Markus ‘Notch’ Persson discarded his early efforts to create a Virtual Reality version of the Minecraft game. As a result, the players gave up hope of playing their favorite game in VR. However, in September 2014, Microsoft purchased Minecraft from its developer company Mojang from Persson.
People were surprised when it was announced in Oculus Connect 2 that Minecraft Microsoft Windows 10 Edition will be one of the first games ever to be made available for the Oculus Rift along with the second generation Samsung Gear VR as well.
The specific launch date of the headset and the game haven’t been revealed but Minecraft will be available for purchase from Microsoft Windows 10 Store, keeping in mind when Oculus Rift launches in the first quarter of 2008.
The Chief Technology Officer at Facebook-owned Oculus and the popular creator of Doom, John Carmack, has been shipping Oculus Rift and Minecraft personally, since 2014.
He even tweeted to Persson that all he had to do was ‘ship the source’ and he would make sure that it runs well on the Oculus Rift. Persson was a part of Majong at that time. From what we know so far, Minecraft was a vital edition to the Oculus Rift platform.
Virtual Reality is something that most people are yet to look forward to. However, the lack of VR ready content doesn’t mean that mainstream consumer will not purchase an electronic device that is sure to cost a considerable amount of money.
Carmack further revealed, “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”.
He further mentioned that this is why they want to do some of it every single day. The fact of his infinite playability is something that they are currently lacking in their present series of titles. Carmack declared that this is a pretty major win for him. Keep in mind that Minecraft is the best-selling PC game to date and it sold 70 million copies worldwide as of June 2015.
It also stands as the third best-selling video game of all time, after Tetris and Wii Sports. Popular statistics suggests that even if 1% of the Minecraft players are interested in purchasing the Oculus Rift, 700,000 customers would still pick up the VR headset at launch.
In other news, we know that Oculus Rift is scheduled to be released next year and it is primarily targeted towards video gaming. However, it seems like Oculus Rift is also planning to change the way we have seen movies so far. Furthermore, 20th Century Fox and Oculus Rift have already entered in a partnership.
The teamed up with Facebook, then Microsoft and now 20th Century Fox. Furthermore, it was announced at the Oculus Connect Event that 100 titles will be available for rent or purchase through the new Oculus Video Service.
The description states, “With their headsets on, viewers will occupy a digital world where they can look 360 degrees in any direction and in that world will be a screen on which they can view the movie of their choice”.
Meanwhile, it is up to the viewers to decide whether they want to watch the movie on a simulated TV screen or a simulated screen which is the size of an actual movie theater. The final decision completely rests with them.