'Minecraft' Oculus Rift release date: Game to arrive this week on VR headset

Oculus Rift Oculus VR

"Minecraft" fans recently received big news. This week, the very popular sandbox video game will be supported by the Oculus Rift virtual reality headgear.

The news was revealed by Mojang employee Tommaso Checchi via his Twitter account. The tweet says, "PSA: unsurprisingly, promised dates change :) We said that Rift support would be in 0.15.6, but it will be out next week instead!" However, no exact date was mentioned on the post.

Once the update rolls out, Windows 10 "Minecraft" players who happen to own the Oculus Rift will now be able to visit their created worlds. Fans will also be able to use the Xbox controller or any other compatible controller to walk round the game, Gizmodo reported.

The game developer is also offering fans who purchased a different version of the game to download the Windows 10 version for free. All they have to do is log in on Mojang's website then download a copy of the game from the Windows Store.

"If you're one of the 20 million(ish) players who already own Minecraft for PC/Mac, you get the new version for free. Completely free!"

The "Minecraft" Oculus Rift version was originally announced back in March, although Notch, the game creator, does not want it released to the VR headset because he does not like Facebook (Facebook bought Oculus Rift for US$2 billion back in 2014). Eventually, an announcement was made with the game's arrival on the headset, a few months after Microsoft purchased the game from Notch.

Fans are also speculating that the game's arrival on different VR headsets, such as the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, is also not far-fetched. The game can also be played using the Samsung Gear VR headset paired with a compatible smartphone.

"Minecraft" is even available on a wide array of platforms, including Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Xbox One and 360, PlayStation 3, 4 and Vita, Raspberry Pi and Wii U.

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