240°

Notch scraps Minecraft plans for Oculus Rift

Minecraft developer Notch has announced that his studio Mojang was in talks about "maybe" bringing the world-builder to Oculus Rift, but following this morning's deal, the idea's been scrapped.

Eonjay4042d ago (Edited 4042d ago )

Wow. This is moving fast. The next few hours are going to be interesting.

Naga4042d ago

Like wildfire, man.

Why do I feel like it's just the gamers that are going to get burned?

Eonjay4042d ago (Edited 4042d ago )

Because in Zuckerberg's statement, he said "after games, we will focus on social...". They are a social media giant. After games is like 3 months max.

nicksetzer14042d ago (Edited 4042d ago )

@eonjay The fact he said "after" is proof enough, that means he doesn't intend to keep gaming the focus very long.... sucks.
.
.
You would say "also" or "as well'?" If the intent were to continue on both fronts.

abzdine4041d ago

PS4 VR confirmed then?
let's wait and see.

PLASTICA-MAN4041d ago

Now that Oculus Rift is officially dead, all eyes are turned "IN" (not on lol) PS4 Morpheus.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4041d ago
3-4-54041d ago (Edited 4041d ago )

^ I'm glad he made that post. ( Notch)

Mr Pumblechook4041d ago

Some people are vey angry about this. It's almost as if Oculus is the new Xbone.

thejigisup4041d ago

No ,not at all. OR is definitely lower than that.

nicksetzer14042d ago

Notch saying this all but ensures a shaky future for oculus for gaming now ... damn.

Volkama4041d ago (Edited 4041d ago )

No it doesn't.

Notch is a significant figure in the development community and his words carry some weight, but his skepticism of Facebook doesn't ensure a shaky future for the Rift.

This Facebook acquisition proves that VR is bigger than gaming, the applications go way beyond that. But these other applications don't need to contradict the fact that VR is amazing for gaming.

The challenges of VR for the gamer and VR for the mainstream are not so far apart that we're going to end up with a device we can't use for a good first person shooter. You need great tracking, framerates and fidelity for a good virtual business meeting too right? Those social network butterflies aren't going to use the thing if it makes them feel sick.

VR just got some huge backing. If this ensures anything it is that VR does have a future. We're going to get a device offering the fidelity we need to immerse ourselves in a virtual world. Some of those worlds will have monsters in them.

Zichu4041d ago

I can see it now... Social networking is going turn into Playstation Home, a whole virtual world...

thejigisup4041d ago

I thought NASA being involved with Morpheus was Further evidence VR is bigger than gaming. FB is the wrong direction for VR right now. its bad news when "new", rather budding tech is in the hands of a money/power hungry company. I can only see this ending poorly by this console generations end and itsgonna be nasty. hopefully other devsand upcoming devsrealize what notch has. He invested 10k for this. What a slap in the face. Is that a company youd wantto work with or for? How about invest in?

Volkama4041d ago (Edited 4041d ago )

@Zichu without any doubt that will exist.

@TheJigIsUp This is absolutely a slap in the face to kickstarter backers, but I think that highlights a problem with Kickstarter. IMO your investment should be protected against this, and returning those investments should have to be part of the deal if the project is bought up.

But there is still a silver lining here. VR had challenges to overcome, and it now has the backing to do so. It was always destined to stretch beyond gaming, and imo gaming is still destined to flourish on VR. Facebook wont/can't stop that.

Talidan4041d ago

You're right, this is a huge positive for VR, just not gaming VR with Oculus Rift. There's no longer any hope for Rift to be the future of gaming, because that is not Facebook's interest, but it will help ensure we will have a future with VR gaming, just found in another tech company.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4041d ago
thejigisup4041d ago

@volkama It is not the fault of kickstarter. Silver lining my ass , its all brown to me and this deal stinks. instead of needing to protect investments why dont companies be honest and up front. The long term goalsare different , dont trust or like fb. VR would have gotten loose to run wild without fb. It just happens now with a strong push in thewrong direction . Andanother thing aboutreturn investments . We kickstarter dont invest money so the company we put our faith in can use that to sell out. FB wasnt part of the plan, i dont invest infb. But like many i feel i was tricked into doing so. The little guy was stepped on again to make someone else a ton of money. For many kickstarter is a way to share a vision or dream and to make it a reality by contributing time or money. thanks for the "financial backing" fb. You bought something that had a bright future and you turned it to crap. And y'all over at OR hope you like watching your beautiful concept go from hanna montana to miley cyrus faster than you can say zuckerberg. Thanks for fuelling fb.

