Tag: Oculus VR

What happened? In a move that surprised just about everyone, promising startup Oculus VR was bought out by Facebook for $2 billion (well… $400 million + $1.6 billion in stock. You interpret that how you want).Who the @#$% are Oculus VR? If you're not into gaming, that's a pretty good question. If you are into gaming, shame on you. Birthed on the back of a successful 2012 Kickstarter campaign that raised $2.4 million (nearly 10x the project's goal), Oculus VR are the company behind the Oculus Rift: a head-mounted virtual reality device that's expected to seriously shake up the gaming world.Virtual Reality? Is that still a thing? A fair question. In its earlier incarnation, virtual reality was kind of a bust; a fad that came nowhere close to living up to its potential (remember Lawnmower Man? VR in the 90's should have been awesome). The folks at Oculus, however, realized that the combination of 90's VR dreams and 21st century technology could create a pretty powerful future.Come on… Who's going to believe that? John Carmack for one. The co-founder of id Software and lead programmer on DOOM left the company he helped found because he couldn't convince their parent company to take a gamble on bringing Doom 4 and Wolfenstein: The New Order to the Oculus Rift. Two months prior to leaving id, Carmack became Oculus VR's CTO. That's now his full time gig. Guess he'd better get used to calling Zuckerberg "sir."

Earlier today, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the acquisition of Oculus VR, Inc. for $400 million in cash payouts and $1.6 billion in Facebook stock shares. The acquisition comes a little over a month after Facebook purchased cross-platform mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $16 billion. The deal is expected to be finalized in Q2 2014."Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," Zuckerberg said today in the press release. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate."Of course, Oculus VR, Inc. is excited for the opportunity. The $2 billion acquisition follows last December's $75 million investment by venture capitalists and the successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 which raised $2,437,000. While the $75 million investment was a move towards producing consumer versions, currently, only Oculus Rift development kits are available for purchase, the most recent of which costs $350. Consumer versions are expected to be available by the end of the year, or early 2015.