Hit game 'Minecraft' headed to China

The hit sandbox game Minecraft is officially headed to China.

Microsoft announced Monday it has reached a five-year deal with Chinese tech company NetEase to host the popular game for PCs and mobile devices. The deal calls for studio Mojang to develop a version of the game for the Chinese audience.

"We are excited to bring Minecraft to Chinese audiences, and expect our large online community to embrace this preeminent game," said NetEase CEO and founder William Ding in a statement.

The sandbox-style video game launched in 2011, and allows players to gather resources and create elaborate structures. The game boasts more than 100 million registered users.

"We'll always embrace opportunities to bring Minecraft to new players around the world, widening our community, and giving us a new perspective on our game," said Jonas Martensson, CEO of Minecraft creator Mojang.

Two years ago, Microsoft acquired Mojang and the rights to Minecraft for $2.5 billion

Gran Turismo Sport Beta Cancelled

PS4-exclusive Gran Turismo Sport's release date was unveiled at an event by Sony earlier this week. It came along with a slew of gorgeous screenshots and videos showing off how far along developer Polyphony Digital has come. As well as highlights of its features such as photo modes and social interactivity.

When Gran Turismo Sport was first revealed at Paris Games Week last year, there was the promise of a beta. Sadly, this will not happen.

"That's something that I'm very, very sorry about," Polyphony Digital's Creative Director Kazunori Yamauchi told Videogamer. "In order to do a beta test we have to make a gold master of the beta test code, and for us it actually takes as much effort as to finish the real master code of the actual game.

"Just because it's beta we can't just throw it out there. It's required that in order to do an open beta we have to create a proper master for it, and considering the release timing that we announced, we decided that we just don't have enough time to do two gold masters for the game.

"By omitting that it saves us about three months of time," he added."Most likely I don't think it would be possible. I'm very sorry but that's just how it turned out."

November 15 this year is when the public will get its first taste of Gran Turismo Sport for the PS4 in Asia, Japan, and the US. Europe will be able to play it from November 16 while the UK has to wait until November 18.

For Sony, India falls under its European release schedule, which should see the game available in the country from November 16. As for the price, it will retail for $59.99 or its equivalent in respective territories. What this means is, gamers in India will pay Rs. 3,999 which is what Sony prices its first-party exclusives such as Uncharted 4 and Bloodborne for in the nation.

With almost every major big budget game having a beta prior to release from the likes of Uncharted 4to Hitman, the lack of one for Gran Turismo Sport does seem like a peculiar omission considering its price. Would you prefer a beta or simply the final product when it's ready? Let us know in the comments.

Fan Discovers Level Editor in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain may have marked the end of series creator Hideo Kojima's relationship with publisher Konami, that hasn't stopped hardcore fans from uncovering what could have been. And no, this is in no way related to the open-world stealth game's missing chapters. Rather, a user by the name of Saladin on MGSForums.com has discovered a level editor hidden in the game's code.

According to a detailed post, the functions of this previously undiscovered editor is pretty robust.

"It even changes the game word's boundaries and memory depending on the current state of the editor mode. If it's enabled, the Editor mode sets it to high. If it isn't, it resets it to regular," Saladin claims. "It doesn't load a location, but it sets up one. Most likely an empty world."

It then goes on to showcase several lines of code that bring to light a mission editor, tactical action system, and route system to name a few. This was a feature Kojima hinted at in the past but did not come to fruition.

All in all, a surprisingly find for a variety of reasons. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain showed that Kojima had what it takes to bring the series into the open-world with superlative design sensibilities and it appears that he was on the cutting-edge of trends such as user-generated content. Pity that we will probably not see this feature activated in the game what with Kojima's departure from Konami as well as most of the team responsible for it.

In a time when Forge and SnapMap are welcome additions to Halo 5 and Doom respectively, a level editor in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain would have given fans a reason to keep coming back.

343 Industries Explains Why All of Halo 5 Is Not Coming to Windows 10 PC

Along with Halo 5's Forge map editor coming to Windows 10 PCs, Microsoft is also allowing PC gamers to play Halo 5's multiplayer content when it hits later this year. Albeit none of its single-player content.

"We are giving players the ability to play full custom games to test their Forge creations on PC. Because Forge supports and builds upon existing Arena content, that includes the same maps and modes that are available in Arena on XB1," explained Josh Holmes, Studio Head at Halo developer 343 Industries. He further went on to explain why this would be the case and how this would work.

"The intent of the experience is to allow Win10 users to Forge more effectively w/ keyboard and mouse and test their creations on PC before publishing to Xbox One. As such, there is no support for matchmaking or server browser. You will need to invite friends into a session through [Xbox] LIVE," his post continued, later confirming in another post that it would be free to Windows 10 users.

To some it might seem like a convoluted way to bring Halo 5's multiplayer mode to Windows 10 PC. And that's where Frank O'Connor, Franchise Director of Halo at 343 Industries decided to answer some of the community's concerns.

"It's designed specifically as a better tool for Halo 5 Forge creators to build, share and create stuff faster and with more precision," he said on popular gaming forum NeoGAF before reiterating Holmes' statement that "PC players can actually play custom maps with all of the MP content. For free."

He then went on to explain why Halo 5 in its entirety has not come to Windows 10 PC.

"It's not "full Halo 5" because that would wreck production schedules and be a year too late and the game (Halo 5) wasn't originally built or designed for both platforms in the first place," after which he teased what to expect next from the Microsoft-owned studio with Halo Wars 2 - a real-time strategy based in the Halo universe.

"Halo Wars 2 was built from the ground up for PC and console and, without committing to anything else in this thread, is a better example of what to expect from 343 and PC support in the future."

With Halo Wars 2 under development at Total War hitmaker Creative Assembly and being overseen by 343 Industries, O'Connor's statement could allude to more collaborations with other developers in the future, which could possibly see some of the earlier games in the Halo series coming to the PC. Or maybe just bringing Halo 5 to the PC at a later date.

PS4-Exclusive Gran Turismo Sport Release Date Announced

Sony has announced when it will release the latest entry in its long-running Gran Turismo racing series. November 15 this year is when the public will get its first taste of Gran Turismo Sport for the PS4 in Asia, Japan, and the US. Europe will be able to play it from November 16 while the UK has to wait until November 18.

For Sony, India falls under its European release schedule, which should see the game available in the country from November 16. As for the price, it will retail for $59.99 or its equivalent in respective territories. What this means is, gamers in India will pay Rs. 3,999 which is what Sony prices its first-party exclusives such as Uncharted 4 and Bloodborne for in the nation.

The news was unveiled at an event for the game in London which also revealed there will be 137 'Super Premium' cars, all 'remodelled from scratch' after Gran Turismo 6.

There will also be 19 locations and 27 layouts such as a Tokyo Express Way based on Japan highways as well as dirt tracks.

In addition there's a new livery editor and the game's photo mode will include landscapes too.

Developer Polyphony Digital is notorious for its long development time between its Gran Turismo games. While the Xbox 360 saw Forza 2, 3, 4, and Forza Horizon, the PS3 just had Gran Turismo 5 and 6. The story seems to repeat itself this generation with Forza 5, Forza Horizon 2, and Forza 6 out on the Xbox One before the first Gran Turismo game for the PS4 was even announced at Paris Games Week last year.

Gran Turismo Sport as it's called will have the same painstaking attention to detail the series is known for and have two FIA cups through the year. Winners of these cups will be felicitated at the same time the winners of the real FIA events are. For Sony, Gran Turismo Sport is way to build the next 100 years of motorsports with the FIA. There's a beta this year and it will support PlayStation VR.