Popular indie sandbox video game Minecraft has garnered worldwide praises due to its core gameplay elements and immersive multiplayer options. There were even plans for the game to come to Oculus Rift back in 2014, the deal was canceled however and dreams were shattered when Facebook, the largest social network in the world, announced their acquisition of Oculus VR for $2 billion. Now that Microsoft has purchased Minecraft and its developer company Mojang from Notch, the deal is finally back on track.
Software giant Microsoft surprised everyone at the Oculus Connect 2 event when they announced that Minecraft for Windows 10 will soon be played in Virtual Reality-style on both the Oculus Rift and Samsung's second generation Gear VR.
However, it is still unclear when it will be available for consumer release as there's still no launch date for the headset or the game. Although, gamers running in Windows 10 can now download Minecraft Windows 10 Edition in its beta mode from the Windows Store.
"I think [Minecraft is] the single most important application that we can do for virtual reality, to make sure that we have an army of fanatic, passionate supporters that will advocate why VR is great," said legendary Doom creator and Oculus VR Chief Technology Officer John Carmack. "This is why you want to do some of it every single day. It's part of this infinite playability that we're currently lacking in our current set of titles. So this is a huge, huge win for me," he added.
While Microsoft did announce that Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition will be based on the Pocket version of the game, Mojang followed up that they are "aiming for feature parity" and the Windows 10 release of Minecraft will 'probably' gain parity with its PC counterpart.
Minecraft is considered as one of the best-selling games of all time, only behind Tetris and Wii Sports. Now that the game will be heading to Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR, Virtual Reality in games can be expected to hit mainstream success.
