‘The dawn of the virtual reality era’: Oculus Rift headset heralds brave new world of entertainment
New headset takes direct aim at video game lovers, working with major studios and gaming engine makers to immerse players in virtual worlds.
Facebook-owned Oculus VR wooed software makers on Thursday with the promise of a budding “virtual reality era” and an alliance with streaming television powerhouse Netflix.
Some 1,500 people already intrigued by the potential of virtual reality packed the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for keynote presentations at a second annual Oculus Connect developers conference.
“We believe the more power people have to share and experience all kinds of different things in the world, the better the world will be,” Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg told the audience during a brief appearance on stage.
“After video, the next logical step is fully immersive virtual reality.”
Facebook bought Oculus VR last year in a deal valued at US$2 billion, heralding virtual reality as the next-generation computing platform and one that will let people instantly “travel” to new places.
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“It was like teleporting to some other place just by putting on a headset,” Zuckerberg said while recounting the first time he tried a Rift prototype at Oculus offices. “It was so good, I didn’t want to really leave. I was seeing the next great technology platform.”