on an alien planet. Below Zero is set two years after the original Subnautica. Return to Planet 4546B to uncover the truth behind a deadly cover-up. Survive by building habitats, crafting tools, & diving deeper into the world of Subnautica.
- Craftopia (Cloud, Console, PC): Arrive at a small island packed with animals, resources, and infinite possibilities. What you do in this game is completely up to you—gathering resources, harvesting crops, automating productions, fighting against bosses, capturing enemies, building a lovely house, unlocking new islands, exploring the world, and more! What will you do when you can do anything you’ve ever dreamt?
- Fe (Console, PC): Discover a world you will never want to leave. Run, climb, and glide your way through a dark Nordic forest to explore its living, breathing world – one filled with secrets, legends, and mystical creatures.
Platform and game availability will vary by region. Learn more about platform and game availability.
Minecraft Celebrates Earth Day with New Recycled and Organic Content Product, Learning Content, and Build Challenges
In celebration of Earth Day, Mojang Studios is launching new learning content and a monthly build challenge for Minecraft: Education Edition. Classrooms around the world are tuning in for virtual lessons where students meet sustainability experts and explore Climate Futures, a set of Minecraft worlds created in partnership with Met Office. Microsoft and Xbox worked with the UK Government’s Environment Agency to develop a flood preparedness world for Minecraft: Education Edition, which was also launched in UK schools this month. Mojang is also launching a new Earth Day collection of products on Minecraftshop.com that are made from organic or recycled content, including a new Minecraft playset by Mattel. Mattel shares our sustainable vision by highlighting that the new Minecraft Transforming Turtle Hideout Playset is made from a minimum of 20 percent recycled ocean-bound plastic. Find more activities for Earth Day with Minecraft.
Hog Wild Nameplate for Halo: The Master Chief Collection
In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, our players can customize their profile with special nameplates commemorating in-game activities or celebrating special events. To bring awareness to the celebration of Earth Day, any players who log in from April 20 to 27 will receive this special ‘Hog Wild’ nameplate, a not-so-subtle nod to the Warthog vehicle!
Celebrate Earth Day with Forza
Inspired by Xbox’s Earth Day and sustainability visual design, this chameleon-themed livery (with polychromatic rims) adorns the 2015 BMW i8, a hybrid, plug-in electric vehicle. The Earth Day livery is being gifted today to players in Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Horizon 4. Keep an eye on the Forza Horizon Twitter to see when it’s been delivered to your in-game Message Center.
In Forza Motorsport 7, players will receive the same car and themed livery, as well as rare Earth Day-themed driver gear, by participating in the “Celebrate Earth Day” Rivals event set on the picturesque rolling hills of Virginia International Raceway. The event ends April 26th.
Obsidian’s Grounded Celebrates Earth Day with Art Contest and T-Shirt Sales Benefiting Captain Planet Foundation!
For Earth Day, Grounded hosted the #FrankenArtContest benefitting the Captain Planet Foundation! During this event, we asked our community to create a design worthy of being printed on a t-shirt using the in-game Frankenline. The finalists are announced, and the winners’ voting will happen live at PAX at the Main Theater and on Twitch! Everyone can tune in on April 23 at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT to watch the vote and check out upcoming unreleased content to the game. Which design will be placed on a t-shirt and sold in our store, with proceeds going to the Captain Planet Foundation? Check out the PAX panel live to find out! Learn more about the contest and read the rules here. Buy your Grounded Gear here!
Age of Empires Honors the History of Earth Day
Over the last few decades, sustainability has become a relevant topic discussed across the globe. An urgency to protect the world’s resources, habitats and ecosystems has rapidly increased as the impacts of global climate change and finite resources become more noticeable with each passing day. International Mother Earth Day was established as a day to recognize, educate and urge people to act, protect, and respect the nature surrounding them. Learn more about International Mother Earth Day with Age of Empires as they explore how the world is standing united to save our planet.
Microsoft Casual Games Celebrates Earth’s Beauty
This month we celebrate our vast and unique planet, and those who work to care for and sustain its health and beauty for generations to enjoy. Experience panoramas of our world through the brilliant brush strokes of artists who have captured its beauty in the newest Microsoft Jigsaw collection – Earth on Canvas. Click here for collection details. To learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to Sustainability and how you can contribute through your own conservation efforts, click here.
Xbox Honors Earth Day with a New Gamerpic, Profile Theme, and Avatar Items!
In partnership with the Sustainability team 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. The profile theme and gamerpic will be visible on all platforms (including mobile and Game Bar), but gamers can change the profile theme on the console and the Xbox app on PC. Get your avatar items here.
We invite you to join us on our continued journey and learn more about Xbox’s sustainability efforts at our all-new Sustainability Hub.
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login