One of the defining features of Minecraft is its procedurally-generated landscape which creates unique and effectively infinite maps for players to explore. Now, with Minecraft on Gear VR and the Virtuix Omni VR treadmill, you can walk that infinite landscape on foot.
While Minecraft has been available in VR through a third-party mod for some time now, the only way to get the official (and latest version) running in virtual reality is through the newly released Minecraft on Gear VR. With the game running on Gear VR, players can have a completely mobile experience, not needing to tether the headset to a PC.
That’s particularly useful for the Virtuix Omni because it means no wires to deal with while using the VR treadmill. The Omni supports Minecraft ‘automatically’ through a pretty neat function: Bluetooth gamepad emulation. Yes indeed, the large VR treadmill presents itself to Gear VR as a humble bluetooth gamepad, allowing it to feed the same inputs that a controller would into the headset.
The result of course is the ability to physically stroll through Minecraft’s effectively endless—and often, surprisingly beautiful—virtual worlds.
Last December, Minecraft made its much-belated debut on Nintendo hardware with a new version on the Wii U. While the game itself was virtually identical to Minecraft on other platforms, it came with some interesting potential: Nintendo announced plans for “new content for Nintendo fans to be released at a future date.” Today the company is finally revealing just what that means.
The Wii U version of Minecraft will be getting a host of Super Mario-themed content, including new textures for the world, 40 different character skins (including oddballs like Waluigi), and 15 pieces of Super Mario 64 music. It will also include a new pre-made Mario world designed using all of the new content that you can explore, and it will all be available on May 17th as a free update. Nintendo will also be releasing a retail version of Minecraft on Wii U on June 17th, and it will come with the new Mario add-ons already on the disc.
While Minecraft is home to all kinds of licensed add-ons — covering everything from The Simpsons to Doctor Who — this will be the first time a Nintendo property makes its way officially into the blocky world.
Seventh-grader Brayden Foxhoven hurries to finish his chicken fingers. He has bases to capture. Gems to collect. Viewers to entertain.
And he knows better than to break the cardinal rule of playing video games at middle school: Don’t spill your lunch on the keyboard.
Foxhoven and his Viewpoint School classmates are getting an education in Twitch, the app that lets anyone stream their game play for the world to watch.
This school year, the private school in Calabasas formed a Twitch club — a weekly gathering that has quickly become as popular as established clubs for Spanish speakers and “Harry Potter” fanatics.
Where students who toiled on computers during lunch were once the audiovisual club nerds, Foxhoven and his dark blue Twitch hoodie are among the cool on campus. Even high schoolers are jealous of the lunchtime gaming privilege, which occurs about once a week on the school’s complex bell schedule.
“I didn’t expect people to want to do the club,” Foxhoven said. “I didn’t expect the 25 sign-ups. It was unimaginable.”
The Twitch Club — which the Amazon.com-owned company believes is the first middle school group named in its honor — reflects gaming’s emergence into the mainstream.
“Gamers are leading the cultural vanguard,” said Twitch marketing chief Matthew DiPietro. “The school’s endorsement acknowledges what most people under 35 already know, which is that gaming is a large, integral part of pop culture.”
Foxhoven got the idea in September during the first week of classes when he wore the same Twitch hoodie each day. Some two dozen strangers complimented him over the sweatshirt, gifted by a family friend at the San Francisco firm.
“Cool! You do Twitch? Are you going to make a club?” students would ask him. “I said, ‘Sure why not?’” recalled Foxhoven, 13.
But he faced resistance from school officials, who’d never heard of Twitch but knew of gaming’s associations with laziness and violent behavior. In a couple of weeks of daily meetings with Foxhoven, they also questioned whether broadcasting online would threaten students’ privacy and safety — not to mention the risk they would be exposed to the kind of bad language that seeps into any online comment section.
A discouraged Foxhoven considered hosting an unofficial, after-school club at his dad’s video production studio.
But Foxhoven offered one last pitch to Casey Dodd, the school official in charge of approving clubs. He showed that 30 students backed him and explained that gaming was core to their lives and aspirations. Dodd loved it.
“We have tons of clubs, but we have a solid five or 10 that gather the most energy and intensity,” Dodd said, placing Twitch Club in that category. “The tech ones are definitely on the up and up.” Middle schoolers play “Minecraft” or visit streaming video website Twitch during lunch. Middle schoolers play “Minecraft” or visit streaming video website Twitch during lunch. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
The Twitch Club launched in the early fall, but with live-streaming shelved until administrators could get more comfortable with the idea.
At a November meeting, 16 students grabbed a spot along rows of Dell all-in-one computers. Some played “Minecraft” together. Others did individual drills in the building game, where players collect resources used to construct or destroy elaborate virtual environments in a set-up often compared with a digital version of Lego.
