First Look At Virtual Reality Minecraft At Xbox Showcase

First look at virtual reality Minecraft at Xbox showcase Dave Lee North America technology reporter

1 March 2016

Millions of gamers love Minecraft. Microsoft now shows us how virtual reality can be created.

Microsoft bought the block building phenomenon in 2014 for $2.5bn. (PS1.8bn). This was a significant deal that caused concern among fans.

The US firm pledged not to ruin its beloved formula and instead stated that it would invest in Minecraft’s next level.

At a San Francisco event, the Xbox division displayed the virtual reality version Minecraft for the first-time at an event.

“It makes you feel like you’re inside the world of Minecraft,” said Palmer Luckey, creator of the Oculus Rift VR headset.

Like many VR experiences, it’s utterly absorbing. For those obsessed with Minecraft’s addictive building process, it is a big step up from watching it on a normal screen.

Parents should be wary of $1,500, as this is a very popular game for children.

That’s the suggested amount they’ll need to spend if they want to buy an Oculus Rift headset and a PC powerful enough to power it.

This is surely too costly, so I suggested to Mr Luckey.

He stated, “It isn’t.”

“I mean, it is expensive relative to everything else out in the world, but if you look at it compared to a mobile phone or television, you’re getting a lot more technology.

“It’s certainly not simple hardware and the cost will go down over time.”

It’ll need to go down pretty sharp-ish if it is to be adopted by mainstream audiences soon.

Until then, I’d predict a minor resurgence of the games arcade, a place where people go to play high-end games that they can’t feasibly afford to buy for their homes.
Deepspaceii.com

Big titles

Oculus Minecraft on Oculus featured as one of the many games on Xbox’s Spring Showcase. This was an opportunity for journalists and influential YouTube gamers to get hands-on experience with tomorrow’s blockbusters.

Quantum Break is a gripping world where I lost an entire hour. It’s an action game in which Jack Joyce is an unwilling hero who gains the ability of manipulating time after an experimental failure.

You may think this sounds like another predictable scenario for a video game. However, the title’s mechanics (think “bullet-time”, only better) make it unique.

Also, make sure you look out for Tom Clancy’s The Division – set on a meticulously accurate-to-life Manhattan.

Many of the titles featured on the show were also promoted as great to use on a PC via Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating systems.

“If you look at the numbers, PC gaming is the fastest growing segment of gaming out there,” said head of Xbox Phil Spencer.

“It’s normal that we’d focus our attention on gaming on Windows.”

Virtual plans

When it comes to virtual reality, Microsoft has opted not to make its own headset – although it is developing the augmented reality-focused Hololens – but is instead working to make itself compatible with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

On the price debate, Spencer stated that he believes virtual reality will follow the path set by high definition TVs. It is a luxury item at first, but it becomes hard to resist once you have experienced it.

He stated that “the early adopters will help spur the VR sector.”

I asked Microsoft if it might make its own VR headset considering that Sony’s PlayStation 4 will soon get its own VR headset.

He said that he believed it could be part of the roadmap. He said that Windows 10 would be fully compatible with VR-ready titles.

‘Not hacked’

Of course, new games mean nothing unless gamers can get online to play them. This has been a challenge.

Poor reliability on Xbox Live – the service Xbox gamers use to play against each other over the internet – has stressed out thousands.

Disgruntled fans include rapper Snoop Dogg, who – in a video too profane to link to here – begged Bill Gates to fix the problem or he’d defect to PlayStation.

Mr Spencer apologised.

He stated, “It’s clearly always regretful.”

“This last outage was a concern, we learned from it. We knew exactly what the issue was. It just took us a little longer than we would like.

He denied that the company had been the victim of a hack, saying that while its network was under constant attack it was not, as had been claimed, felled by a coordinated effort to cut gamers off.

Snoop Dogg could be at risk. “Snoop’s been an avid gamer and supporter of Xbox for many years.”

“I understand when people get upset. I see it as a sign people care about what we are as a platform for playing games.

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