Company:Oculus (brand)
Product type | Virtual reality devices, digital services |
---|---|
Owner | Meta Platforms |
Country | United States |
Markets | Worldwide (excluding Germany) |
Previous owners | Oculus VR, LLC |
Website | oculus |
Oculus is a division of Meta Platforms that produces virtual reality headsets, including the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest lines. In July 2012, Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov and Nate Mitchell founded Oculus VR in Irvine, California. In April 2012, Luckey announced the Rift, a virtual reality headset designed for video gaming, and launched a Kickstarter campaign in August to make virtual reality headsets available to developers. The campaign proved successful and raised United States dollar $2.4 million, ten times the original goal of $250,000. Two pre-production models were released to developers.
In March 2014, Facebook, Inc. acquired Oculus for $2.3 billion in cash and stock.[1][2][3] Shortly afterwards, Oculus VR moved to Menlo Park, as with Facebook.[4] The company partnered with Samsung Electronics to release the Gear VR for smartphones in 2015. In March 2016, Oculus released the first consumer version of the Rift headset. In 2017, the company released a standalone mobile headset known as Oculus Go, produced by Xiaomi.
In September 2018, Oculus ceased operating as a subsidiary of Facebook and was melded into Facebook Technologies, LLC, which also includes other Facebook-developed hardware such as Facebook Portal.[5] In 2019, Facebook released a high-end successor to Oculus Go known as Oculus Quest (which later gained the ability to stream Oculus Rift-compatible VR software from a PC), and a revision of the Oculus Rift known as the Oculus Rift S (manufactured by Lenovo).
Under Facebook ownership, Oculus products have been increasingly integrated with Facebook social networking platforms. As of October 2020, all new users, and any user of Facebook-produced VR hardware released since then (beginning with Oculus Quest 2) must log in with a Facebook account in order to use their headsets. Support for standalone Oculus accounts will also end in January 2023. This requirement has faced criticism due to digital privacy concerns and Facebook's real-name policy. Due to concerns and local investigations over whether these policies conflict with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Facebook suspended sales of all Oculus products in Germany at this time.
In October 2021, Facebook, Inc. announced that it would change its corporate name to Meta, and that the Oculus brand name would be phased out in 2022. Future VR hardware produced by the company is expected to fall under the "Meta" brand rather than Oculus, while "Horizon" will be used for immersive social experiences operated by Meta (including those previously operated under the Oculus brand).
History
Founding
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 was a longtime moderator in Meant to be Seen (MTBS)'s discussion forums.[6]
Through MTBS's forums,[7] Palmer developed the idea of creating a new head-mounted display that was both more effective than what was currently on the market and was also inexpensive for gamers. To develop the new product, Luckey founded Oculus VR with Scaleform co-founders Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov,[8] Nate Mitchell and Andrew Scott Reisse.[9]
Coincidentally, John Carmack of id Software had been doing his research on HMDs and happened upon Palmer's developments as a fellow MTBS member.[10][better source needed] After sampling an early unit, Carmack favored Luckey's prototype, and just before the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), id Software announced that the BFG Edition of Doom 3 would be compatible with head-mounted display units.[11]
During the convention, Carmack introduced a duct-taped head-mounted display, based on Palmer's Oculus Rift prototype, which ran Carmack's software. The unit featured a high-speed IMU and a 5.6-inch (14 cm) LCD, visible via dual lenses that were positioned over the eyes to provide a 90 degree horizontal and 110 degree vertical stereoscopic 3D perspective.[12][13] Carmack later left id Software as he was hired as Oculus VR's Chief technology officer.[14]
Funding for Oculus Rift and company
The Oculus Rift prototype was demonstrated 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).[15]
