Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is bringing arguably its biggest gaming IP to its new Windows 10 VR headsets.
Minecraft is among the first wave of games that will be coming to the devices when they launch later this year. The smash hit creation game was included in a long list of content Microsoft revealed earlier today.
You’ve almost certainly heard of Minecraft, if not because you play it then because your kids probably do. The game was a true indie success story that allowed players to build their own structures in an expansive world and use them to defend themselves from monsters at night. Over the years it became hugely popular until Microsoft purchased the IP and Mojang for more than $2 billion back in 2014.
While we’re not surprised to see Minecraft make its way to these devices based on the strength of the brand alone, it makes even more sense considering Minecraft VR actually already exists. Microsoft and Mojang partnered with Oculus last year to bring the game to both the Rift and the Gear VR. Oculus CTO John Carmack personally campaigned to bring the game to VR after creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson left the company following the Microsoft buyout. Notch had planned to release an early VR version of Minecraft on the Rift, but canceled plans once Oculus itself was acquired by Facebook.
The Rift version even got Oculus Touch support later down the line. This gives us hope that the Windows VR version will also leverage the six degrees of freedom (6DOF) motion controllers coming to the platform.
We’ve even seen versions of Minecraft running in Microsoft’s other major Mixed Reality platform, the HoloLens. That device is likely a few more years off, though.
