Oculus Rift Founder, "We See One in Every Home"

[Esmeralda Portillo]

Oculus Rift Founder, "We See One in Every Home"

Palmer Luckey, inventor of the Oculus Rift, wants to see one of his devices in every home.

Ambition describes the momentum behind the creation, history, and continued push of the Oculus Rift, and it helps to also describe its inventor and founder Palmer Luckey.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset for 3D gaming that began as a Kickstarter in 2012 and raised over $2 million dollars, more than its initial $250,000 requested goal. It has since gained critical acclaim, with more games being announced with Oculus Rift integration. The company, which was bought by Facebook [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133231-Facebook-is-Buying-Oculus-VR-for-2-Billion-Update-4], just recently shipped Version 2 of its Software Development Kit. When discussing its consumer version, Luckey has high hopes for its product.

"We see one in every home," and he goes on to elaborate, "Just at launch we need to be realistic. The people who are going to be buying this initially are going to be gamers, probably hardcore gamers, and they're going to be the ones with PCs most capable of running it."

But hardcore gamers won't be the only demographic the company will focus on, "As time goes on it'll become more and more mainstream, but at launch we're going to be targeting that core. Basically let's target it to the people whom we know are going to be buying and then let's go for the people who are going to take some convincing."

Luckey has a broader understanding of how the game industry will effect other industries and what it means for his product, "As time goes on it's not so much that VR is going to expand to other industries, it's that the games industry is going to expand to do things in other industries. Whether it's architecture or virtual holidays or film, the people that are making games, or making VR games today, are going to be doing these types of thing in the future".

There is currently no official date for the release of the Oculus Rift to the larger consumer base, but Luckey will be disappointed if it's not out by the end of 2015.

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/16/6009435/an-oculus-rift-in-every-home]

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[Zontar]

I remember way back when these people had realistic expectations for what is a 300$ non-essential peripheral device for playing games. Then someone told them selling 5 million of them was realistic and now look at them.

 

[deth2munkies]

Of course they see one in every home, but if they take off the Oculus, they'll see it probably wont' sell that well.

 

[Razhem]

Fuck no, I don't care how "awesome" the immersion will be, it violates the law of having a huge piece of crap on your face which makes you look like a huge dork.

 

[Entitled]

He's probably right on the long term, virtual presence can easily be the largest step in media influence since the television in the 50s.

 

[omega 616]

If you gave me one for free, I would use it less than I use a kinect ... and I've never had, nor will ever have a kinect.

Silly gimmicky piece of crap that will be like the wii nunchucks, people will get a big gimmicky kick out of them at first and then go largely unused. They want the novelty and as soon as that wears off, so will the interest.

Happens with fucking everything, PS4 sticks a huge touch pad right on the face of the controller and how many games make decent use of it? None that I know of ... killzone uses it as another directional pad and assassins creed uses it for the map but nothing awesome.

 

[circularlogic88]

I think he's being a bit overly optomistic. I think this is going to be a niche product for a niche market and that the entire concept of VR head monitors is just not practical.

Now maybe if they were looking into making holodecks or danger room quality immersive experiences, then I could see that possibly being a more lucrative market than a clunky thing you strap to your head.

 

[-Ezio-]

why so i can be slapped in the eyes by facebook's crap constantly?

 

[Objectable]

To me, "Oculus Rift" just sounds evil. Like something some super villain would use

 

[Baresark]

I like how he talks about that when they have yet to iron out a date as to when we can expect a consumer model. Yeah, one in every home, sure. How about we just worry about getting it in the hands of gamers first, then we can worry about the rest.

Also... do tell, what application is there for this outside a PC with special applications made to interact with it. Sure, virtual home tours will be better than ever, and some games may be awesomely immersive... then what?

 

[Nowhere Man]

Unless you can promise me that Facebook wont be involved in my experience in any way, shape or form, get it out of my face.

 

[Nazulu]

Until something is designed very well for/around it, I won't see it in most homes. I really just don't see it doing anything better than what we already have. And if anything is forced into it like facebook then I won't even bother.

It's nice to dream big, but actually prove it first dammit, don't just tell us your hopes and dreams, because many other idiots have done that before and failed miserably.

