Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to be realizing a sobering reality about virtual reality. His company’s Oculus headsets that send people into artificial worlds are too expensive and confining to appeal to the masses.
Mr. Zuckerberg on Wednesday revealed how Facebook intends to address that problem, unveiling a stand-alone headset that won’t require plugging in a smartphone or a cord tethering it to a personal computer like the Oculus Rift headset does.
“I am more committed than ever to the future of virtual reality,” Mr. Zuckerberg reassured a crowd of computer programmers gathered in San Jose, California, for Oculus’ annual conference.
* Facebook’s new headset, called Oculus Go, will cost $199 when it hits the market next year. That’s a big drop from the Rift, which originally sold for $599 and required a PC costing at least $500 to become immersed in virtual reality, or VR.
Recent discounts lowered the Rift’s price to $399 at various times during the summer, a markdown Oculus now says will be permanent.
The Oculus Go will straddle the market between the Rift and the Samsung Gear, a $129 headset that runs on some of Samsung’s higher-priced phones. It will be able to run the same VR as the Samsung Gear, leading Blau to conclude the Go will rely on the same Android operating system as the Gear and likely include similar processors as Samsung phones.
The Gear competes against other headsets, such as Google’s $99 Daydream View, that require a smartphone. Google is also working on a stand-alone headset that won’t require a phone, but hasn’t specified when that device will be released or how much it will cost.
The Hindu Net Desk adds:
* Project Santa Cruz, a fully 6DOF, positionally tracked headset got updated — which will include fully tracked controllers that enable hand presence in the standalone form factor. This helps support Rift-like immersive content in an untethered environment, as reported by oculus.com.
* Thor will be the latest in the cast of playable characters for Marvel Powers United VR, launching for Rift in 2018. Meanwhile, Pixar’s first VR experience, Coco, is coming to Gear VR and Rift November 15.
* Upgrades for Oculus Avatars was also introduced in the conference. Blade Runner 2049 series’ second installment will be released, while Echo Arena will get more gameplay modes as Echo Combat was also announced.
* Soon to be launched, Oculus Venues will let you watch concerts and catch premieres of new movies and TV shows with up to 1,000 people.
* For the people who aren’t in a headset, Facebook decided to drop in 3D Posts, a native media type in News Feed that gives everyone the ability to share content created inside VR.
