Minecraft For Hololens Demo Shows Big Virtual Potential

While we've caught glimpses of Minecraft on the Microsoft HoloLens headset before, today is the first we've seen Microsoft pushing gaming specifically. Before, HoloLens was a far more diverse piece of equipment, showing of all manner of odd applications. Today it's a strictly gaming affair. Mojang Brand Director – aka Mojang's "Director of Fun" Lydia Winters spoke up onstage this afternoon about how Minecraft would be jointing the fun in our collective living rooms. This game wont be played on a screen, it'll be played in three dimensions.

While the demonstration of Minecraft on HoloLens begins with an Xbox One controller, it quickly turns to a fully hand-controlled affair. While this demonstration starts on a screen, it moves to a table. While you can't see anything if you're not inside the HoloLens headset, we're able to see what's going on from our own remote view position.

Through this augmented reality camera view, users will have the ability to build a castle and move through it. Placing blocks will be as simple as reaching out one's hand.

Moving underground in this iteration of Minecraft does not require digging if you're using HoloLens. Once you're virtually "underground" and find the mineral you're looking for, you can place a "flag" which allows a partner to head in the right direction.

Voice commands bring on elements like lightning. Just say the word, focus your gaze, and your enemies will be lit up. In the demonstration you're about to see, lightning is used to light some TNT, which in turn reveals an underground cavern for player 2 originally found by player 1 using HoloLens.

Now only does this signal an awesome new era for Minecraft in this virtual/augmented reality world, it suggests that big changes are coming for Minecraft on all platforms.

On July 4th and July 5th, Minecon will take place in London. There, more details on this particular version of Minecraft will be spoken of in ernest. Stick around our Microsoft HoloLens tag portal for more on this device.