Dune Glides into Flight Sim & Minecraft gets Add-ons

- Games in this podcast range from E to M.

- Hello, and welcome to the official Xbox Podcast, the only podcast coming to you from inside the walls at Xbox. We're actually back in the studio here.

- Yeah, reunited also.

- Tina. I know, it's been forever.

- It feels like it's been forever.

- You were at DICE a few weeks ago.

- Yes.

- How was-- I never been to DICE.

- You were vacationing.

- What is DICE like?

- Oh, I love DICE. DICE is quite an industry reunion. I think it was very interesting this year because a lot's been going on in the industry, so everyone's kind of like commiserating, coming together and kind of feeling each other out as well.

But it's still always a good opportunity just to kind of meeting of the minds, which I really like. So not really a lot of other conventions that a lot of people go to where you get to go and play hands on with games. There's a little bit more business talk happening.

But then it obviously all culminates in an awards ceremony too so that was very nice. Greg and Stella as the hosts of that award show do such a great job. They've got such a good vibe off of each other.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: A little roast fest.

TINA AMINI: I know, definitely, very much so. So it's always fun to kind of just be around your industry peers and having another moment to celebrate games too.

- And it is about the people, I think. When you're in the industry, it's kind of small. You see a lot of familiar faces, a lot of friendly faces. People work in lots of different places obviously.

- Exactly, sometimes from one DICE to the next, they're working somewhere else. So it's good to catch up and kind of learn from each other too. There's round tables, there's keynote speakers, there's workshops. So there's just a ton for people to do on a professional development level too.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And here on today's episode, we'll be catching up with a few folks as well from Minecraft and from Microsoft Flight Simulator, which has this amazing Dune sort of mode--

TINA AMINI: Expansion job.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --that you can play. Yeah, which like getting to live in that world is really cool with that movie coming out.

- Plus free DLC, hard to argue with that.

- It's true. The price is right on that one.

- The price is right.

- So, let's catch up a little bit because I'm used to seeing you every week.

- Yeah, it's been a minute. I know.

- And it's been week, so what have you been playing?

- Well, I think the most incredible one for you specifically, that we haven't talked about much yet is Infinite Wealth. So I talked about it last week's episode but you were missed. There's actually a Farsi saying that's like literally your seat was empty, and your seat was empty, Jeff, like literally and metaphorically.

- Well, I would have sucked up all the air out of the room so I would love to hear how you've been enjoying it.

TINA AMINI: I have been so thrilled with it and I was talking about it last week that it's just such a comforting game as well. It's not just because there's endless things to do.

And I love the world. I love exploring and meeting all the various NPCs that you hang out with for these substories for brief moments of time. Some of them are people you've seen in the franchise previous.

So like whether or not you've played before, if you have, it's such a great nod back to it. And there's some development, some like actual character arc.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: There's so many things I want to talk about here.

TINA AMINI: And story telling. Yes, so many. No spoilers, of course. But it's just such a warm blanket, both because I love the world, obviously we're in Hawaii now, but you don't start off in Hawaii so it's like, oh, I'm here again.

- Yes. so it's just very good vibes all around.

- Yeah, every time you walk through the streets of Kamurocho again it's just like ah, I'm back here and I know where everything is.

- Everything clicks again.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, it's just very intuitive.

- Yeah, I actually finished Infinite Wealth--

- Wow.

- --since the last time we met.

- How many hours?

- I think it was right about 70 hours.

- Wow.

- I did--

- Everything.

- I did more substories in this game than most of the Yakuza games, back when it was called that. Maybe it was, like, 20 to 30 hours. You could, of course, spend dozens more if you wanted to do everything. But I generally just did the story.

- Like little challenges and stuff.

- This, I wanted to do everything. I wanted to do all the kiryu things because you retrace and meet a lot of folks, and it's not all just the people you expect. So a great walk down memory lane. Super enjoyed it, but--

- And I totally relate because I feel like I'm even more so drawn to the substories. I wonder if it's because of how you're in Hawaii, and you get introduced from location to location, so it's a very organic pace as you kind of expand out. And it leads you organically to, oh, I want to complete this zone effectively before I move on.

- Exactly. Seeing familiar faces in an unfamiliar setting is always a good recipe.

- Yeah, such a trip, yeah. And I love how they somehow manage to make it work narratively. You're like, why are all these people in Hawaii at the same time as me? But it just clicks, actually.

- Don't worry about that. I also want to know, how did they bring back the diaper gangsters?

- I was thinking of exactly that one.

- And I almost cried, you know. Like, so it-- make it poignant.

- And there's so much-- so much depth there, yeah. Shocking amounts. No spoilers, no spoilers.

- No spoilers, but that was amazing. And then--

- So incredible.

- --you got into Palworld as well, right?

- I did, yes. So I really love an opportunity to hang out with long-distance friends and have a good multiplayer experience, especially cooperative in this way, because you can play it in different ways. You can be obsessed with the kind of base building. You can be obsessed with collecting all of the creatures, the pals, or you can be obsessed with just pushing on from challenge to challenge, like, dungeon and raid, and figuring out what the new environments and what the new pals are from there.

So it clicks in a different way for everyone. And I think it works really well if you have someone who's a partner who's very good at the base building while you're kind of like going and fetching resources while they're busy. So there's just a kind of really nice dynamic between the multiplayer experience, I would say. Have you played it yet?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I have. And actually, and millions more-- I think we had an announcement a few weeks ago about how many people played, and it's been updated already.

