At Microsoft’s Pre-E3 event, the Minecraft announced that the title will soon support players playing the game on any platform, including virtual reality devices like Samsung’s Gear VR.
Oculus’ CTO John Carmack, a long time supporter and an instrumental player in bringing Minecraft to virtual reality platforms, joined the Microsoft Minecraft team on stage to demonstrate the latest feature online cross-platform play. Carmack and 2 other players hopped into a Minecraft ‘Realm’ (player created, private servers to share with friends) with the Oculus CTO playing on Samsung’s GearVR, the others on an iPad and Microsoft Surface tablets.
“I’ve said that Minecraft was my grail for VR, it was the most important gaming application I could be involved with”, said Carmack, “the ability to spin around, take in everything and have the freedom to explore an endless world is what the core of VR was intended to be.” Carmack then joined the other players on an in-game minecart ride, “minecart rides in VR are spectacular” he said as the other players looked on.
It’s a great move on the part of Microsoft and means everyone can pick up playing in whatever world they’re involved with at any time on any platform. One small question remains, whether the Oculus Rift version will also support the feature once it arrives. We’re going to assume yes for now, which means the chances of a greater community of VR players building look better than ever.