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.[16] Within four hours of the announcement, Oculus secured its intended amount of United States dollar $250,000,[17][18] and in less than 36 hours, the campaign had surpassed $1 million in funding,[19] eventually ending with $2,437,429.[20]
On December 12, 2013, Marc Andreessen joined the company's board when his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, led the $75 million Series B venture funding.[21] In total, Oculus VR has raised $91 million with $2.4 million raised via crowdfunding.[16]
Acquisition by Facebook
Although Oculus only released a development prototype of its headset, on March 25, 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook, Inc. would be acquiring Oculus for United States dollar 2 billion, pending regulatory approval. The deal included $400 million in cash and 23.1 million common shares of Facebook, valued at $1.6 billion, as well as an additional $300 million assuming Facebook reaches certain milestones.[1][2][3] This move was ridiculed by some backers who felt the acquisition was counter to the independent ideology of crowdfunding.[22]
Many Kickstarter backers and game industry figures, such as Minecraft developer Markus Persson, criticized the sale of Oculus to Facebook.[23][24] On March 28, 2014, Michael Abrash joined the company as Chief Scientist.[25] As of January 2015, the Oculus headquarters has been moved from Irvine, California to Menlo Park, where Facebook's headquarters are also located. Oculus has stated that this move is for their employees to be closer to Silicon Valley.[4] In May 2015, Oculus VR acquired Surreal Vision, a British startup focused on 3D reconstruction and mixed reality.[26]
In May 2015, Oculus acquired British company Surreal Vision, a company based on 3D scene-mapping reconstruction and augmented reality. News reported that Oculus and Surreal Vision could create "mixed reality" technology in Oculus' products, similar to the upcoming HMD, Microsoft HoloLens.[27] They reported that Oculus, with Surreal's help, will make telepresence possible.[28]
On March 28, 2016, the first consumer version of Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift "CV1", was released.[29] In October 2017, Oculus unveiled the standalone mobile headset Oculus Go in partnership with Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi.[30]
On December 28, 2016, Facebook acquired Danish eye tracking startup The Eye Tribe.[31] In September 2018, Oculus became a division of a new structural entity within Facebook known as Facebook Technologies, LLC.[32] Facebook announced in August 2018 they had entered negotiations to lease the entire Burlingame Point campus in Burlingame, California, then under construction.[33] The lease was executed in late 2018, and the site, owned by Kylli, a subsidiary of Genzon Investment Group, is expected to be complete by 2020.[34] Oculus is expected to move to Burlingame Point when development is complete.[35]
In February 2019, Facebook released Oculus Quest, a high-end standalone headset.[36] In March 2019, Facebook unveiled Oculus Rift S, an updated revision of the original Rift PC headset in partnership with Chinese electronics manufacturer Lenovo.[37][38]
On August 13, 2019, Nate Mitchell, Oculus co-founder and VP of product announced his departure from the company.[39] On November 13, 2019, John Carmack wrote in a Facebook post that he would step down as CTO of Oculus to focus on developing artificial general intelligence. He stated he would remain involved with the company as a "Consulting CTO".[40]
Facebook integration
Upon the acquisition of Oculus by Facebook, Inc., Luckey "guaranteed" that "you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift."[41][42] Under its ownership, Oculus has been promoted as a brand of Facebook rather than an independent entity and has increasingly integrated Facebook platforms into Oculus products.[43][44][45] Support for optional Facebook integration was added to Gear VR in March 2016, with a focus on integration with the social network, and integrations with features such as Facebook Video and social games.[46] By 2016, the division began to be largely marketed as Oculus from Facebook.[47]
In September 2016, support for optional Facebook integration was added to the Oculus Rift software, automatically populating the friends list with Facebook friends who have also linked their accounts (displaying them to each other under their real names, but still displaying screen names to anyone else).[45]