TINA AMINI: Basically everyone, I think. It was like every human being on the planet.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah. So congrats to Pocketpair on an unmitigated success story.

TINA AMINI: Incredible.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It just came out of nowhere and--

- Really just clicking with people, yeah.

- Exactly. So just wanted to talk about a couple of games real quickly. So I was out touching grass last week, but I traveled with my ASUS ROG ally, which I go everywhere with and is maybe the best thing I've ever bought. So I spent a lot of time with Persona 3 Reload, which plays perfectly on that. I'm maybe 40 hours into it.

I don't replay games a lot. There was a great discussion on Friends Per Second podcast, which is one of my favorites this week, about, do you go back and play things? And a lot of times, I like to leave memories in the past and leave them intact. But with Reload, it plays the way I thought it played, even though looking at videos, it's so modernized and looks so much better.

It's a story worth playing through again, as far as I'm concerned. And I'm just really, really loving that game. Also got into A Little to the Left, which is on Game Pass. Of course, Persona 3 Reload is also on Game Pass.

A Little to the Left is-- have you played this game at all or seen anything?

TINA AMINI: I haven't. I'm intrigued to hear about it, though.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: OK. This is a game that's just like, oh, you look at this, and, oh, wait, that should be over there, finding patterns in everyday life. So to give you an example, there might be just a group of pencils laying down, and then you're like, OK. And then you realize, wait, each one of these pencils is a little more sharper than the others. And you arrange it in that pattern.

- I need order with my pencils.

- And it gives you a star. And then it's like, wait, there was actually another way to arrange this. And I look at it, I'm like, oh, well, actually all the colors of the pencils-- I could put them in rainbow order. Oh, that was another star. And actually, the eraser tips are different.

So certain things are very simple, and it's just straightening little things. And other things, it's finding patterns and bringing, I guess, order to chaos. And it's just kind of--

- Sounds very meditative.

- It can be. And you finish some of these puzzles in 15 seconds, and you just go through, and there's dozens and dozens of them. It's on Game Pass. Check it out. I would say if you like something like PowerWash Simulator, where it's just kind of like therapeutic--

- It's oddly satisfying.

- Yeah. Or you enjoy virtually cleaning versus actually cleaning.

- Oh, yes.

- A Little to the Left is very much going to be up your alley. I would call it cozy gaming as well, so--

- Yeah, 'tis the season, too.

- Hit a lot of those different chords. And then I downloaded a demo that I'd been hearing some good things called Unicorn Overlord. This is a game that's coming out next week. This is my next favorite game. I can tell you that right now.

So the demo is very meaty. Kevin Kenson, who's a great influencer worth watching on YouTube, so he mentioned it took him seven hours to beat this demo on probably about half this much. So this game is made by Vanillaware, which is a pretty storied developer. They made Odin Sphere and Muramasa, what was it, Demon Blade, and a number of other games, Dragon's Crown, that had never appeared on Xbox.

And so this is their first game ever on Xbox. And it also draws from a lot of inspirations from games like Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle 64, all their games that have never been on Xbox. So this is a really unique experience for Xbox players. And I highly recommend you check it out.

And it brings together just different elements of RTS and RPGs and beautiful art and strategy, and in a really cool way without overwhelming you, little bits at a time. It's got cool voice acting. And--

TINA AMINI: Would you say it's nostalgic in any sense because it's borrowing from a lot of these concepts but kind of melding them together in their own way?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think that's a great way of putting it. It's pulling these things, but it puts their own spin. And it's putting them together in a way that really hasn't been done before. And it does it without being overwhelming, is sort of the magic trick here.

So highly recommend if you like JRPGs, if you like tactics games, if you like strategy games. Download the demo. It's called Unicorn Overlord. Not quite sure why it's called that yet. Maybe that will come out--

- Something will reveal itself.

- The full game will be out next week, I want to say, March 8. And I'll be playing that. But for now, the demo-- and the good thing about the demo-- and all demo makers take note-- your progress will carry over when you pick up the full game. Like, thank you, I don't want to have to play this part again.

- Yeah, love that. That doesn't happen all the time, so that's a nice treat.

- When it does, very, very much appreciated.

- It's just a good chef's-kiss moment, yes.

- So we've got a couple of guests that are coming out real quick. But before we do that, I just want to touch on a few of the new releases out this week. Brothers-- A Tale of Two Son Remake. Did you ever play the original game of this?

TINA AMINI: Oh, yeah. Incredible. And what a good excuse to revisit or, if you haven't played it yet, have a good excuse to play in the modern era. It's just a very unique combination of great storytelling, yes. But a lot of that storytelling is also just told through the literal game mechanics. So it's just so unique to control two brothers, like older brother, little brother--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: With different sticks.

TINA AMINI: --with the two different sticks, and that is the puzzle solving that you have to do. But it speaks to what I mentioned, that being part of the story building experience. It speaks to two brothers trying to collaborate and feeling their way out. And the backdrop is a really emotional story. And their journey to it together also kind of ties that emotion in to the entire experience.

So it's just-- it's very unique. It's a very unique and very-- easy to fly through in a weekend, especially because of how captivating. It's a page turner, really.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And this was Josef Fares. This was the first game that I at least played that he had made. And he went on to make A Way Out and It Takes Two, some of the best co-op games ever created. And this is just sort of the beginning. You're kind of co-oping with yourself, in a way.

- You're co-oping with yourself. Yeah, exactly. A very unique experience.

- Yes. Definitely recommend checking that out. A game that's out on Game Pass-- it's now version 1.0-- Inkulinati, which is a medieval turn-based strategy game. You probably-- if you've seen this before, probably the visuals are what jumped out at you.

