Mojang is committing a significant blunder with their Minecraft VR version

In the world of virtual reality gaming, the absence of Minecraft VR on Meta Quest has been a topic of discussion among fans and industry watchers alike. Here's a chronicle of the events that led to this situation, and the ongoing speculation about a potential future release.

Back in 2020, John Carmack, the renowned gaming engineer, successfully ran Minecraft on the Oculus Quest with full positional tracking. However, Mojang, the creators of Minecraft, never officially picked up this development.

Minecraft VR initially made its debut on the Samsung Gear VR in April 2016, and was later ported to the PC version in August of the same year. Fast forward to 2020, and support for older Minecraft VR games on the Oculus Quest 2 was discontinued, making it impossible for players to enjoy these titles.

The lack of an official Minecraft VR on Meta Quest is perceived as leaving potential revenue on the table. With hundreds of thousands, or even over a million, active players expected if an official Bedrock version were released, the missed opportunity includes marketplace purchases, Realms subscriptions, and YouTube content creation.

The demographic of Meta Quest users is shifting younger, making them a prime target for Minecraft VR. In fact, Minecraft has sold over 300 million copies as of October 2023, and sees over 55 million daily active players, according to statistics groups.

In an unexpected turn of events, Jens Bergensten, the leader of Mojang, officially ended VR support for Minecraft Bedrock on PCs. This decision was met with disappointment by the VR gaming community.

However, all is not lost. Vivecraft, a successful Minecraft VR mod that adds VR support to Minecraft Java and includes made-for-VR mechanics, is available. In February 2022, QuestCraft, a port of Vivecraft made to run natively on Meta Quest headsets, debuted.

Despite the setbacks, there's speculation that Mojang may launch a native Quest version of Minecraft VR later this year, tying in with the expected release of third-party Meta Horizon OS-powered headsets. This speculation gains traction given Meta and Microsoft's past VR partnerships, including Xbox Game Pass games on Quest, linking apps for Windows 11, and official Meta Quest apps for Microsoft Office.

In a bid to bring Minecraft VR to Meta Quest, Meta attempted to work with Microsoft on getting an official Minecraft VR port as recently as August 2024. However, progress seems to have stalled, leaving the future of Minecraft VR on Meta Quest uncertain.

The QuestCraft Discord server, a mod for Minecraft VR that requires sideloading and owning Minecraft Java, currently boasts 80,000 users with dozens joining daily. This dedicated community remains hopeful for an official release, and the potential revenue it could bring to both Mojang and Meta.

As we move forward, only time will tell if Minecraft VR will make its way to Meta Quest. Until then, fans continue to eagerly await any updates or announcements from Mojang and Meta.