About 2 years ago, Facebook acquired the virtual reality pioneer Oculus VR. With the start of the delivery of the end customer version of the VR glasses Oculus Rift, it becomes clear what Facebook's ambitions are. Oculus Rift is a virtual reality goggle that meets the high demands of computer games. Previous projects could not convince gamers. With a field of view of 110° diagonally and 90° horizontally, Oculus Rift is clearly superior to previous models in this price segment. The innovative head-mounted display fills almost the entire field of view. Players hardly notice the edges of the image, they are "in the middle of the game". In contrast, other VR glasses in this price range give the impression of looking at a screen at a distance.
The beginnings of Oculus Rift
The idea for Oculus Rift emerges in 2012, when Palmer Luckey is working as a designer at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. He starts developing VR goggles that immerse the player directly in the gameplay. To finance it, he launches a crowdfunding project on the Kickstarter platform. Well-known game designers support the campaign, and the goal of 250,000 US dollars for further development is reached within 4 hours. In total, Oculus Rift receives 2,437,429 US dollars. This makes the VR goggles one of the top 50 highest funded projects. The developers were able to collect 974% of the originally planned sum with the campaign. In March 2014, Facebook who's shares can be traded at exness personal area login surprisingly buys the project. Many supporters react disappointed, because as a result, the development of a Rift version of the legendary game Minecraft is canceled.
The social network and virtual reality
The acquisition of Oculus Rift by Facebook comes as a surprise. Connoisseurs of the Internet scene show irritation. They wonder what goal Mark Zuckerberg is pursuing with this purchase. Certainly, Oculus Rift is a real asset for the development and marketing of games. The first music video produced specifically for the VR glasses is also on the market. But how will Facebook benefit from virtual reality? Mark Zuckerberg expresses that he is making a bet on the future. With Oculus Rift, reality can be faithfully recreated. Zuckerberg expects virtual reality to become the norm in the next 15 years. This expectation is worth up to $2.3 billion to him. The Facebook founder expects new upheavals, as is common in the IT and mobile world every few years, and is betting on total immersion in a virtual environment. If mobile communications is currently the most used platform, Facebook is betting that work and communication will take place in virtual reality in the future. With the purchase of Oculus Rift, Facebook wants to secure a strategic advantage. For Zuckerberg, however, other applications of the VR glasses than in games are also conceivable - for example, in the health sector or in education. Zuckerberg's visions of the future are reminiscent of the 2009 thriller "Surrogates - My Second Self" starring Bruce Willis, who envisioned a complete virtual reality - not just for gaming, but for everyday life. Social contacts could thus be maintained from the comfort of one's own home and at the same time feel like in real life.