Very, I would say, Pentiment esque. And I guess we're not the only ones who noticed that, because the folks that make Inkulinati managed to get together with Obsidian, and there's actually now some crossover. So it's based on medieval manuscripts and has that 2D, hand-drawn-- I think you actually see a hand draw in this game.

TINA AMINI: Or stomping out.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And Andreas Maler, who's the main protagonist from Pentiment, is actually-- has been brought into Inkulinati. And then some of the drawings from that have been put in as sort of "marginalia," I think is the word, into Pentiment. So the idea that we'd have two games with some overlap here that draw upon that artistic style and stories--

- And setting.

- --together working together. I love that.

- Very good collaboration. Makes a lot of sense.

- Very different games, it should be said. But both are in Game Pass, so play them both. Yes, I think that's it. And then we have Expeditions-- A MudRunner Game. Actually, early access begins today-- or actually, well, Friday, March 1. So maybe that's tomorrow. And this is--

TINA AMINI: What is time?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes, what is time anyway? It's a new take on the most advanced physics-based off-road adventure from the creators of MudRunner and SnowRunner. So have you ever played one of these muddy, snowy games?

TINA AMINI: I haven't, but I feel like I need to because they capture such a community. And I think it's just that adrenaline rush that you get digitally that's a real draw.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Well, we should be checking this out. And we should talk about it next week because it's actually going to be our Free Code Friday game. You know how this works. Head on over to twitter.com/XboxWire on Friday March 1-- how is it March 1? All right. Well, anyway, Friday, March 1 between noon and 2:00 PM Pacific time. That's between 3:00 and 5:00 PM Eastern.

On Friday, you're going to see a question, and we will pick five people that answer that question to get, at random, Expeditions-- A MudRunner Game. We'll DM you with the code. So you do have to be following Xbox Wire's account.

OK, here's the question. "If you could have the keys in hand to one land vehicle from across the gaming universe, which would it be?" Well, I think that there's some pretty obvious answers there, maybe from the Halo universe. But I want to know what you think. You'll see that tweet hit at noon Pacific on Friday. Respond and, well, you could be getting Expeditions-- A MudRunner Game for something to play over the weekend. And that is early access, by the way.

All right. Before we get into actually another fantasy vehicle that has been integrated into, well, Microsoft Flight Simulator, we've actually got two conversations here. First, we've got Minecraft's Jessica Zahn. She spoke with our own Rebecca on the big new add-ons update that recently dropped and what it means for the future of modding for the game's Bedrock Edition.

Then Jorg Neumann, who is the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, stopped on by to give us a behind-the-scenes look at how his team worked with the legendary pictures team to bring Dune's unique vehicle and planet to the game. In fact, we'll just bring him right here. But first, Jessica and Rebecca, let's hear all about these mods.

- Thanks, Jeff. So this year, 2024, is actually the 15th anniversary of Minecraft. And for a franchise and a game studio that's always innovating, they have just recently announced some new and exciting things. So I have Jessica Zahn for the Minecraft team here in the studio to join me and chat about it.

Hi, Jessica. It's been a while.

- Hey, Rebecca. How are you?

- I'm good. I don't think I've seen you since before the pandemic. We used to do some cool stuff together in Redmond. But unfortunately, now we're far apart. But so for those who don't know you, tell us about your role in the Minecraft team. What do you? Do how long you've been around?

- OK. Well, I have been on the Minecraft team for about six years. And currently, I am the head of Marketplace and a space that we call Minecraft Online, which includes Realms, our third-party server program, and our live events.

- Cool. I'm excited to hear more about live events later this year. But for now, at least for the sake of this interview, we're chatting about the Marketplace. So if folks haven't heard of the Marketplace, can you give me the elevator pitch?

- Sure, sure. The Marketplace is a place where we connect players with creators so that we can provide a wealth of really fun and interesting experiences that extend your Minecraft play.

- Cool. And you yourself are a Minecraft player, correct?

- Just a little bit, yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

- I know. Yeah, what kind of stuff do you do?

- So lately, I play mostly Bedrock. And the reason I play mostly Bedrock is because my family likes to play on Nintendo Switches. So though I'm a PC player mostly, we play together on Bedrock. But I love so much of Minecraft. Like, old-school Java, I really love mega mod packs that put 200 different mods together and really change the way the game is.

I also will play quite a bit of vanilla. And then of course, I will play plenty of stuff that is Bedrock only.

- Yeah. Well, I guess all of your experience with mods probably came in handy for this last week's announcement, which was around add-ons. So can you tell us a little more about that?

JESSICA ZAHN: Yes. So add-ons are now in the Bedrock Marketplace, which means they are available to the entire set of Bedrock players on all platforms. And this was super important to me as a player because as someone who loves mods in Java, who really believes that mods are one of the things that made Minecraft as special as it is, I really wanted to bring that experience to Bedrock players.

So with add-ons, we have started on that journey. And I am so excited about what we've done so far and what the future is going to bring.

REBECCA GORDIUS: For sure, yeah. I mean, mods are such an integral community aspect of so many games. Like, Skyrim also has a pretty incredible modding community. And Minecraft mods-- I mean, we've seen what awesome things have been created in the past.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but add-ons actually-- there was some version of add-ons that's been available for a minute, because I remember-- I think it was with Jesse back at E3, I don't know, many, many years ago. We actually demoed add-ons to reporters a long time ago as a way that you could customize your gameplay. But it was kind of complicated back when you demoed it. Like, you had to save it to this folder and then access it this way, and maybe it was PC only. But that's changed now, right? It's a lot easier.

