Technologies

Review: McDonald’s Minecraft Meals Are Out, With Toys and Nether Flame Sauce

Commentary: I tried the Minecraft-themed McNuggets sauce. It might just be the hottest sauce Mickey D’s has ever offered.

The children yearn for the mines. It’s no April Fools’ Day joke: Kids at my local McDonald’s were streaming out the door on Tuesday with the new Minecraft-themed Happy Meal boxes when I drove up to try the new offering. It’s all a promotion for A Minecraft Movie, which opens Friday, April 4, and it draws inspiration from the popular video game available across platforms including Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile phones. So, of course, I had to try everything they offered and report back. And I think my tongue is still burning days later. That Nether Flame Sauce is no joke.

Read more: McDonald’s Launches Minecraft Happy Meals, Plus a ‘Nether’ Hot Sauce for Nuggets

Happy Meals: 12 toys, digital game, Creeper box

You know what a Happy Meal is. It’s a boxed kids meal with a toy, where the kid can choose between a hamburger, cheeseburger, or 4-piece or 6-piece chicken McNuggets. Fries, apples and a drink also come with it.

For this promotion, even the Happy Meal box is Minecraft-themed. Personally, I think the Happy Meal boxes are much cuter than the themed boxes that come with the adult Minecraft Movie Meal. My Happy Meal box looked the familiar green Minecraft monsters called Creepers, but this Creeper has kind of a furry look, like it was a cousin of Sesame Street’s green Muppet Oscar the Grouch

But it’s the toy, sorry — «figurine», that will have kids making multiple trips to their local McD’s. There are 12 different toys. Mine was marked «#1, grass block and llama.» When you open the box the toy comes in, you might think the llama was left behind, because the toy itself is a closed green grass block. But you can open the block and inside is a little llama figurine, permanently attached to one side of the block.

The box my toy came in shows the other options you might get. There are six different block-and-creature toys, like the one I got, and six slightly bigger figurines that don’t come inside a block. And the walls of the block are kind of like puzzle pieces. You can take the block apart and lay its walls flat and connect them. So if you get more toys, you can make a little playmat of them all, and even attach the six slightly bigger figures, because their bases fit the «puzzle.»

The little toy box in each Happy Meal also comes with a scannable code on one side to unlock a digital game where players can complete a quest in the Minecraft Movie world. I tried it, and it’s actually more fun than a free mini-game from a fast food eatery has any right to be. Good job, Ronald.

Minecraft Movie Meal: McD-themed toys, in-game bonus item, Gold Block box

McDonald’s also was smart enough to know that adults like collectibles too, and that they might have bigger appetites. So the fast food chain is also offering a Minecraft Movie Meal — kind of like a bigger Happy Meal. Choose a Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, with fries and a drink.

The boxes for these meals are like larger Happy Meal boxes. But instead of being Creeper-themed, the one I got was designed to look like a Minecraft gold block. While I prefer the Creeper, it’s smart that the adult meal and kid meal boxes are themed differently.

And then, the toy. The grownup meal toy was a big letdown compared to the Happy Meal toy options. While the Happy Meal toys were actual Minecraft characters, the ones in the adult meals are McDonald’s mascots created with that blocky, Minecraft look. The figurines have a bit of a twist — with the toys including a Grimace Egg and Zombie Hamburglar. Mine was called Birdie Wings, and is based on Birdie the Early Bird, a mascot McDonald’s introduced in 1980 to promote its then-new breakfast items.

Each figure, including my Birdie Wings, comes with a shiny card with that figure’s image. You scan the QR code on the card to unlock a matching item in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition.

Nether Flame Sauce is hot, hot, hot

Maybe the most fun part of the McDonald’s-Minecraft promotion is a new chicken McNugget dipping sauce called the Nether Flame Sauce. It’s named for the Minecraft underworld, and I think it’s the hottest sauce McDonald’s has ever used. You don’t have to buy the Minecraft Movie Meal or Happy Meal to get the sauce. If you want to try it with fries or something else, you can order the Nether Flame Sauce with any purchase.

I’m a fan of hot sauces of all sorts. While Nether Flame Sauce isn’t one of the hottest hot sauces I’ve ever tried, it’s definitely the hottest McDonald’s dipping sauce I’ve ever tried, and I practically made a career out of reporting on the Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce.

There’s a definite kick to this sauce, which looks like Thai red chili sauce but is less sweet and more spicy. The ingredient list on the sauce packet says it includes chili peppers, cayenne peppers, vinegar, sugar, garlic, apricot concentrate and more. I had an extra sauce packet, and my husband devoured it with leftover French fries.

Final Minecraft-McDonald’s thoughts

Although I have no idea if the upcoming A Minecraft Movie is any good, I feel comfortable grading this McD-Minecraft promotion with a big fat «A.»

I’m not reviewing the non-Nether sauce foods in the meals. It’s McDonald’s. You know what it tastes like.

The boxes are cute. There’s a meal for kids and one for adults. The toys are creative and fun, though in my mind the tiny Happy Meal toys are far more fun to collect than the McDonald’s mascot ones that come in the adult meal.

And best of all, the Nether Flame sauce is a fun, spice-filled change of pace for those of us who don’t mind a fiery dipping option.🔥

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know