 

[M0rp43vs]

Sigh, at most homes, some people think that pants are to troublesome to wear while relaxing. They would sacrifice protection of their genitals with a lightweight cloth for comfort. Why then would they strap a huge bulky piece of plastic to your face for long periods of time when you want to unwind. Go ask the home 3D movie players how they are doing.

To me, the oculus rift guys are starting to become like Peter Molyneux. Overhyping their admittedly neat little project so much that by the end, if it doesn't end up curing cancer and male baldness, it might end up a disappointment. There are a lot of things I dislike about the oculus but I can see it being a successful little niche gadget.

 

[xaszatm]

I don't know. While Virtual Reality sounds cool, it seems that Augmented Reality will be the hottest thing. I mean, compare this to Google Glasses. One covers your entire face, the other doesn't. One has limited use in gaming while the Google glasses are much more universal. The only advantage (and it is admittedly a pretty big one) the Occulus has over Google Glasses is that GG are $1500 compared to OR $300. Even then, cell phones also carry augmented programs these days. I do see OR selling successfully but I think the ship has sailed for Virtual Reality becoming the next big thing.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm guessing this will be the first VR that will work somewhat (though not as good as we'd like). SOrt of the VR equivalent to grammophones, or those huge cell phones people had in the 80's.

 

[SadisticFire]

I don't recall the escapist being so damn pessimistic about everything. Just most things. I for one wouldn't mind an oculus rift and oculus tread mill, it'd be sweet to walk around the provinces of skyrim, or the capital wasteland, or the mojave. Actually Oculus team, if you could work with Bethesda's game studios, that'd be great. I don't see this having any use in games that aren't really single player open world. First person shooters like CoD or CSS would just be slow response timing and motion sickness.

 

[joshuaayt]

The biggest "mistake" they made was selling to facebook- and I say "mistake" because it made them a shitload of money and was absolutely something I'd have done- because now gamers universally hate it for some reason.

 

[Something Amyss]

To me, "Oculus Rift" just sounds evil. Like something some super villain would use

I'm pretty sure that's the reason they want one in every home. They plan to find out WHO IIIIIIIIS...Batman.

 

[Entitled]

I don't know. While Virtual Reality sounds cool, it seems that Augmented Reality will be the hottest thing. I mean, compare this to Google Glasses. One covers your entire face, the other doesn't. One has limited use in gaming while the Google glasses are much more universal. The only advantage (and it is admittedly a pretty big one) the Occulus has over Google Glasses is that GG are $1500 compared to OR $300. Even then, cell phones also carry augmented programs these days. I do see OR selling successfully but I think the ship has sailed for Virtual Reality becoming the next big thing.

Google Glass is not augmented reality, it's a simple display projected on a flat surface. The virtual images actually interacting with the real environment would require quite lot of technologies that don't quite exist yet.

But even if they would, comparing whether AR or VR is bigger, is a bit like comparing whether television or the internet was a bigger innovation, or maybe like deciding whether video games or mobile phones are the "the hottest thing".

Apples and oranges. One is a mainstream immersive form of entertainment, art, and pop cultural center that we are fans of and talk about every day, and the other is a mainstream utility tool interwoven into every minute of our lives.

I could absolutely see VR being the next biggest thing that defines pop culture just like TV and later video games did in their own times, while AR becomes a common tool that everyone just kind of accepts being there as a new fact of life, the next biggest thing since mobile phones.

 

[circularlogic88]

The biggest "mistake" they made was selling to facebook- and I say "mistake" because it made them a shitload of money and was absolutely something I'd have done- because now gamers universally hate it for some reason.

I disagree. I hated it long before the Facebook deal, but that's because I find the concept of VR to be an impractical, overhyped technological dead end with a niche market and little practical application.

If anything, I hate the whiny self entitled "early adopters" of the the Oculus Rift who feel like they were owed something more than what their Kickstarter pledges were given for the first production models and whatnot, demanding to have their money refunded because big businesses decided to come in and buy up the developers. Once the developers got proper funding from a big name, they all called betrayal. The biggest enemies of the Rift in my opinion are the actual "supporters" of it who felt somehow cheated, duped or betrayed.