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News of Facebook splashing out $2bn to buy virtual reality headset startup Oculus has prompted not only surprise but horror among developers and fans, with the company facing a sizable … Continue reading

In what seems like a very surprising move, Facebook has announced that they will be acquiring Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Based on the deal that Facebook revealed on its website, they will be paying a whopping $2 billion for the company which comprises of $400 in cash and 23.1 million share of Facebook stock (not quite as much as what they paid for WhatsApp, but still a lot of money nonetheless).

According to Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the reason behind their acquisition is because they believe that the Oculus Rift technology will be able to bring about new experiences that they are hoping to accelerate. “Oculus’s mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences. Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won’t be changing and we hope to accelerate.” (more…)

Facebook Acquires Oculus VR For $2 Billion original content from Ubergizmo.

Last week during GDC 2014, companies like Oculus Rift and Sony unveiled their new virtual reality efforts. It certainly seems like exciting times are ahead of us because based on the prototypes alone, many seem to be reacting positively to the concept of virtual reality gaming, so we can only imagine what the final product could be like.

However it seems that Ubisoft expressed a bit of reservation about such technology, with their vice president, Lionel Raynaud, stating that only if 1 million units of VR technology was sold then can it only be considered a viable piece of technology. Ubisoft has since released a statement clarifying what Raynaud really meant when he said that. (more…)

Ubisoft Clarifies Stance On VR Technology original content from Ubergizmo.

It had been a while since I wore an Oculus Rift, and it was time to peek at the latest version of the hardware SDK, called Crystal Cove. I had missed out on the previous evolution, but it looks like this latest revision is much more interesting anyway. Oculus VR has worked hard to fix every pain points that it could, such as latency, response time and other critical aspects of its virtual reality (VR) headset. I’ve been following VR since it was using non-textured 3D graphics, so how far have we come? Read on. (more…)

Hands-On: Oculus Rift Review (Crystal Cove, DK2) original content from Ubergizmo.

During GDC 2014, Sony and Oculus Rift both had virtual reality headset announcements. For Sony it was the announcement of Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset designed for gaming, and for Oculus Rift, it was the announcement of the Development Kit 2 that would be going up for pre-order.

While Sony would seem like a strong competitor to Oculus Rift, the latter appears to be pretty pleased with Sony’s entrance, stating that with Sony entering into the fray, it lends the technology a bit more credibility. That being said, Digital Foundry has analyzed both Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift and has discovered that Sony’s headset is pretty close to the Oculus Rift’s headset in terms of specs. (more…)

Project Morpheus’ Specs Reportedly Pretty Close To 2nd Gen Oculus Rift original content from Ubergizmo.