Tech News: MWC 2016: Mark Zuckerberg: VR is the next social platform

MWC 2016: Mark Zuckerberg: VR is the next social platform - oh, and Minecraft is coming to VR!

Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise appearance at Samsung's MWC 2016 event to declare how the future of Facebook and communication will be in VR.

Zuckerberg has been a massive advocate of virtual reality tech. Facebook bought up Oculus VR for $2 billion back in 2014 and will be releasing consumer Oculus headsets later this year.

At Samsung's Unpacked event – where the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge were revealed – Zuckerberg explained about his fascination with VR and how he has been dreaming of using the technology since the age of 11.

"I always thought there must be a way that's instead of navigating to 2D websites, you could actually be there," said Zuckerberg.

"Today, thanks to this partnership between Samsung and Facebook that is going to happen and it wouldn't be possible to deliver this experience and price without Oculus technology.

"One day you're going to be able to put on a headset and that's going to change the way you live, work and communicate."

Making virtual reality a reality

To make sure that as many eyes as possible get to see virtual reality, Samsung announced at Unpacked that it will be giving away Gear VRs for free with selected pre-orders of its new smartphone line-up.

"Gear VR is by far the best mobile experience," said Zuckerberg. "It provides the best hardware, with the best software. VR is going to be the most social platform."

To make sure that when people do put on a VR headset that there's something to actually view, Zuckerberg also announced that Facebook was working hard to deliver more apps.

"I am excited to announce that we are bringing much more technology to VR in the next few weeks," he said. "Facebook and Oculus are in this for the long term."

One of those apps will be Minecraft – which gets a virtual thumbs up from us.

This is what we think of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge