You Can Play ‘Minecraft’ in Virtual Reality Right Now

Virtual reality has been with us for a little while now, with many major video game franchises stepping into the world via the Oculus Rift, HTC Vice or PS VR headsets – and today, Minecraft has officially joined them.

In a blog post today, Mojang officially announced Oculus Rift support for Minecraft on Windows 10 via a free patch available on the Oculus store.

What’s great about the VR update is that it allows players to experience the world of Minecraft in an entirely different way, taking the key elements behind the base game and altering them to fit the new medium. Long gone are the days of aggressively manipulating your joysticks to look around — now, they can be dedicated entirely to movement within the game.

Mojang has also included two separate VR modes within the update. The first of these is the traditional experience, which puts players right into the head of their characters to look around and play. You also have the option to play from a couch perspective as well if that’s more your style.

Just like its previous release of Minecraft on Samsung’s Gear VR, this new patch is a step forward in the right direction to making the experience playable in a variety of different ways. Don’t get us wrong, we’re all still eagerly waiting for that HoloLens release, but it’s good to see that Mojang is continuing to move virtual reality forward with their massive world-building game.

Ender Dragons in VR, anyone?