If you’ve ever thought Minecraft wasn’t “intense” or “immersive” enough, Oculus revealed today that the blocky sandbox-survival game is now available on Samsung Gear VR.
The port apparently contains everything from Minecraft: Pocket Edition, offering both Creative and Survival modes all in one $7 package. All the skins and multiplayer functionality you would expect from the standard mobile rendition of the game are also intact, though, unlike that version, a compatible gaming controller is required.
“Minecraft is a game that you can both figuratively and literally lose yourself in. In fact, my strongest memories of being inside VR are from the time I’ve spent exploring Minecraft on Gear VR,” writes Oculus CTO and famed games industry vet John Carmack. “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.”
What’s more, players will have the opportunity to toggle between two different modes in what’s being dubbed Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. There’s the default theater mode, and perhaps the more exciting first-person view we’ve come to expect from virtual reality games.
Speaking with Digital Trends, Oculus says that while some users will find the first-person mode more intriguing, others will lean more toward theater mode, conceivably to reduce nausea.
“It has to do with comfort,” a company rep told us. “Minecraft is comfortable for some. You can choose between the more comfortable default theater view or the more intense and immersive first-person view that lets you stand beside your creations. With Gear VR, if you choose the first-person view, you can examine what you’ve built naturally like you would in the real world.”
The company has plans to bring Minecraft to Oculus Rift later this year.