- Well, so guess what I'll say is add-ons have existed for Bedrock for a long time. What we have done now is we've allowed add-ons in the Bedrock Marketplace. But there is a fairly significant hobbyist community who can create add-ons and can put the content in the right folders and allow that content to show up in their gameplay. And that is awesome. And we have absolutely no plans to change that access that people have.

What happens is, though, some consoles don't allow us access to the file system. So add-ons didn't work for all players on all platforms. And that was something really important to us. But when we allow it in the Marketplace, we can reach all of our console, all of our mobile players, as well as our PC players on Bedrock.

- Yeah, I know, just having worked on Minecraft also for many years, I know how important it is like, if we release something on one platform, ideally we can release it on all so that there's kind of that player parity across all the different devices and stuff.

So then from the player perspective, how does this change their gameplay? What does it look like if I want to start trying add-ons?

JESSICA ZAHN: So an add-on is a piece of content that you can bring to any world, either a new world or an existing one that you have. If you bring it to an existing world, you will not be able to earn achievements in that world. And we've heard lots of feedback from players that, yeah, they are disappointed by that. But the fact is an add-on could be super overpowered and could allow you to make progress in the achievements faster than maybe the gameplay expected that you should.

But yeah, what it means is basically that you can create a customized experience for yourself in Minecraft. And it's super, super fun. I've been mixing and matching add-ons for the last few weeks. I'm playing in a world right now that has 10 add-ons, and a lot of-- so much fun.

REBECCA GORDIUS: OK. So yeah, so you can layer them on top, right? Like, I could do the furniture one, and then I could also do like-- there's a really cool computer one, I think, by Jigarbov. So you can have multiple add-ons within the same world.

JESSICA ZAHN: Mm-hmm. And that's what's so complicated about delivering this as a feature to players in the Bedrock Marketplace and why we hadn't done it before, because we do have this promise that if you are able to take an add-on to a world, to an existing world, that your world is still going to work, that things are going to work as you expect them to. And if we let you layer multiples, we have to have a lot of rules about how these things might interact so that one creator can't make a thing that, let say, removes all sticks from the world and another creator makes an add-on that requires sticks.

And these are things that modpack makers in Java have been able to reconcile. And we needed to do it in a platform-appropriate way for Bedrock so that we can allow add-ons to be created, allow you to add them. Removing add-ons from your world might result in weird experiences depending on what you remove. But to be able to layer these things together and really create the experience you want to have was super important to us.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah. You know, I feel like the more that I have learned over Minecraft over the years-- I think someone described it as deceivingly complicated because it looks so simple to the user, but in reality, everything that the team is doing, there's a lot of thought and development behind it. I mean, for a game that's already been out for 15 years to be able to customize the gameplay with different layers on top of-- in a world that they've already created, that's a pretty massive undertaking, I think. So that's pretty cool.

JESSICA ZAHN: And to continue to add on to a world-- like, there are people who have worlds that are really, really, really old, right? To continue to add new content to those worlds and have everything work as expected, to continue to add new platforms, new capabilities-- like, Minecraft is huge. There's a lot of stuff in it that not everybody does all of the things in it. But then with add-ons, you can really create the experience you want to have.

- Yeah. Well, tell me more about this most recent batch of add-ons. Like, do you have any favorites? Any standouts for you?

- I think there are two that I'll call out as being my absolute favorites. The first one is called "Naturalist" by Starfish Studios. And the reason I love it, it adds like about a hundred new mobs to the world. And you just wander around, and you find these mobs, and they're super cute. And then you find these weird behaviors that they do.

So here's an example. Started a new world, and I found some berry bushes, which are really great for early game fuel, for food. So I take them back, I plant them around the little hut that I'm building. And all of a sudden, I've got bears.

And I'm like, why do I have all these bears, like brown bears, black bears? And I'm like, what is going on here? And then I realize, when I go over to pick some berries, the bears grab the berries and eat them. And they end up with berry juice all over their face.

- Wow.

- And I didn't expect it. I didn't know to expect it. But it was just like, oh, that is so cute.

- Yeah. That's really cool. So it's not just visually it's the bears. It's like, the bears also have this new behavior with them, too.

JESSICA ZAHN: Yeah, exactly. And then another time, I, early game, found a village. And I go in the village, and I kick a villager out of a bed so I can sleep and make it day. And then I see a raccoon.

And the raccoon comes in this villager hut and starts pawing at a chest that's in this little villager house, right? And then the raccoon gets from the chest a book and then lays down and goes to sleep in my doorstep. And I'm like, well, I guess I stole this house from the villager so now the raccoon is stealing it from me.

- Huh. OK. So the good thing with the Naturalist pack, or the cool thing, is that it sounds like there's a lot of different animals and their different behavior. Like, I've seen videos of alligators and zebras and penguins and all kinds of cute animals. So I can already see the different zoos people might make popping up.

But you said there was one other piece of content, too, that you've been trying out.

- Yeah, there's one called "Hiker's Friend" by Razzleberries. And it's super, super useful early game. So there's a couple of things in it that I really love. The first one is, you can make a walking stick, which is basically just three sticks. So it's super easy-- punch a tree, make some planks, convert them to sticks, there you go. You've gotta make a crafting table, of course.