The club environment provides quick access to tips from peers on how to cultivate a bigger following on Twitch, said seventh-grader Riley Sockwell. But as the 30-minute gaming session came to a close, Sockwell mostly lauded the club for the “awesome” achievement of making it OK to game at school.
By January, administrators cleared the club to go live online. Foxhoven, having streamed several times before from home with his dad’s OK, was the natural star. Watch live video from Jinx2500 on www.twitch.tv
He remained calm throughout one of the club’s initial streams, providing commentary about his actions in the “Minecraft” universe as energetic students barked commands over him. The 32-minute broadcast allowed viewers to see both a webcam feed of Foxhoven’s face and watch his character’s moves in games of paintball, capture-the-bases and more.
It’s not always easy to follow. The group’s language can be unrecognizable to outsiders, with utterances including “I’m going to save 4,000 gems to get the diamond ax” and “Get me the melon launcher.”
And there are quick jumps in thinking. As Foxhoven explained his gaming strategy, he also responded to viewers’ written comments.
People asked how to get a job at Twitch (“send in a resume”), whether the kids were broadcasting from school (“yes, we’re at school”) and if he got an A+ in Twitch (“yup.”)
For a few minutes, the club had more viewers — eight — than people in the classroom — four. (Projects had waylaid many of the students in the usual group of 20.) But Foxhoven and company were unfazed as viewership swelled to more than 100 after Twitch linked to the stream on its social media pages. They felt the love though.
“Wish I had this in school,” a user with the screen name double0lemon wrote on a chat alongside the video stream.
Of course, several viewers spoke excitedly about Foxhoven’s Twitch hoodie, which he said he wears just about everyday if it’s not in the laundry machine.
Foxhoven said other feedback has come privately, including when a stranger he battled online said watching the stream brightened his attitude on a bad day.
“It just shows what we’re doing means something to people,” Foxhoven said.
His dad is happy that he’s learning how to make compelling videos, involve schoolmates in the process and communicate with people worldwide.
“That thought process for a 13-year-old to have that influence so wide, it’s pretty cool,” said Brad Foxhoven, who works with video game makers, advertisers like Mountain Dew and movie studios on events, games and productions. Viewpoint School students began regularly broadcasting on Twitch from a classroom earlier this year. Viewpoint School students began regularly broadcasting on Twitch from a classroom earlier this year. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Though colleges have long been a hotbed for video gaming clubs, high schools and middle schools are new ground. Viewpoint computer science teacher David Martin expects campus gaming to spread, comparing Twitch Club to the radio club of old — but with many more participants.
“The shop courses we grew up with are now computer-type courses,” said Martin, who advises the club and sits in on meetings. “I’m the modern-day shop teacher.”
With Martin on watch, parental waivers weren’t required for students to Twitch, Brad Foxhoven said. But parents do support the club.
If broadcasting is poised to become as natural as writing in the online video era, then learning how to play and commentate simultaneously is a valuable skill in the mind of Debbie Fisher, who fosters balance by having her son Jaden, 13, read or spend time outside when at the family’s Malibu ranch.
“The world is changing rapidly, and it’s a great forum for him to learn about the new technology,” Fisher said.
Twitch hopes to promote the Viewpoint School’s stream again if it continues do well. But it doesn’t have broader plans to specifically draw more 13- to 17-years-olds, who represent about 15% of users, according to data from research firm ComScore. About a third of Twitch users are of college age.
Foxhoven’s generation is eager to follow in the footsteps of those video-game celebrities in their 20s who’ve turned online video stardom into a career.
He’ll be getting a test run soon. His club is soliciting donations through its Twitch page, which is customary on the service, Foxhoven said. He’d buy a better microphone in addition to “Minecraft” toys to use as prizes for an internal tournament.
Foxhoven, who’s also in clubs for drones and soccer, hasn’t set specific Twitch Club goals, but he’d be “energetic” if his group hit 1,000 concurrent viewers next school year, he said. There’s also hope of being allowed to play “League of Legends,” a more violent game.
It might take some persuading, but now it’s not just friends on his side. There are also the viewers.
Minecraft is one of the most popular games out there and it is now available on consoles, desktop PCs and even on smartphones and tablets. Minecraft was also released for Wii U consoles back in December 2015 and it seems that a skin pack is about to be released for it, as well. This game is continuously evolving, so we should expect more skin packs and patch updates to be released for the Minecraft: Wii U in the near future.
Minecraft: Wii U is almost identical to the game on other platforms, but Nintendo has announced back then that it’s planning to release new content for this game in the near future. Well, the company has now announced that the Minecraft: Wii U version will receive Super Mario themed content, which includes 40 different character skins, new textures for the world and Super Mario 64 music.