Users have been increasingly encouraged to use Facebook accounts to sign into its services (although standalone accounts not directly linked to the service were still supported).[48] In 2018, Oculus VR became a division of Facebook Technologies, LLC, to create "a single legal entity that can support multiple Facebook technology and hardware products" (such as Facebook Portal).[44] In August 2020, Oculus's developer conference Oculus Connect was renamed "Facebook Connect", and Facebook's VR and AR team was renamed "Facebook Reality Labs".[49][50]
On August 18, 2020, Facebook announced that all "decisions around use, processing, retention, and sharing of [user] data" on its platforms will be delegated to the Facebook social network moving forward. Users became subject to the unified Facebook privacy policy, code of conduct, and community guidelines, and all users will be required to have a Facebook account to access Oculus products and services.[51] Standalone account registration became unavailable in October 2020, all future Oculus hardware (beginning with Oculus Quest 2) will only support Facebook accounts,[43] and support for existing standalone Oculus accounts on already-released products will end on January 1, 2023.[52] Facebook stated that this was needed to facilitate "more Facebook powered multiplayer and social experiences" and make it "easier to share across our platforms". Facebook stated that users would still be able to control sharing from Oculus, maintain a separate friends list within the Oculus platform, and hide their real name to others.[53]
Users and media criticized Facebook for the move. Ars Technica noted that there is no clear way to opt-out of information tracking and that the collected data will likely be used for targeted advertising.[51] Furthermore, Facebook requires the use of a person's real name.[43] In September 2020, Facebook temporarily suspended sales of all Oculus products[54] in Germany; a German watchdog had presented concerns that this integration requirement violates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which prohibits making use of a service contingent on consenting to the collection of personally identifiable information, and the requirement that existing users also link to a Facebook account to use Oculus hardware and services.[55][56]
In June 2021, Facebook announced it would do a test launch of targeted advertisements in applications for Oculus Quest. The company claims that movement data, voice recordings and raw images from the headset will not be used in targeting. Instead, the ads will rely on information from the user's Facebook profile and all user activity related to Oculus - installing apps, viewing content, subscription to apps, adding an app to the checkout cart or wishlist. The company has not stated whether ads will appear only in applications or in the Oculus Home experience as well.[57]
In July 2021, Facebook announced it would be deprecating its proprietary Oculus API and adding full support for OpenXR.[58][59]
Discontinuation of the Oculus brand
In October 2021 at Connect, Facebook, Inc. announced its corporate rebranding as Meta. Company CTO Andrew Bosworth announced that the Oculus brand will be phased out in 2022; all Facebook Technologies hardware products will be marketed under the Meta name, with future revisions of Oculus Quest to be marketed under the Meta brand rather than Oculus, and Oculus Store being referred to as Quest Store. Likewise, immersive social platforms associated with Oculus will be brought under the Horizon brand (such as Horizon Worlds). He also stated that "as we’ve heard feedback from the VR community more broadly, we’re working on new ways to log into Quest that won’t require a Facebook account, landing sometime next year. This is one of our highest priority areas of work internally".[60][61]
Products
Currently, the only product offered under the Oculus brand is the Oculus Quest 2. This is a standalone headset which contains integrated mobile computing hardware and does not require a PC to operate, but can optionally be used with PC-based VR games by connecting them over USB.[62][63] In September 2021, Facebook Reality Labs and Ray-Ban announced a collaboration release of Ray-Ban Stories.[64]
