Mojang, creators of the worldwide phenomenon that is Minecraft yesterday announced the arrival of the game on the Samsung Gear VR. The VR headset is compatible with Samsung phone models S6 and S6 Edge, Note5, Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
Minecraft VR on your phone
At long last, fans of Minecraft can now play their favorite game in VR using the Samsung Gear VR. A separate version of Minecraft released on the Oculus store, especially for the Gear VR. When releasing Minecraft VR on the Oculus Rift, it will be placed on the store separate to that of Gear VR for convenience.
It will contain all the features present in Minecraft Pocket Edition, along with featuring cross-platform play with regular Pocket Edition and Windows 10 editions. The game will cost the same as that of Pocket Edition, but will require a Bluetooth controller to play.
In the announcement, Mojang refers to the screen resolution as “fabulous” but warns that it may not run as well in true stereo or have as high draw distance in older phone models. It sounds like to get the best experience from Gear VR, gamers are going to need one of the latest Samsung phone models.
Expect to pay a heavy price
Gamers who already own one of the compatible mobile phones will not feel the pinch of the heavy price that those who do not will. If even you do own one of the compatible mobiles, you are still looking at $6.99 for the game, $99.99 for the Gear VR and $49.99 to $99.99 for the Bluetooth controller.
That brings a total of between $156.87 and £206.97. If this is the price for those who own such mobile phones, what would be price be for those who do not? The cost of the compatible phones would range from $546.72 right up to $780 unless you were to form a monthly contract with your mobile network provider.
That brings a total overwhelming cost of between $703.61 and $986.97 depending on the phone and controller that you are looking to buy. That is quite a heavy price to pay just to play Minecraft.
Is it too much?
For an owner of one of the compatible mobile phones or those willing to buy the new phones with a monthly contract, it may not be so bad. For those who don’t and are not looking to get stuck in a monthly contract, it is an outlandish price to pay.
For the same price, you could almost buy two current generation consoles or another VR Headset, such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive with change left over — both of which have far more available to them in the form of games and apps than the Gear VR does right now.
For owners of the compatible phones, this isn’t a bad deal in any shape or form. It is quite a cheap VR headset, and it does have a certain amount of games and apps to play around. Those who do not have the phones, this is not an ideal VR platform.
What are your thoughts on Gear VR? Do you think Minecraft with Gear-VR is going to be a big thing? Let me know in the comments below.
