Mine, craft and battle to rescue villagers at London's immersive 'Minecraft' experience

Record ID: 1988079

  • Title: Mine, craft and battle to rescue villagers at London's immersive 'Minecraft' experience
  • Date: 3rd April 2025
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND AND LEAD CREATIVE PRODUCER OF THE 'MINECRAFT EXPERIENCE: VILLAGER RESCUE', OLIVIER GOULET, ON WHAT PEOPLE CAN EXPECT FROM THE EXPERIENCE, SAYING: "The Minecrafters will love it. It's a once in a lifetime chance to step in the games that they love, right? For parents, it's an amazing experience that for once, their kids a
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  • Keywords: A Minecraft Movie Minecraft Experience Minecraft zombie attack real-life immersive gaming experience video game
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILMING LOCATIONS
  • City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILMING LOCATIONS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA002368402042025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: 'Minecraft' fans on Thursday (April 3) mined, crafted and battled their way through a new real-life immersive experience of the video game in London, to save villagers from a zombie attack.
    Located at Corner Corner, Canada Water, "Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue" for all age groups is based on the 2011 Swedish sandbox game that allows participants to get creative from farmed resources and set their own goals in a colourful three-dimensional world.
    Within seven immersive rooms or interactive biomes, players use their wit and an 'orb of interaction', an illuminated interactive, block-shaped handheld device which guides the user from room to room, to chop down trees, collect resources like precious gems, craft life-saving potions, or fight off spiders, creepers, skeletons or mobs before the allotted time of six minutes per room runs out.
    "The goal is to build a potion and find golden apples. So there's seven resources that will be required to save the villagers," said Olivier Goulet, President of Supply and Demand and Lead Creative Produce of "Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue". "Each room has their own quests, their own target, and everybody will have to engage and work together."
    The aim of the best-selling video game, with over 300 million copies sold worldwide, is collecting block-shaped objects like dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water and lava and placing them in a 3D grid to create whole new environments, as well as having the ability to break, or mine, the blocks to rebuild elsewhere and craft items like armour, weapons and tools to keep the player safe.
    Goulet said the immersive experience is no different for Minecrafters, except it has its own new characters and guides, Dayo and Tobin, and "there are lot of Easter eggs in this experience."
    "It's a once in a lifetime chance to step in the games that they love," he said. "For parents, it's an amazing experience that for once, their kids are teaching them... So it's a very good relationship builder."
    Asked how "Villager Rescue" compared to playing the video game, 10 year-old triplet from Essex, Kuzey said it was "the best thing I've ever done in my life. The best gaming experience as well."
    Tracey, with 10 year-old son Ethan from south London, said: "I think it's like a total work out. Did not expect that. Lots of fun."
    Having had its debut in Dallas, Texas, United States, in autumn last year, the London "Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue" opens on Friday (April 4), with each session for a group of up to 25 players lasting 45 minutes.
    A movie version of the video game is also being released by Warner Bros. on the same day.
    Starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black, "A Minecraft Movie" sees Steve (Black) stuck in the alternate dimension Overworld, before Garett (Momoa), Dawn (Danielle Brooks) and siblings Natalie (Emma Myers) and Henry (Sebastian Hansen) stumble across Steve's belongings, and a portal transfers them to Overworld, where they must learn its secrets to survive.
    (Production: Marissa Davison, Lisa Giles-Keddie)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains computer game or software screenshots. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing this clip.
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