So the walking stick makes you move a lot faster. So early game, when you're out exploring, trying to find the place that you're going to build your first base, you just move a lot faster, which is super convenient. And then they also have a lantern which you could say, well, Jessica, there's lanterns in Minecraft already. But this is a portable one that you can put in your off hand, and if you're out exploring at night, it just brings light in front of you.

It will not keep the mobs away, so you still have to be careful. But you can have portable light, which is cool. And then the last thing I love that's in that one is a sleeping bag, which, it's great to have a bed. You have to have a bed early game, make it be day. But if you're out exploring, you can bring this sleeping bag, and it basically just forwards the time so that you can move from night to day. It won't keep the phantoms away, but again, it's just so helpful in exploring.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, really cool. Like, I mean, honestly, those are pretty game-enhancing things to do. Because even with the lantern, so you have your hands free still, right?

- Yep.

- Yeah, that's awesome.

- --you're doing without having to place torches everywhere and use the coal that you are hoarding early game because you don't have a lot yet. You need to build a furnace and all of that, so--

- Very cool. And very Seattle Pacific Northwest for that to be one of your favorites. And then how's the community reception been so far? Have you been seeing people jump in to add-ons just as expected?

JESSICA ZAHN: It has been amazing. So we are so excited. We have initial set of seven free add-ons and eight paid add-ons. They all have a ton of downloads. We are so excited about people trying them out. People are playing for longer. They're creating new worlds and just really diving into the content.

Seeing a ton of YouTube videos where people are testing them out and seeing what they're all about, comparing them to some Java mods. And a couple of them are recreations of important Java mods into Bedrock by the people who made the Java mods. And I'm really proud about that, that they are part of our Marketplace partners and that they chose to bring some of their really special mods over to Bedrock as an add-on.

- Incredible. Yeah, I meant to ask earlier, is anything changing for the Java modding community? Are add-ons coming to Java?

- Add-ons are already in Java. Like, we're calling them "add-ons." They're essentially mods. There's nothing changing about what we do for Java mods or the modding community that is still alive and vibrant and super awesome. And it just offers so much to Minecraft players who play on Java.

- Yeah. Well, I have to say the "Spark Pets" has probably been my favorite one that I've seen so far. I mean, anything with pets and costumes-- like, I think there's a clip we have of a cat with a little lobster or crab hat. Oh, so cute.

But so what's next then? I mean, you mentioned, we have this kind of batch of 15 add-ons right now. So there's more coming soon?

JESSICA ZAHN: Yeah. So this was our pilot or the beginning of our pilot, where we're putting these things out there, seeing what the community reception is-- what do people do? Like, do people stack lots of them? Do they create different worlds for each?-- so that we kind of know what software we need to develop next what platform functionality we need.

I know that for me, I set up a world, I put in all the add-ons I wanted, and then I was like, hey, team, I need an add-on that does this, this, this, this, and this. And I started looking at the add-ons that our partners have started to submit. And fortunately, all the things that I want are coming soon.

So we'll have-- yeah. So yeah, I really want intense farming. I want-- there's a few old-school farming add-ons for Java that I love. There's also a bunch of Java add-ons that-- or Java mods that are about genetics and bees and forestry, and I love all of those. And I really want to see those things in some form come over to Bedrock.

But next, what we have is we will be releasing more add-ons for more partners over the next few months before we get to what we would call a GA, where all of our Marketplace partners will be allowed to submit add-ons to the Marketplace. They'll go through our normal content review and quality assurance processes, but that will be a new content type available to all of our partners.

- Awesome. Well, as soon as some really strong cooking add-ons pop up, can you just let me know?

- Well, I was playing with one last night.

- Yay. Awesome.

- It's super, super fun.

- Yeah. All right, well, this has been an exciting couple of weeks for the Minecraft team. Thank you for joining us. And back to everyone in the studio. Thanks, Jessica.

- Thank you.

- Well, look who snuck in what we were talking about games, maybe parachuted in-- we've got to fix that hole in the roof-- Jorg Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator. How are you doing, man?

- I'm doing awesome.

- You've got to have a little bit of jet lag, right? You've been going all over the place these.

- I'm on Flight Sim. We don't have jet lag. We fly everywhere. But no, no. It was, you know, a little bit, little bit of jet lag.

- So you've been really promoting this amazing collaboration between Microsoft Flight Simulator and the new Dune movie that's coming out. What's it been like? I've seen some video. You've been rubbing elbows with some A-listers here.

- Oh, it was so cool. So I got to go to the premiere of Dune in London. And I don't go to movie premieres often, but it was so much fun.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Neither do I, by the way.

JORG NEUMANN: It was more like a concert. There's thousands of teenagers screaming. Why? There's Timothée Chalamet, everybody's sweetheart these days. And it was really-- it was so much fun.

We had this awesome display of an ornithopter. And everybody who came in looked at it. And obviously, it was playable. So my favorite things were like, a personal hero of mine, came over Hans Zimmer, who is--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: The composer, yeah?

JORG NEUMANN: Exactly-- composer of like Lion King and you know Gladiator and those things, and Dune. And you know, he's German like I am. So we chatted in German. And I said, hey, man, do you play games? He's like, yes, I'm a grandfather, I have to play games.

So I'm like, hey, come on in and play. And he was so enthusiastic and flew straight into the rock tower.

[LAUGHTER]

And he's like, oh, my god, I broke it. I'm like, you're fine. And then Timothée actually came over before the movie started. And I don't know if you know this, but back a long time ago, he was a modder.

- Oh, yes, we've heard all about this. He modded Xbox controllers.

