Oculus VR
| Industry | Virtual reality |
|---|---|
| Founded | Irvine, California, United States (2012) |
| Founder | Palmer Luckey Brendan Iribe Michael Antonov Nate Mitchell Jack McCauley |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California, United States |
|
Key people
|
Palmer Luckey Brendan Iribe (CEO) John D. Carmack (CTO) Michael Abrash (Chief Scientist) |
| Products | Oculus Rift Gear VR (Samsung collaboration) |
| Parent | Facebook Inc. |
| Website | oculusvr |
Oculus VR is an American virtual reality technology company founded by Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe. Their first product, still in development, is the Oculus Rift, a head-mounted display for immersive virtual reality (VR). In March 2014, Facebook agreed to acquire Oculus VR for US$2 billion in cash and Facebook stock.[1]
Contents
History[edit]
As a head-mounted display (HMD) designer at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Palmer Luckey earned a reputation for having the largest personal collection of HMDs in the world, and is a longtime moderator in Meant to be Seen (MTBS) 3D's discussion forums.[citation needed]
Through MTBS' forums,[2] Palmer developed the idea of creating a new head-mounted display that was both more effective than what is currently on the market, and inexpensive for gamers. To develop the new product, Luckey founded Oculus VR with Scaleform co-founders Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov,[3] engineer Jack McCauley,[4] Nate Mitchell and Andrew Scott Reisse.[5]
Coincidentally, John Carmack of id Software had been doing his own research on HMDs and happened upon Palmer's developments. After sampling an early unit, Carmack favored Luckey's prototype and just before the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Id announced that their future updated version of Doom 3, Doom 3 BFG Edition, would be compatible with head-mounted display units.[6] During the convention, Carmack introduced a duct taped head-mounted display based on Palmer's Oculus Rift prototype, which ran Carmack's own software. The unit featured a high speed IMU and a 5.6-inch (14 cm) LCD display, visible via dual lenses that were positioned over the eyes to provide a 90 degrees horizontal and 110 degrees vertical stereoscopic 3D perspective.[7][8] Carmack later left Id as he was hired as Oculus VR's Chief Technology Officer.[9]
On March 28, 2014, it was announced that Michael Abrash had joined the company as Chief Scientist.[10]
Funding[edit]
Following the demonstration of the Oculus Rift prototype at E3 in June 2012, on August 1, 2012, the company announced a Kickstarter campaign to further develop the product. Oculus announced that the "dev kit" version of the Oculus Rift would be given as a reward to backers who pledged $300 or more on Kickstarter, with an expected shipping date set of December 2012 (though they did not actually ship until March 2013).[11] There was also a limited run of 100 unassembled Rift prototype kits for pledges over $275 that would ship a month earlier. Both versions were intended to include Doom 3 BFG Edition, but Rift support in the game was not ready, so to make up for it they included a choice of discount vouchers for either Steam or the Oculus store.[12] Within four hours of the announcement, Oculus secured its intended amount of US$250,000,[13][14] and in less than 36 hours, the campaign had surpassed $1 million in funding,[15] eventually ending with $2,437,429.[16]
On December 12, 2013, Marc Andreessen joined the company's board when his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, led the $75 million Series B venture funding.[17]
In total, Oculus VR has raised $91 million with $2.4 million raised via crowdfunding.[12]
Acquisition[edit]
Though Oculus VR had only released a development prototype of its headset, on March 25, 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced via his Facebook profile that Facebook would be acquiring Oculus VR for US$2 billion, pending regulatory approval. The deal includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million common shares of Facebook, valued at $1.6 billion, as well as additional $300 million assuming Facebook reaches certain milestones.[18][19][20]
Many Kickstarter backers and game industry figures, such as Minecraft developer Notch, criticized the sale of Oculus VR to Facebook.[21][22]
As of January 2015, the Oculus VR Headquarters has been moved from Irvine, California to Menlo Park, California, where Facebook's Headquarters is also located. Oculus has stated that this move is for their employees to be closer to Silicon Valley.[23]
Oculus Rift[edit]
The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display. Software, most notably video games, must be custom programmed to use the Rift. Developer kit preorders were made available for $300 through Oculus VR's website starting on September 26, 2012. These kits sold at a rate of 4–5 per minute for the first day, before slowing down throughout the week.[24] In March 2014 at GDC, Oculus announced the upcoming Devkit 2 (DK2) which they expected to begin shipping in July 2014.[25]
Conflicts with ZeniMax Media[edit]
| This section requires expansion with: needs the full story. (May 2014) |
In May 2014, ZeniMax Media, parent company of Carmack's former employer Id Software, sent a letter to Facebook and Oculus asserting that any contributions that he made to the Oculus Rift project are the intellectual property of ZeniMax, stating that "ZeniMax provided necessary VR technology and other valuable assistance to Palmer Luckey and other Oculus employees in 2012 and 2013 to make the Oculus Rift a viable VR product, superior to other VR market offerings.