In addition, the skin pack will come with a pre-made Mario world which was designed using all of the new content that the players can explore. The skin pack will be totally free and it will be available on May 17, 2016. Nintendo has also announced that it will release a retail version of the Minecrat: Wii U version on June 17, 2016, which will contain with the new Mario add-ons on the disc.
We remind you that Minecraft has many licensed skin packs, such as Doctor Who or The Simpsons, but this is the first time when Nintendo’s property is making its way to this popular game. Here is a trailer about the Super Mario Skin Pack for Minecraft: Wii U version:
Minecraft was launched in 2011, being created by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson and published by Mojang. In November 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion and continued to improve the game.
Are you playing Minecraft on your Wii U console? Tell us your thoughts about this awesome game!
Excuse me if I seem a little tired. I was up late again last night, desperately trying to load a new Mod into Minecraft.
What’s a “Mod?” Well, I’m glad you asked … because I have no earthly idea. Could stand for “modification.” Possibly. Or “my obedient dad,” as in, “My obedient dad is going to stay up all night pulling his hair out while trying to load this thing onto my computer game.” It’s anyone’s guess.
My daughter has become a maniac for Minecraft, that video game that lets players construct whole worlds and travel through them while whaw, whaw-whaw, whaw, whaw. (I don’t actually know what Minecraft is all about, as I tend to tune out when she explains it.)
What I do know is that everything looks like it’s made of square blocks — the land, the people, the animals, the buildings.
“Oh, look how cute,” my daughter will say. “It’s an ant!”
I strain my pixel-challenged eyes and say: “No, it isn’t! It’s six black squares walking around. These graphics are terrible!”
Apparently I’m missing something. Because Minecraft is incredibly popular. It is a game of imagination. Of building and creating. You develop vast worlds and construct your own houses and lands. My wife has sent me articles that talk about why it is wonderful for developing minds like children.
But has anyone done a study on what loading Mods — which gives you extra animals or maybe put the Taj Mahal in your carrot garden — is doing to the minds of parents like me? I can feel my little brain cells pop like sizzling bacon.
There’s no simple way to do it. Minecraft developers make it intentionally hard so parents feel stupid. You have to download a file and save it in a specific location. No wait, actually that’s not right. First you have to change this setting and click that, then open the game while neutering a bat born in summer solstice. Do it in the wrong order and part of the Arctic ice shelf (the real one!) breaks off and floats away.
Even searching online for Mods can be treacherous. Click on the wrong thing and you can download a computer virus that will send all of your credit card information, plus your left kidney, to the Russian mob.
Next thing you know it’s 4 a.m. and your computer no longer works right.
Swell!
But say you get it working? Well, I tell you it’s all worth it in the morning when that kid gasps at being able to create salamanders and raccoons and — the pièce de résistance — an elephant!
“Oh, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, my obedient dad,” she says while clapping. Then she turns around and does the most remarkable thing: She hugs me!
Suddenly, the Russian mob stealing my identity doesn’t seem so bad.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that he is happy with the Microsoft and Nintendo partnership, which has resulted in a Super Mario-themed DLC for Minecraft for the Wii U.
In 2014, Microsoft acquired Mojang, the game developer of Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. Some market observers believed that following the acquisition, Microsoft may not continue support for Minecraft on non-Xbox consoles from rivals. However, Xbox as well as PlayStation gaming consoles have received the DLC and updates for Minecraft.
In December 2015, Nintendo and Mojang also announced that Minecraft was coming to the Wii U.
“Minecraft is launching on Nintendo’s Wii U console on Dec. 17. It’ll cost $29.99 or equivalent, will be available to download on the eShop, and comes bundled with six of our most popular add-on packs. There’s even a Festive mash-up included just in time for the holidays,” said Mojang.
Nintendo has also announced that it will release the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack as a free update for the Wii U edition of Minecraft on May 17.
Many Minecraft and Mario Bros. enthusiasts are waiting for the new theme and Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, also expressed his content regarding the partnership between the two companies via a tweet.
This is not the first time that Spencer has applauded a release for another gaming platform. In March this year, the Xbox boss also tweeted that the PS4 exclusive Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End would be a great game.
Although Spencer has been appreciating other game titles for rival gaming consoles, the latest tweet from Spencer could be taken as a reassurance for Nintendo fans that Microsoft may bring more Minecraft support to the Wii U in the near term.
Nintendo has also revealed that the retail disc version of Minecraft: Wii U Edition will hit the shelves on June 17 at a price tag of $29.99. The disc will include the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack as well.
– See more at: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/158200/20160514/xbox-boss-says-partnership-with-nintendo-has-been-great-following-super-mario-bros-dlc-for-minecraft.htm#sthash.We965C5x.dpuf