The initial Oculus headsets, produced under the "Oculus Rift" brand, are traditional VR headsets that require a PC to operate.[38][29] In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the original Oculus Rift "CV1", Oculus Go (a lower-end standalone headset released in 2017),[30] and first-generation Quest were the company's first generation of products, and expected new iterations of the three to be developed for a second generation of the company's technology.[65] Oculus began to phase out the original Oculus Rift "CV1" in 2019, in favor of Oculus Rift S — a follow-up to the original model manufactured by Lenovo that incorporates elements of the Go and Quest.[37][38][66] On September 16, 2020, the Rift S was discontinued in favor of the Oculus Quest 2.[63]
Oculus Quest
On September 26, 2018, Facebook unveiled Oculus Quest. It is a standalone headset which is not dependent on a PC for operation; the Quest contains embedded mobile hardware running an operating system based on Android source code, including a Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip, and 64 or 128 GB of internal storage. It contains two OLED displays with a resolution of 1600x1440 per-eye and running at 72 Hz. It supports included Oculus Touch controllers via an "inside-out" motion tracking system known as "Oculus insight", which consists of a series of cameras embedded in the headset. The controllers were redesigned to properly function with Insight.[36]
It supports games and applications downloaded via Oculus Store, with ported launch titles such as Beat Saber and Robo Recall. It also supports cross-platform multiplayer and cross-buys between PC and Quest.[37][38] Facebook stated that they would impose stricter content and quality standards for software distributed for Quest than its other platforms, including requiring developers to undergo a pre-screening of their concepts to demonstrate "quality and probable market success".[67] In June 2019, Facebook announced it sold $5 million worth of content for the Oculus Quest in its first two weeks on sale.[68]
In November 2019, Facebook released a beta for a new feature known as Oculus Link, which allows Oculus Rift-compatible software to be streamed from a PC to a Quest headset over USB.[62] In May 2020, Facebook added additional support for the use of USB 2.0 cables, such as the charging cable supplied with the headset. Support for controller-free hand tracking was also launched that month.[69][70]
In September 2020, Facebook unveiled an updated version of the Quest, Oculus Quest 2. It is similar to the original Quest, but with the Snapdragon XR2 system-on-chip and additional RAM, an all plastic exterior, new cloth head straps, updated Oculus Touch controllers with improved ergonomics and battery life, and a 1832x1920 display running at 90 Hz,[71] and up to 120 Hz as an experimental option.[72] Similarly to the Rift S, it uses a single display panel rather than individual panels for each eye. Due to this design, it has more limited inter-pupillary distance options than the original Quest, with the ability to physically move the lenses to adjust for 3 common IPD measurements. The Quest 2's models are both priced US$100 cheaper than their first-generation equivalents.[63]
Discontinued models
Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift CV1, also known as simply the Oculus Rift, was the first consumer model of the Oculus Rift headset. It was released on March 28, 2016 in 20 countries, at a starting price of US$599.[29] The 6,955 backers who received the Development Kit 1 prototype via the original Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign were eligible to receive the CV1 model for free.[73] On December 6, 2016, Oculus released motion controller accessories for the headset known as Oculus Touch.[74]
Samsung Gear VR
In 2014, Samsung partnered with Oculus to develop the Gear VR, a VR headset accessory for Samsung Galaxy smartphones. It relies on the phone's display, which is viewed through lenses inside the headset.[75] At Oculus Connect in September 2015, the Gear VR was announced for a consumer release in November; the initial model supported the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 product lines, as well as the Galaxy Note 5.[76][77]
Oculus Go
On October 11, 2017, Oculus unveiled the Oculus Go, a mobile VR headset manufactured by Xiaomi (the device was released in the Chinese market as the Xiaomi Mi VR). Unlike the Oculus Rift, the Go is a standalone headset which is not dependent on a PC for operation. Unlike VR systems such as Cardboard, Daydream, and the Oculus co-developed Samsung Gear VR (where VR software is run on a smartphone inserted into a physical enclosure, and its screen is viewed through lenses), it contains its own dedicated display and mobile computing hardware. The headset includes a 5.5-inch 1440p fast-switching LCD display, integrated speakers with spatial audio and a headphone jack for external audio, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 system-on-chip, and 32 or 64 GB of internal storage. It runs an Android-based operating system with access to VR software via the Oculus Home user experience and app store, including games and multimedia apps. The Go includes a handheld controller reminiscent of one designed for the Gear VR, which uses relative motion tracking. The Oculus Go does not use positional tracking.[30][78][79]