On May 21, 2014, ZeniMax Media filed a lawsuit against Oculus VR.[26][27] On June 25, 2014, Oculus VR filed an official response to the lawsuit. Oculus claimed Zenimax Media was falsely claiming ownership to take advantage of the acquisition by Facebook. Oculus also claimed that the Oculus Rift did not share a single line of code or any technology with Zenimax's code and technology.[28]
References[edit]
- ^ "Facebook acquires Oculus VR for $2 Billion: Gaming Headset platform". March 26, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
- ^ "Meant to be Seen – View topic – Oculus "Rift" : An open-source HMD for Kickstarter". Mtbs3d.com. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
- ^ Hollister, Sean (16 August 2012). "Under new management, Oculus intends to commercialize the virtual reality headset". theverge. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ^ http://www.oculusvr.com/press/former-gaikai-and-scaleform-officer-brendan-iribe-joins-oculus-as-ceo/
- ^ "Santa Ana police chase: Pedestrian identified". Retrieved March 26, 2014.
- ^ "Carmack Makes Virtual Reality Actually Cool".
- ^ Welsh, Oli (7 June 2012). "John Carmack and the Virtual Reality Dream". Eurogamer. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
- ^ Rosenberg, Adam (14 June 2012). "Hands-On With Oculus Rift, John Carmack's Virtual Reality Goggles". G4TV. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
- ^ Gilbert, Ben (7 August 2013). "Oculus Rift hires Doom co-creator John Carmack as Chief Technology Officer". engadget. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ^ "Introducing Michael Abrash, Oculus Chief Scientist". Retrieved 28 March 2014.
- ^ "Update on Developer Kit Technology, Shipping Details". Oculus VR. 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
- ^ a b "Oculus Rift: Step Into the Game". Retrieved 1 August 2012.
- ^ "Oculus Rift virtual reality headset gets Kickstarter cash". BBC. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
- ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (1 August 2012). "John Carmack's snazzy VR headset takes to Kickstarter with the Oculus Rift". Eurogamer. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
- ^ "Watch the QuakeCon VR Keynote Tonight Live at 7PM EST. Oculus Rift Kickstarter Passes $1 Million Under 36 Hours « Road to Virtual RealityRoad to Virtual Reality". Roadtovr.com. 2012-08-06. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
- ^ "Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset Developer Kits Now Available To Pre-Order". Geeky Gadgets. 2012-09-27. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (12 December 2013). "Oculus VR raises $75M round led by web browser inventor Marc Andreessen’s VC firm to launch virtual-reality goggles". venturebeat. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
- ^ "Facebook to Acquire Oculus". Facebook Newsroom. Facebook. March 25, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
- ^ Plunkett, Luke (March 25, 2014). "Facebook Buys Oculus Rift For $2 Billion". Kotaku. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
- ^ Welch, Chris (March 25, 2014). "Facebook buying Oculus VR for $2 billion". The Verge. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
- ^ Victor Luckerson (2014-03-26). "When Crowdfunding Goes Corporate: Kickstarter Backers Vent Over Facebook’s Oculus Buy". Time. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
- ^ Philippa Warr (2014-03-26). "Minecraft for Oculus Rift axed, Facebook too 'creepy'". Wired. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
- ^ Leung, Lily. "Oculus moves out: Irvine VR goggles maker moves HQ to Menlo Park, closer to parent Facebook".
- ^ "Oculus Rift pre-order open now". Mtbs3d.com. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
- ^ "Announcing the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2)". Oculus VR. 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2014-05-10.
- ^ "Oculus and Facebook face legal challenge from John Carmack's former employer". The Verge. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
- ^ "One document could decide whether Oculus owes ZeniMax millions". The Verge. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
- ^ Sarkar, Samit. "Oculus: ZeniMax suit is a 'transparent attempt to take advantage' of Facebook acquisition".
External links[edit]
- Official website
- Official developer forum
- "Tuscany Demo" using AstoundSound on TrueAudio on YouTube – special version of Oculus VR's "Tuscany Demo" showcasing GenAudio's AstoundSound with calculations shunted to AMD TrueAudio