BattleTorn4042d ago

To quote Kotaku on this topic "And the fallout begins."

rambi804041d ago (Edited 4041d ago )

Fallout 4 for OR! WOW!!!

BattleTorn4042d ago (Edited 4042d ago )

For anyone wondering why this acquisition may be bad for gamers, this is why..

Facebook has tons of revenue. (mostly from advertising) And in attempt to avoid paying boat loads in taxes, they try to hide their profits by acquiring R&D projects, that current don't have revenue, or are revenue negative. Basically like balancing a spread sheet, the way I see it.

So, as far as Facebook is concerned, their "goal" at hand is accomplished the moment Oculus is bought. It's essentially fulfilled it's purpose by merely being on their portfolio.
This does not incentivize FB to further the project. In fact, they likely more prone to delay the development of OR to prolong the balancing of their portfolio as I mentioned.

I could be wrong, cause this is complete conjecture after all.

Either way, OR in the hands of FB won't be nearly as incentivized as say in the hands of the people with negative revenue to account for.

Brazz4042d ago

it's good to see that there is people here that can see the whole picture. Bravo,bubble for you.

Volkama4041d ago (Edited 4041d ago )

I don't doubt that Facebook will make moves to manipulate the books, but $2billion is a big investment to sit on.

Some of their investments have to be genuine, as a business they have to look at how to establish themselves in our future. VR has so much potential to become prominent in our day to day lives. I think this investment is genuine, I think they just laid claim to the future.

I'm not sure I want Facebook controlling that future, I share the same concerns as everybody else about how they will monetise and exploit it. But I think this deal will establish VR in our lives so it isn't all bad news.

Brazz4041d ago

The announce a purchase of 2 billion is different from paying 2 billion ...

This is just an idea, an evil idea that has no basis or evidence, but it would be a very good thing for Mr.Facebook if the "real value of purchase" was something like 1 billion, but the record books would mark 2 billion...

thejigisup4041d ago

There is truth inyour words, balancing that portfolio, though i feel like thats just one aspect. 1.6bn was stock sooo marky mark didnt lose anything. 400 mill is a flash in the pan for what he stands to earn.

Codewow4041d ago (Edited 4041d ago )

Facebook was blowing up on notch yesterday when this was announced. But I happen to agree with what notch did. I would have done the same. Time to work with a competitor.

_LarZen_4041d ago Show
Show all comments (41)
40°

Minecraft splitscreen mod comes to Steam Deck and it might be possible in other games too

Playing Minecraft splitscreen on the Steam Deck is possible now, thanks to this script that automates everything for you.

170°

Microsoft Is Using Minecraft as a Trojan Horse to Promote Generative AI to Children

Generative AI is a controversial topic, and Microsoft seems to have found that Minecraft is the perfect Trojan Horse to get children on board.

Read Full Story >>
simulationdaily.com
anast9d ago

Like I said, the younger generation won't care. They will even like AI games.

CrimsonWing699d ago

AI is an amazing tool and you’re absolutely right, just like they’re caring less about physical media since they’re growing up in a digital world. Only us old-ass curmudgeon‘s cry about this stuff.

I personally, support AI 100%. As a creative outlet it’s literally a tool to help with creativity or shortcomings a user might have but dreams about doing things. Like those AI generated movie trailers on YouTube are awesome. Imagine being able to make games you’ve dreamt of and using AI to make it a reality.

