Minecraft will officially stop supporting all virtual reality headsets after March 2025, according to an update posted to the Bedrock changelog. The update means Minecraft will no longer support devices like the Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, or the Meta Quest (through Quest Link), as reported earlier by UploadVR.
Last month, Minecraft developer Mojang also announced that the game would end support for PlayStation VR headsets next March. When Minecraft’s spring update rolls around, Mojang says you can “keep building in your worlds, and your Marketplace purchases (including Minecoins) will continue to be available on a non-VR/MR graphics device such as a computer monitor.”
As pointed out by UploadVR, you’ll still be able to play Minecraft in VR on PC by using the Java version of the game — either by downloading a VR mod like Vivecraft or using a standalone VR port such as QuestCraft.
Minecraft initially launched on Samsung’s Gear VR headsets in 2016 before adding support for the Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR. Before ending support for VR, Mojang also shut down Minecraft Earth, its augmented-reality mobile app, in 2020.
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I didn’t even know Bedrock had a VR mode. I’ve tried the Vivecraft mod for Java and it worked very well, albeit required some settings changed to make the controls more natural
I knew and even tried it before, but I completely forgot it existed because it sucked so much. Nobody can see you moving your hands and tilting your head, which kills all the fun of a VR multi-player game IMO. It’s just a glorified controller binding for VR headsets. Considering all the other wacky things they added, I don’t see why they didn’t add actual VR support.
I tried both, Vivecraft (being a project driven by passion) is vastly superior!
Why are they removing support though?
Probably because VR gaming is basically dead. It never really took off and it’s a waste of time and money for them to devote resources to it. Probably like 0.1% of users are in VR.
That being said, part of why it’s dead is because no developers want to take chances on it, so it’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Valve was the last one to gamble on it.
That’s not even accurate.
If VR gaming is dead, then what does it say about Linux with about 5 times less users? Like, a low poly game about monkeys has a daily playerbase of a million people there. Mind you, Mincraft has 1 to 1.5 million. Not bad for a “dead” platform. Also, Valve isn’t even the last one to enter the market.
I think what you’re actually trying to say is that it’s too niche, which it absolutely is.
It’s math. The amount of money they’re spending on supporting the VR platforms is less than the amount of money they make for the people on those platforms. They probably have to dedicate several multi-person teams to manage the clients.
Linux has some pretty good hedging going on with steam deck.
Well, I’ve decided to check the financials of a couple of VR companies since your counterpoint sounded reasonable. The only one working at a loss is Meta. I could argue their business model is in Death Valley right now. After all, they have major capital expenses, which aren’t easily covered unless you have a big userbase.
But that’s their VR sector. Overall, Meta’s profitable and can easily cover all the expenses several times over.
Also, what do you mean by “they have to dedicate several multi-person teams to manage the clients?” Firstly, who’s “they,” secondly, if I understood you right, that sounds prepostrous, unless you’re talking B2B.
I’m not talking about VR companies I’m talking about Mojang.
The teams that Mojang keeps to work on the platforms cost more than the income from the people using those clients.
If you make a game, and you decide to support Mac, and Mac only brings in $500 a month but you have to pay somebody $3,000 a month to maintain the client, You’re losing $2,500 a month for that particular market segment.
Nothing says you have to get rid of those people or that client, But it’s a fiscally sound decision.
Oh, yeah, that I agree with.
My head was at the “VR gaming” as a whole back when I was writing the comment.
I don’t see how what they said was contradictory. VR gaming is indeed dead. And Linux gaming with 5 times less users is also even more dead.
There’s a reason why game devs completely ignore Linux as a platform.
- More than 57mil (est.) monthly VR users
- PS5 has 116mil monthly users
For how big PS5 is and how small VR is, VR sure has a lot of people playing.
Lemmy has userbase (not even monthly activity) of 0.46mil (acc. to fedidb). Is lemmy dead?
What constitutes for a dead platform to you?
Is Lemmy dead?
I mean. Yeah ? Can you imagine any large companies investing in this in any way? I sure can’t.
I think what you’re forgetting is scale.
Lemmy is niche. VR is niche. Gaming is mainstream.
You can’t call a niche dead just because there aren’t that many people into it. It’s a niche for a reason.
Linux is booming, even though it’s “dead.” Lemmy has never been this active in its entire existence. Why do investments from large companies matter?
What truly matters is growth. Negative growth is what kills a platform/industry/company/whatever else. VR is growing, Linux is growing, Lemmy is growing. It may not be fast, but they all have active userbases that support their development.
You cannot call a child “failure” just because it never achieved anything in life, can you? They are growing. They can get sick, they can recover. They can also regress due to that illness and die. Only then they’re truly dead.
why do investments from large companies matter?
Because we are talking about a large company de investing from something.
It’s kinda the topic we are talking about.
This is why Java edition and mods reign supreme.
id love for the more optimized and less spaghetti-coded bedrock version wasnt so bad.
but if they are gonna pull that crap id rather be on java forever.
I been playing bedrock with my brother for a week now and it is good, mobs actually feel like a threat now and there are very small details to game. Like swords doing more damage to mobs than axes but when the mob is wet or is raining the axe does more damage.
yeah, java is like that too nowadays, microsoft maintains feature parity for now
TBH it was pretty barebones, but I did enjoy seeing some of my worlds in stereoscopic 3D. It also scares me for the future of VR (minecraft is a REALLY popular game. If it is dropping VR does that mean adoption isn’t going that well?).
Also, this is specifically regarding Bedrock minecraft. Java has never officially supported it, but there are mods that add the functionality.
VR doesn’t belong everywhere. There are good games for it but it needs to be purpose built and planned for. Not just a port of an existing game.
Yeah but playing Minecraft in VR was pretty neat, even if it wasn’t the greatest experience.
There is a game called cyubeVR on steam and PS2VR, built from the ground up for vr. It is a great fun game with a solo dev. Highly suggest checking it out, there are quite a few videos on it and it is highly modable. It is sad that the big cos are dropping support
Still mods for java out there luckily. Sucks for PlayStation players though, that’s how I first experienced VR.
And I think they had previously announced support for PSVR 2, but u guess that’s not happening now.
I never play bedrock, because playing without mods is boring most of the time, (not to mention I actually like doing redstone) but did any bedrock players play in VR?
Obviously this doesn’t affect Java, where we have a mod for that
Huh. I had no idea you could play it in VR. Doesn’t really seem like a game which would be at all enjoyable in VR tbh, too much movement - especially vertical and sudden. I do not enjoy the idea of facing a creeper in person lol