While official sales numbers have not been released, according to IDC the Oculus Go and Xiaomi Mi VR had sold nearly a quarter million units combined during the third quarter 2018,[80] and in January 2019 market analysis firm SuperData estimated that over a million Oculus Go units had been sold since the device's launch.[81] In his keynote at 2018's Oculus Connect developer conference, John Carmack revealed that the Go's retention rate was as high as the Rift's, something that nobody at the company had predicted.[82] Carmack also noted that the Go had done especially well in Japan despite lacking internationalization support and the company not specifically catering to the Japanese market.[83]
Oculus Go was declared end-of-life in June 2020, with software submissions to end in December 2020, and firmware support ending in 2022.[84]
Oculus Rift S
On March 20, 2019 at the Game Developers Conference, Facebook announced the Oculus Rift S, a successor to the original Oculus Rift headset.[85] It was co-developed with and manufactured by Lenovo, and launched at a price of US$399. The Rift S contains hardware features from the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, including Oculus Insight, integrated speakers, and a new "halo" strap. The Rift S uses the same 1440p fast-switching LCD display and lenses as the Oculus Go (a higher resolution in comparison to the original model, but lower in comparison to Oculus Quest), running at 80 Hz, and is backwards compatible with all existing Oculus Rift games and software. Unlike the original Oculus Rift, it does not have hardware control for inter-pupillary distance.[37][38]
In September 2020, Facebook announced it would be discontinuing the Quest Rift S and in April of 2021 shipments of the headset ceased.[86][87]
Comparison
Model | Oculus Rift | Oculus Go | Oculus Rift S | Oculus Quest | Oculus Quest 2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Price | $399 | $199 | $249 | $399 | $399 | $499 | $299 | $399 |
Display Size | 2 * 1080×1200 | 1 * 1440×2560 | 1* 1440×2560 | 2 * 1440×1660 | 1 * 1832×3800 (1832×1920 per eye) |
Display Type | OLED | LCD | LCD | OLED | LCD |
Refresh rate | 90hz | 60-72hz | 80hz | 72hz | 72-90hz and 120hz (experimental)[88] |
Store | Oculus Rift Store | Oculus Go Store | Oculus Rift Store | Oculus Quest Store | Oculus Quest Store |
Processor | - | Snapdragon 821 | - | Snapdragon 835 | Snapdragon XR2 |
RAM | - | 3 GB | - | 4GB | 6GB |
Storage | - | 32GB | 64GB | - | 64GB | 128GB | 128GB | 256GB |
Weight | 470g | 470g | 570g | 570g | 503g |
Controllers | 2 * Oculus Touch Controller
(V1) |
1 * Oculus Go Controller | 2 * Oculus Touch Controller (V2) | 2 * Oculus Touch Controller (V2) | 2 * Oculus Touch Controller (V3) |
Battery Life | - | 2–3 hours | - | 2–5 hours | 2–3 hours |
Availability | Discontinued | Discontinued | Discontinued | Discontinued | Available |
Release date | March 28, 2016 | May 1, 2018 | May 21, 2019 | May 21, 2019 | October 13, 2020 |
Oculus Studios
Type | Division |
---|---|
Industry | Virtual reality, Video Games |
Headquarters | Menlo Park, California , U.S. |
Parent | Facebook, Inc. |
Subsidiaries |
|
Website | oculus |
Oculus Studios is a division of Oculus that focuses on funding, publishing and giving technical advice to third party studios to create games and experiences for Oculus Rift. Facebook pledged to invest more than $500 million USD in Oculus Studios for games.[89][90][91] By 2020, Facebook purchased Beat Games[92] and Sanzaru Games[93] studios and integrated them with Oculus Studios. Ready at Dawn, a game studio composed by former members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment, developers of Lone Echo, was acquired by Oculus in June 2020, though will continue to operate as its own subsidiary studios for Oculus.[94]
Oculus Story Studio