Lot of great applications and I embrace it, regardless of having watched Terminator 2 a bajillion times, lol.

Abriael9d ago

The only ones who "support AI 100%" are those too lazy or too inept to do the job themselves.

The AI-generated videos on YouTube are absolute unsightly slop. They're all the same, like pretty much everything AI makes and will always make.

If you "dream about doing things"... do things. Put effort into learning instead of having a bot do it for you so that you aren't actually doing the things and are just taking credit (from something born of the theft of other people's work), trucking yourself into believing that you have created something when you have, indeed, created nothing.

Profchaos9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

AI is the anti creative outlet humans put heart and soul into their work and errors are a part of the art just as much as ideas are.

Offloading creative things to a gen AI is enforcing the fact that your idea wasn't strong enough to stand on its own.

Tacoboto9d ago

"... are those too lazy or too inept to do the job themselves"

Cool, yeah, you definitely know what you're talking about.

This isn't two years ago when it was new. I've been a software developer for 13 years and the code Gemini and GPT writes is actually usable, when you know how to query in the right context.

And why would I learn it? Oh yeah, because heads of companies and new opportunities in the future will 100% require knowledge of AI, and in 5 years, my near 20 years of experience would just be reduced to if I can meet the inevitable "5+ years AI tooling" requirements or not. Nothing I or anyone can do about that. Being lazy or inept is refusing to adapt to or flat out rejecting changes in the environment.

CrimsonWing, 100% right here.

anast9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

I don't support it more than I try to understand it.

Terminator 2 was worse than 1 and it let to the host of tasteless Marvel Movies and New Star Wars Movies we have today.

bunt-custardly9d ago

@abriel Carmack recently commented about this too. It's not being lazy it's progression.

Think about when the wheel was invented. How that made people "lazy" not having to carry stuff manually. AI is a tool and should be 100% human monitored/controlled. It's when you decide to let it do ALL the work, you become lazy.

Abriael9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

@bunt-custardly: Carmack is a tech chud and an executive. He couldn't care less about whether normal rank-and-file developers would lose their jobs to this slop as long as his company could save money on their salaries.

And yes, it's lazy slop.

"Because Carmack says so" is not a great argument.

Incidentally, what Carmack specifically defended is the Quake experiment, which is *literally* letting the AI do all the work, so there goes your argument.

Abriael9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

@Tacoboto:

If you let a bot do your job you're either lazy or inept. You pick. I can't care less of how much alleged "experience" you say you have.

If you use ChatGPT or Gemini you're literally stealing other people's work because that's where the code they give you comes from. AI creates nothing.

I've heard "Nothing I or anyone can do about that" about NFTs, crypto, and all that crap. Nothing is inevitable.

Tacoboto9d ago

Not using and crying fowl about AI in 2025 is like someone in 2005 saying that using Intellisense and code completion in Visual Studio is lazy and inept.

You know nothing, Abriael, and you speak out of ignorance rather than experience.

"you're literally stealing other people's work"

Ever hear of "open source"? Probably not, because with that statement you clearly know absolutely nothing.

Abriael9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

@Tacoboto:

You just demonstrated that you're just a troll and not a developer of any kind. A developer would know that the data used to train the AI chatbots you mentioned is not and has never been open source.

You're likely just an xbox fanboy trying to defend Microsoft just because it's Microsoft. Pathetic.

Tacoboto9d ago

LOL, so wrong again! I refuse to use MS Copilot in any meaningful regard still. Gemini provides the most detailed results (with context as well) and GPT I feel has started to lag behind it.

Copilot has routinely broken after a few queries for me and the UI Microsoft built is embarrassingly underfeatured. Again, you speak with ignorance over something that you do not understand.

Abriael8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

@Tacoboto: sure mate, keep pretending. Like any actual developer would slip on the open source discourse. Totally not a Microsoft fanboy with Master Chief in the icon. 👀

It's so open-source that AI companies are being sued into oblivion by the many they have stolen from. And when these lawsuits end with them being found guilty, this fad will hit the brakes big time.