- ModdedController360 was his channel, right? So he knows everything about games. I didn't have to explain anything. He's like, oh, just give me this thing. He took the hardest challenge, aced it.

TINA AMINI: Wow.

JORG NEUMANN: And we had a really good time together. And then after it was all done, he came over and said, dude, that was dope.

[LAUGHTER]

Which was like-- that was great. And then we watched the movie. And I can just say the movie is excellent. If you love science fiction, if you love Dune, it's really, really good.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Been hearing some good things.

- Would you say the movie was dope?

- Very dope.

- I mean, that's high praise--

- Dope dope. Extra dope.

- --now that we know that that's Timothée Chalamet's phrase, yeah.

- You have to return the favor, right? He gave you the compliment.

- Exactly, exactly,

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So when Top Gun came out, when was it, last year or the year before, the first thing I did when I got back was actually just jump into Microsoft Flight Sim and try to hit Mach 10 and fly across the US in 10 minutes. It was really cool bringing that home to me.

And I love that you're doing this again with Dune and bringing something completely out of the world of fantasy into Microsoft Flight Simulator, and doing it for free, for everyone who has access to Flight Sim. So can you talk about what is in this Dune expansion?

- A lot. I mean, obviously at the center of it all is the ornithopter, which is this fantastic flying machine. Frank Herbert, in the books, he writes about it, but it's not really the centerpiece. But he says it sort of sustains flight by flapping its wings. And I was like, OK, it's kind of a bird. And then he also said it can hover.

That's really all we had to go by. And I assume-- I don't know if you know, but there were older movies. In 1984, there was a movie and stuff. They really weren't paying much attention to the ornithopter. This particular crew, Denis Villeneuve, I think, told his team, this needs to feel real, this needs to look real. There's an interview he did where he said, my mom needs to believe that thing can fly.

So I got to work with the production designer of the movie. And we could maybe chat about this later. So we have the ornithopter, one of the most maneuverable flying machines ever imagined. Then we build a whole bunch of Dune, like Arrakis, the planet. We did the entire northern part. There's the city of Arrakeen, which we actually got from the movie people. And then we built the ring wall and the hole in the wall and the botanical station, kind of like the famous things that are on that section of Dune.

And then we did a bunch of missions. And early on, we said, we're Flight Sim. Flight Sim, we don't have weapons. We don't have combat. So we said, what feels right?

So we said, why don't we do something where we train up a pilot to become successful on Dune? And obviously, it's a desert planet, there's rock formations and tunnels through rocks, and those types of things, sandworms. And then there's also something called Coriolis storms. They fly 700 kilometers an hour, so almost three times as fast as our fastest hurricane. So these things come in like a freight train, and you have to be able to get in and out wherever you go, really quickly.

So we said, let's create some tutorials just to get fast takeoff, fast landing. Then if you saw the first movie, there was something called freefall. It was really cool. So you can fold your wings back, and it dives down almost like a glider.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And you get to do this.

- You get to do this. It's super fun. It's super fun. I think it's the funnest move right now in Flight Sim. And then we have missions that we call touch-and-go missions. They get harder and harder and harder. So you fly somewhere, land the craft, takeoff. And that's timed.

And that all prepares you for the final mission, which is a rescue. It actually turns out that your instructor that helped you through everything, he crashed his ornithopter in the desert. There's a storm coming in, and you have to go as fast as you can, get the guy, escape the oncoming storm, and basically rescue him, which is really-- it's really cool.

TINA AMINI: And the maneuvers, too, are so-- I think it's one of the more nimble aircrafts. Like, you tell me if you feel like that assessment is accurate, but I'd love to know how you built that.

JORG NEUMANN: Yeah. I mean, it's-- I mean, it basically looks a dragonfly meets a hummingbird type of thing. And so it goes super, super fast. And it goes straight up. And so it feels like an VTOL, what we call a VTOL. And then it goes straight forward like an airplane. And it has afterburner. So what that allows you to do is go really up fast-- in every direction, you can go fast. And you can also--

- Yeah, speed, altitude, losing, gaining.

- And then you can airbrake, which is great. Like, if you want to land anywhere, it's like, err, and then you can go point land anywhere you want to go.

TINA AMINI: So obviously, this is a sci-fi aircraft, so it doesn't actually realistically exist in the world. And that's a lot of what Flight Sim is-- like, realistic representations of aircraft, of the world, of the environment, and physics. So how did you balance creating more of a realistic aircraft for what the ornithopters should feel like when you're flying not in the sci-fi movie world?

JORG NEUMANN: Yeah, you're exactly right. So Flight Simulator stands for authenticity and accuracy and the dream of aviation, right? So we first looked at the aircraft. And we were all very happy to see how much thought went into it. When we started talking with Legendary, they shared all their models, their drawings, and how they were thinking about it, and it all made sense, thank god.

[LAUGHTER]

So we basically-- on the exterior, in particular, we said, this is a realistic aircraft. We could probably-- we can do this right. Then there was a big discussion about the flight model. The flight model is obviously what makes it fly around and feel like something.

And we have flight models that are all-- realistic helicopter one. We have multicopters, airplanes. And the first thought was, can we adapt those? And when we looked at the movie footage and what we really needed to do, there was no way we would have done it justice.

So his name is Andrey Solomykin is the flight model programmer. He's a famous guy in our section of the industry. He basically said, let's just make a custom flight model. And that was trying to find the right balance between a realistic one and an empowering, a little bit more arcade-ish one, and ultimately, to make it fun.

And I think that's what we got. I think from what I've seen-- obviously, hundreds of thousands of people have already played this, and the feedback has been great. So I think we did the right job.

