Oculus’ long fought partnership with Microsoft, to bring the enormously successful social, creative Minecraft franchise to VR, begins with a release to Samsung Gear VR today as the title hits the Oculus Store.

Oculus’ CTO has gone on record saying that he had personally fought hard to bring what he regarded as a key gaming franchise to their virtual reality platform. Since then, Team Minecraft at Mojang and Microsoft have been busy bringing their iconic signature title to virtual reality. Minecraft, the massively multi-player, social creativity mega-franchise, played by millions of people across a myriad gaming systems worldwide, was to arrive on Oculus VR platforms.

Minecraft is a game that you can both figuratively and literally lose yourself in,” Carmack says, “In fact, my strongest memories of being inside VR are from the time I’ve spent exploring Minecraft on Gear VR. Experiencing it in virtual reality changes it from an abstract activity to a visceral one – it goes from a sense of playing the game to one of being inside your world, and spinning around to find a creeper sneaking up on you leaves a powerful impression. Infinite worlds have been explored, shaped, and shared by millions of people, and now in VR; that sounds a bit like the fabled Metaverse.”

Now, it’s finally here for Samsung’s mobile platform Gear VR, Oculus announced today. This is a big deal of course, Minecraft represents the single most recognisable and influential title on the entire platform, perhaps providing something akin to a ‘killer app’ for many people outside of the virtual reality community (and many within).

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Encouragingly too for fans of one of the earliest ‘modded for Rift’ titles (in the form of Minecrift), this new release addresses nausea concerns over first person, joypad/trackpad controlled locomotion by including both the original “more intense” first person mode and a new ‘comfort mode’ which presents the action on a virtual screen within a neat Minecraft-inspired living room of sorts.

In a new blog post announcing the launch, Oculus says that this new Gear VR version included “all the features of Pocket Edition, including Creative and Survival modes, skins, and multiplayer,” and the title does (unsurprisingly) require a gamepad to play.

Minecraft: Gear VR Edition is available now on the Oculus Store, priced $6.99.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • TaxPayer

    oh to be a kid growing up with VR….

  • VirtualBro

    Just tried it, and it works surprisingly well! I wish they used the console crafting interface though

  • Kijutsu

    When can we get the Rift version? Or am I out of the loop and will never(or has already) come out?

    EDIT: Windows 10 edition is coming to the Rift… Too bad.

  • Doctor Bambi

    ;~~~~~; It’s happening. This is happening!

  • Americo Damasceno

    PvP only by now. Look your inventory. IP: 208.94.246.38 PORT: 19999

  • Flamerate1

    I can tell this is going to attract A LOT of attention…

  • Just downloaded and distracted our animation studio with it… Works superbly and is yet another game that justifies the excitement around VR.. and the gear vr in particular… though admittedly our cheap little controller doesn’t have the button to be able to punch/mine so have just ordered a bigger and better controller…

  • WyrdestGeek

    w00t.
    Now I need to hurry up and buy Samsung Gear VR.

    And a really expensive Samsung smart phone.

    And the gamepad.

    As someone else commented: This is happening!


    Furry cows moo and decompress.

  • Firestorm185

    Well I don’t have a Gear VR to try this on, has anyone tried to see if you can change perspectives yet? VR Third-Person Minecraft would be interesting to watch.

  • Trailmix

    If any game can get me to buy a gear, this would be the one.

  • realtrisk

    Is there any word on the PC version? Will it also support Vive, I hope?

    • Sapien

      Ups- didn’t hit the ‘reply’ button. See my reply above.

  • Sapien

    It’s worth mentioning that there also is a version of Minecrift that is designed for the Vive. It works perfectly with controller support and teleporting = no motion sickness.

    Very easy installation and runs smoothly on a gtx970.

    Two installation files needed (apart from Minecraft). Links are available here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4f5upo/minecraft_for_vive_in_vr_is_our_first_aaa_title/

    Enjoy…