This is really a new communication platform. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face - just by putting on goggles in your home. Here’s Mark Zuckerberg, commenting on the acquisition:Īfter games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. (Or don’t, because that’s terrifying.) But on the other hand, and much more broadly, Oculus’s technology should be able to help Facebook developers to create immersive virtual spaces that digitally mimic those of the physical world. On the one hand, the Oculus acquisition should help Facebook to develop a better gaming platform-imagine, say, Farmville in 3D. So, okay: What does Facebook get out of the Oculus deal? Sorry, but this whole thing sounds really nerdy. Just last week, Sony announced its own virtual reality headset, Project Morpheus. So Oculus has existed in a kind of VR-PR limbo: It’s a product, but it’s not yet a consumer product. (This is similar to Google Glass’s “ Explorer” program.) The consumer version of the Oculus Rift won’t likely be available to the broad public until late 2014 or early 2015. While Oculus has so far taken more than 75,000 orders for its headsets, those devices have been developer editions that have been aimed at getting developers interested adapting the Oculus technology. It remains one of Kickstarter's most successful campaigns.) And, furthermore, Oculus has been focused on what many have seen as a niche technology for a niche demographic-hard-core gamers.Īlso worth noting is the fact that Oculus VR still hasn’t actually shipped a product to the public. (It got its start on Kickstarter, where, in a 2012 campaign that sought $250,000 in funding, it raised more than $2 million. Partly it’s that Oculus, despite its popularity among gamers and its buy-in from the tech community, is still a small start-up.
FACEBOOK WANTS YOUR NEXT MEETING VR TV
It's one of those things you have to try to fully understand.” In the words of another Oculus tester, “Oculus games make Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty played on a TV look like Pong.” Using the headset, furthermore, was “one of the most completely bizarre, wonderful, unique, laugh-out-loud, ‘holy cow!’ video experiences I have ever had.”Īs a result, the Oculus has been nominated for Best of E3 Game Critics Awards two years in a row, and in 2013 it won for "Best in Hardware/Periphery.” Many critics claim that the device has “put virtual reality back on the map.”īut if Oculus is so great, then why do people seem so surprised that Facebook has acquired it? The Oculus, according to Business Insider’s Steve Kovach, “makes you feel like you're truly immersed in a virtual environment. In part, that’s because Oculus VR’s technology has managed to create digital spaces that resemble physical ones much more closely than previous VR devices have. Here’s one example of what an Oculus scene looks like-as seen through this crazily realistic representation of Jerry Seinfeld's apartment: The idea of the screen is to mimic, in 3D, settings of everyday life. The interior of the headset-which, significantly, is much lighter than traditional virtual reality sets have been-features a screen that is easy to look at over long periods of time. The Oculus hardware features a headset that fits over the wearer’s eyes, completely covering his or her field of vision.
It’s a virtual-reality display used primarily, at this point, for gaming.
(As Alexis summed it up : “The dominant reaction to the move could be summed up in three letters: WTF.”)įor those outside the industry, however, there was another question at hand: What exactly is Oculus Rift? The news excited some in the tech industry, and confused many others. Late yesterday, Facebook made an announcement: It has acquired the virtual reality startup Oculus VR, the maker of the Oculus Rift headset, for around $2 billion in cash and stock.
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