TINA AMINI: I think we were just talking about how nimble it is in general. Like, you can gain altitude, lose altitude and speed so fast. And I've been seeing people pull off these crazy nosedive moves and then coming back to a nice hover. And it's just really incredible to see what people have been pulling off.

But I'm curious, because I imagine you've probably looked at a lot of what the community's been playing and clips online and whatnot, what are some of the fun things that you've seen come out of other people's footage of playing around with the ornithopter?

- I'll start with what I did. So I actually-- so I obviously did--

- The real thing that we have here.

- I flew everywhere you could on Dune, and then I took it to New York. New York City was my test bed.

- Right, so you can take the ornithopter out of Arrakis and just put it in the real world.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's so much fun. We call it free flight. And so I basically went through, flew through the avenues. And then at some point or another, I did my landing challenges on random skyscrapers.

And then at the end, I said, I'm going to land on the flame of the Statue of Liberty. And I did. And then I went online. And I mean, you know how people are.

- 20 people before you had done it.

- I haven't seen one of those, but I've seen one where somebody is landing right on top of the Cheops Pyramid in Egypt. There's somebody who did that on the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. And it's just-- I mean, people are having a blast. And as I said, it's so much fun because you can stop anywhere.

A plane typically takes you forward, and you have to plan your landing. Here, you can just airbrake and go wherever you want.

- It's very immediate.

- Very immediate.

- So when I think about Microsoft Flight Sim, I played on day one, and I was-- I'm a controller player. I don't have a throttle and a yoke and all the pedals and all the different things that we know a lot of people have and that are super into it, and it's very impressive.

And I had-- I will say, the first time I played was so embarrassing. I couldn't take off, because I didn't realize there's a parking brake that you have to-- I'm like, I'm hitting--

- Safety first, Jeff.

- Well, that's true, yes. Do not put me behind a plane. I shouldn't even be driving here. But what I've really noticed-- I loaded this up last night, and I played through the tutorials-- is the game has come-- the sim has come very far in terms of bringing along noobs like me, who should not be behind the wheel or in the cockpit, with actually like, we're going to show you. The first thing you do is you actually-- you unfold the wings. And it's like, oh, just push right on the D-pad, and it does that.

And so can you talk about how you're bringing along people now and how, I'd imagine, this extends to other parts of the game who haven't played before but want to dip their toes into Flight Sim without being overwhelmed?

JORG NEUMANN: Yeah. I mean, that was one of those main things. So obviously, we have what we call the core simmer audience. A lot of those folks, it's their main hobby. It's, in many times, the only thing they play or sim. And they want authenticity. They need the controllers. They want to have full control. A lot of them fly with VR, which is, by the way, amazing.

But then we've met a lot of people that we call more casual simmers or digital tourists. Like, we have this digital twin. I think there's a-- it was very unexpected. Like, people would literally just fly to look at the world. And for them, it was overwhelming.

So we said, we need to have assistances-- that's what we call them-- which is kind of similar like in the real world. If you ever take a discovery flight, which is the first thing you ever take, I mean, they put you behind the wheel and say, why don't you take off? And they let you do certain things, and the instructor figures this out, what you know and what you don't know. And they do a bunch of stuff for you.

That is the same exact approach we've taken, which is, let people opt in. Let them learn slowly. And a lot of people initially, they're totally new. So you just give instructions-- do this and do this. And then they feel empowered, get more and more comfortable.

And that's how I think we got to so many more people beyond flight simming. And I have to say, because simmers matter greatly to me, they've been so gracious to what I call newcomers. They explain it all. They sit on the forums and explain, here's how this really works. If you really want to become a simmer, you have to think about it this way.

And I think that's the beautiful thing. Like, we brought in a gamer audience, an Xbox audience. And I think-- I see it also in the behavior-- more and more of them are staying inside Flight Sim and are having a great time. And I think it's because we're helping them onboard.

- So if you're someone at home that's like, hey, this looks cool, but I'm overwhelmed by Flight Sim, I've got to tell you, just a controller, it worked great. Within seconds, I was taking off. I did the dive maneuver, and I-- this is how I know--

JORG NEUMANN: It's fun, right?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --you did a custom thing, because you wouldn't do that in a chopper. And when I pulled up and just, just was off the floor of the canyon and did it, it was such an exhilarating feeling. And it was just very easy to get into.

So the intimidation factor should be evaporating. And I highly encourage you, if you've got Game Pass, just download it, give it a shot. And then I think you'll want to do all these things in the real world, too.

- I mean, I love that you say that because for me, the dream of flight-- this is how I think about everything. The dream of flight has been with mankind forever, like, since beginning. People looked at birds and went, wouldn't it be cool? And I think there was a little bit in the way. There was a little bit of an apprehension. It's not in people's regular lifestyle, they're like, oh, let me go over to my plane and fly around a little bit.

So I think this is now bringing to tens of millions of people, quite frankly, which is just wonderful.

- And there's such a realism element to that. I mean, I have family members who are obsessed with Flight Sim because they feel like they can get that experience of a pilot. They're doing pilot training as well at the same time. So it's an opportunity for realism, but it's also just this fantasy. So the ornithopter and bringing in a Dune community as well feels like such an interesting but organic pivot for Flight Sim in a lot of ways.

So can you also talk about Arrakis and building that out? Because this is the first time we're not on Earth in Flight Sim. So that must have been significant for the team.