Tacoboto8d ago

All I'll say is you should not speak against that which you have no knowledge of or experience in.

And I'll tell you that once you're an adult, with a big boy job, you're expected to get things done, and you should work smarter, not harder. If there is a tool out there that can make a 3 hour job a 3 minute job, you use that tool. That makes you competitive, that makes you more productive. It keeps you relevant in an evolving industry.

Abriael8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

We'll see where the "work smarter" goes when the lawsuits cripple this AI slop and everything needs to be retrained on non-stolen content, assuming it's even possible 😂

Profchaos8d ago

@Tacoboto nit sure how you're getting usable code from Gemini and gpt I spend more time fixing the code it outputs personally though Claude AI is far superior for generating it from my experience at least.

And honestly I'll go to Claude to write the bones of what I'm after nothing's perfect still a ton of rationalising that goes in after

+ Show (11) more repliesLast reply 8d ago
-Foxtrot9d ago

Well yeah because they’ll grow up with crap like this to make them like it

It’s like training people to defend generative AI or AI in general as they get older

Creative based AI is terrible and I feel bad for the real artists getting the shaft losing jobs to it

anast8d ago

Couldn't agree with you more.

jznrpg9d ago

They will care if parents talk to them about it in a way to show them why they should care. Unfortunately there may not be enough who do that.

anast9d ago

Noting wrong with being an optimist.

b00mFargl39d ago

I understand if this tool aids children in Minecraft development. However, I believe that substituting human workers with AI and reducing the creative input of developers, artists, and other professionals is detrimental. It also results in content that lacks a certain human touch.

Abriael9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

This has nothing to do with helping children develop in Minecraft. This just uses Minecraft to condition children into liking generative AI.

Their "curriculum" even paints intellectual property laws as something that can hinder innovation. It can't be more disgusting than this.

b00mFargl39d ago

The idea is that AI can be implemented to aid them in their creations, specifically for minecraft; That's all I was getting at.

Everything else I mentioned was in agreement that AI isn't good and can ruin everything. Sorry you missed the entire point of what I was getting at. Boop

Inverno9d ago

Its getting more and more dystopian lolz. Just wait til the robots are more commonplace, everyone will be replaced. Hey I'd be fine with it if it means everything in life will be free. Cause that's the goal right? The end of capitalism? Bettering society for the sake of bettering the world? By ending human labor? And allowing us all to live rent free and enjoy all the comforts that this amazing technology will bring? Right? Cause if we're all gonna end up jobless and homeless then wtf is the point?

goken9d ago

Gotta start em young is the plan here…
Maybe we should relook the whole capitalism thing 😅

Nacho_Z8d ago

People think the film industry is derivative and out of ideas these days, and they're right for the most part, imagine how it would be with creativity handed over to AI. Braindead, basically. Same for gaming.

In any creative endeavour like films, gaming, art, it needs nipping in the bud and used appropriately, not being embraced.

130°

"It's The Best Deal In The World": Mojang On Why Minecraft Will Never Go Free-To-Play

Not everything needs to go free-to-play!

Read Full Story >>
thegamer.com
Vits26d ago

I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of money Minecraft makes these days is from DLC, so going f2p would make a lot of sense. But given how cheap the game actually is ($30 for consoles/PC and $7 on mobile) I don't think it would make that much of diference.

VenomUK25d ago (Edited 25d ago )

If 50% of all kids buy just one copy of this game (made up number but not unrealistic as the game has become almost a rites of passage) then Microsoft is doing great by being paid for each copy.

StoneTitan25d ago

it would actually make no sense to go f2p.
If you can charge something for the basegame and people pay for it (obviously they are still doing it) then going f2p would be idiotic.

Vits24d ago

Puting a entry price on anything also reduces it potential player base and therefore its paying costumer for DLC. That mind you likely make the bulk of Minecraft revenue. That is basic business since at least a decade, so I would get in with the times.

badz14925d ago

Funny how they and their parent company have different views on subscription-based delivery.