JORG NEUMANN: It is true because basically, we don't build the world, funny enough. We basically get-- we have airplanes that fly overhead, and they take what we call photogrammetry, which is basically 3D pictures, and that is our game. So this was the first time, actually, probably ever, that we made levels. We said, OK, there's the shield wall. Maybe now I need to build a shield wall.

And I think the environment team had a ton of fun because they could basically watch the movie and just get it perfect. But it was very different for us to do this. But as I said, it was fun.

And as far as fictional, the Dune one is not the first one. So Top Gun was-- Top Gun Maverick was our first expansion that had something to do with the movie. And it clearly has an F-18, which is a real plane, but then it had the Darkstar.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So much fun.

JORG NEUMANN: It's so much fun. But we had to invent a lot of stuff. And Lockheed, in that case, helped us. Then we did the Pelican-- great fun, too. So I think this is of in the nature of what we do. And one of the things that's interesting about Flight Simmers, a lot of them are very much based on realism. But there's actually web pages that list the aircraft that Flight Simmers would like that are fictional.

And there's a lot. And actually, the ornithopter is on that list. I think it was number seven or something. So I'm like, even the simmers loved it.

TINA AMINI: And then what about Arrakis's sandstorms? That must have been different to incorporate. And that's part of the rescue mission as well when you're on that planet that-- you kind of contending with that element against you.

JORG NEUMANN: So we actually have always wanted to do real-world sandstorms because it's one of the awesome-looking things that's happening in the deserts, right? And so we never really got to it until we got to Dune. And then I think the team is now-- we're very proud of that sandstorm and the tech behind it. So it helps. So even doing something like Dune helps us with the sim later because we can now have storm fronts like this.

- So you had mentioned that when you first saw the ornithopter, the sketches, and all that, you were really impressed at the work that they put into it. What was the response when you went back to Legendary Pictures and said, hey, look what we made?

- They really loved it. So I think the first thing we did was the trailer that we showed, I think, last year. And they didn't know if it was part of the movie or not. So--

- That's a good sign.

- That was a good sign. We were like, OK, that's cool. At least we're nailing the visuals. And then we sent them the build over, and they just loved it.

- They said it was dope.

- Dope, yeah. They said gorgeous and fun. But yeah, it was also dope.

- Synonyms.

- Very cool. So all right. So we talked all about it. And before we start talking about these toys, because this--

- Toys.

- --this has been spinning for some time here, how do people get into the expansion? How do they get access?

- I mean, if you're on Game Pass, or you're on Microsoft Flight Simulator, it's free.

- OK.

- Easy enough.

- Easy enough.

- You'll be able to find it pretty easily, I think, once you launch the game and just go--

- Yeah. It's part of the main menu, first thing you see.

- And the Top Gun stuff is still there, too, which you should try out definitely.

- Top Gun stuff is still there, too.

- Do that. All right. So let's talk about these toys.

- What's spinning?

JORG NEUMANN: I want them, I want them.

TINA AMINI: I know. They're gorgeous.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Well, the reality is, because we all work at Microsoft, none of us get to take these things home. But you watching at home may be able to do that. So what we have here is a specially designed console holder. This is here in the ornithopter. It's inspired, of course, by the ornithopter, and it captures the vibrant colors of Arrakis's sun, planets, and sand.

And what's that riding shotgun here? It looks like an Xbox-- a special Xbox Series S. Does that come out?

TINA AMINI: It does, yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Let's try it. Pull the sword from the stone.

[LAUGHTER]

- I am the chosen one.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very cool. All right.

- Can I hold it?

- Please, yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: This will be the only time you can hold it.

- This is the only time I get to hold this. Hello.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very good.

- It's beautiful.

- It is.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So this is, yes, decorated for Dune. Man, they really find a good way to use the vent there on the top.

And then we have-- I mean, I look at this and I think, magnets, how do they work? This is a floating controller holder. It literally is floating over there. I don't want to-- I don't know how-- again, I don't know how magnets work. But this is a special Dune controller.

And anyway, these things are all winnable. And then you-- not just the controller itself, but the actual--

JORG NEUMANN: Spinnable.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Look, it just keeps going.

JORG NEUMANN: So cool.

TINA AMINI: A hovering base, yes.

JORG NEUMANN: I want it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You know, it's something where it's like, science-- it's akin to magic if you don't know how it works. So anyway, fans have a chance to win this set of custom hardware by following Xbox on Twitter. That's @Xbox. You can call it X. You don't have to, though.

And what you have to do is find the tweet that talks about these, retweet that during the entry period. You basically have about a month. So the giveaway is going on now, goes through March 25 of this year. All you've got to do is retweet, and then, well, you hope you win.

So go on there. Find it at @Xbox and just do a quick search for "Dune," and I think that thing will pop up. Retweet, and we'll take good care of it between now and the time that it gets sent out to one of you winners. So good luck to you.

Unfortunately, we're off the hook. We don't get to-- sorry, you're going to have to give that back.

- Just for now.

[LAUGHTER]

- Jorg, any last things you want to say before we wrap up here? You want to say hi to Paris, anything like that?

- Hi, Paris. Miss you. No, I think check out Dune. It's super fun. And thanks for having me. It's wonderful to see you.

- Thanks for coming by. Great to have you.

- Always happy to have you here. If you're here at the end of the show and you're wondering, Where's Free Code Friday? you don't skip to the end of the show. We talked about a half an hour ago. So you're going have to go back and watch the show, and then you'll see Free Code Friday.

But for Tina, for myself, for Jorg Neumann, thank you again for joining us. And we will be back here again next week.

[XBOX SOUND]