Oculus Story Studio was an original animated virtual-reality film studio that existed between 2014[95] and May 2017, which launched three films.[96] The studio aimed to pioneer animated virtual reality filmmaking and educate, inspire, and foster community for filmmakers interested in VR.[97] Oculus Story Studio was first launched publicly at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival,[98] where it presented three VR films - Dear Angelica, Henry, and Lost. Despite generally positive reception and critical acclaim, the studio did not publish any other works and was closed in May 2017.[96]
Litigation
Following Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of id Software and John Carmack's previous employer, sought legal action against Oculus, accusing the company of theft of intellectual property relating to the Oculus Rift due to Carmack's transition from id Software to Oculus. The case, ZeniMax v. Oculus, was heard in a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and their verdict was reached in February 2017, finding that Carmack had taken code from ZeniMax and used it in developing the Oculus Rift's software, violating his non-disclosure agreement with ZeniMax, and Oculus' use of the code was considered copyright infringement. ZeniMax was awarded $500 million in the verdict, and both ZeniMax and Oculus are seeking further court actions.[99][100]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Facebook to Acquire Oculus". Facebook. March 25, 2014. http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/03/facebook-to-acquire-oculus.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Plunkett, Luke (March 25, 2014). "Facebook Buys Oculus Rift For $2 Billion". http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-1551487939.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Welch, Chris (March 25, 2014). "Facebook buying Oculus VR for $2 billion". https://www.theverge.com/2014/3/25/5547456/facebook-buying-oculus-for-2-billion/in/3631187.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Leung, Lily. "Oculus moves out: Irvine VR goggles maker moves HQ to Menlo Park, closer to parent Facebook". http://www.ocregister.com/articles/oculus-649276-facebook-company.html.
- ↑ "Oculus Is Now A Division Of Facebook Technologies". November 16, 2018. https://uploadvr.com/oculus-division-facebook-technologies/.
- ↑ "Oculus VR: the $2bn virtual reality company that is revolutionising gaming". telegraph.co.uk. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/video-game-news/10723562/Oculus-VR-the-2bn-virtual-reality-company-that-is-revolutionising-gaming.html.
- ↑ "Oculus "Rift" : An open-source HMD for Kickstarter". Mtbs3d.com. http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=14777.
- ↑ Hollister, Sean. "Under new management, Oculus intends to commercialize the virtual reality headset". theverge.com. https://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3246032/under-new-management-oculus-intends-to-commercialize-the-virtual.
- ↑ "Santa Ana police chase: Pedestrian identified". http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=9122999.
- ↑ Neil Schneider. "The #1 Stereoscopic 3D Gaming (VR Gaming, 3D Gaming) and VR Resource - Meant to be Seen - John Carmack Talks VR at QuakeCon 2012". mtbs3d.com. http://www.mtbs3d.com/articles/news/13128-john-carmack-talks-vr-at-quakecon-2012.
- ↑ "IGN Reacts -John Carmack Makes Virtual Reality Actually Cool - E3 2012 - IGN". https://www.ign.com/videos/2012/06/06/ign-reacts-john-carmack-makes-virtual-reality-actually-cool-with-new-head-tracking-device-e3-2012.
- ↑ "John Carmack and the Virtual Reality Dream". Eurogamer. June 7, 2012. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-07-john-carmack-and-the-virtual-reality-dream.
- ↑ Rosenberg, Adam (June 14, 2012). "Hands-On With Oculus Rift, John Carmack's Virtual Reality Goggles". G4TV. http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/725013/hands-on-with-oculus-rift-john-carmacks-virtual-reality-goggles.
- ↑ Gilbert, Ben. "Oculus Rift hires Doom co-creator John Carmack as Chief Technology Officer". engadget.com. https://www.engadget.com/2013/08/07/oculus-rift-john-carmack-cto.
- ↑ "Update on Developer Kit Technology, Shipping Details". Oculus VR. November 28, 2012. http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/update-on-developer-kit-technology-shipping-details.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Oculus Rift: Step Into the Game". http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game.
- ↑ "Oculus Rift virtual reality headset gets Kickstarter cash". BBC. August 1, 2012. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19085967.
- ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (August 1, 2012). "John Carmack's snazzy VR headset takes to Kickstarter with the Oculus Rift". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-01-john-carmacks-snazzy-vr-headset-takes-to-kickstarter-with-the-oculus-rift.
- ↑ "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. August 6, 2012. http://www.roadtovr.com/2012/08/03/watch-the-quakecon-vr-keynote-tonight-live-at-7pm-est-oculus-rift-kickstarter-passes-1-million-under-36-hours.
- ↑ "Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset Developer Kits Now Available To Pre-Order". Geeky Gadgets. September 27, 2012. http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/oculus-rift-virtual-reality-headset-developer-kits-now-available-to-pre-order-video-27-09-2012.
- ↑ Takahashi, Dean. "Oculus VR raises $75M round led by web browser inventor Marc Andreessen's VC firm to launch virtual-reality goggles". venturebeat.com. https://venturebeat.com/2013/12/12/oculus-vr-raises-75m-from-andreessen-horowitz-to-create-consumer-version-of-its-virtual-reality-goggles.
- ↑ Gleasure, R., & Feller, J. (2016). A Rift in the Ground: Theorizing the Evolution of Anchor Values in Crowdfunding Communities through the Oculus Rift Case Study. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 17(10), 708-36.
- ↑ Victor Luckerson (March 26, 2014). "When Crowdfunding Goes Corporate: Kickstarter Backers Vent Over Facebook's Oculus Buy". Time (magazine). http://time.com/39271/oculus-facebook-kickstarter-backlash.
- ↑ Philippa Warr (March 26, 2014). "Minecraft for Oculus Rift axed, Facebook too 'creepy'". Wired. https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/notch-facebook-oculus.
- ↑ "Introducing Michael Abrash, Oculus Chief Scientist". http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/introducing-michael-abrash-oculus-chief-scientist.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (2015-05-26). "Oculus acquires 3D mapping company Surreal Vision to turn reality into a video game" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/26/8662107/oculus-acquires-surreal-vision-computer-vision-company.
- ↑ Gaudiosi, John (June 1, 2015). "What the Surreal Vision acquisition means for Oculus". Fortune. http://fortune.com/2015/06/01/oculus-surreal-vision-acquisition.
- ↑ Etherington, Darrell (May 26, 2015). "Oculus Acquires Surreal Vision To Bring The Real World to VR". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/26/oculus-acquires-surreal-vision-to-bring-the-real-world-to-vr.
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Day, Matt. "CES 2016: Rewind from Day 2 of the Consumer Electronics Show". http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/ces-2016-live-updates-from-day-2-of-the-consumer-electronics-show.
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Robertson, Adi (October 11, 2017). "Oculus announces new $199 self-contained VR headset called Oculus Go, shipping in 2018" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/11/16459442/oculus-go-standalone-vr-headset-announce-pricing.
- ↑ Constine, Josh (December 28, 2016). "Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe". 2016-12-29. https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/28/the-eye-tribe-oculus.
- ↑ "Oculus Is Now A Division Of Facebook Technologies". November 16, 2018. https://uploadvr.com/oculus-division-facebook-technologies/.
- ↑ Aydin, Rebecca (August 16, 2018). "Ever-expanding Facebook plans Burlingame lease". San Francisco Chronicle. https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Ever-expanding-Facebook-plans-Burlingame-lease-13162151.php.
- ↑ Brown, Lisa (January 16, 2019). "Facebook Inks Mega-Lease at Burlingame Point". GlobeSt. https://www.globest.com/2019/01/16/facebook-inks-mega-lease-at-burlingame-point/.
- ↑ "Cushman & Wakefield Arranges $515 Million Financing for New Bay Area Office Campus" (Press release). Cushman & Wakefield San Francisco. April 23, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Robertson, Adi (April 30, 2019). "Oculus Quest review: a great vision with a frustrating compromise" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/30/18523000/oculus-quest-review-vr-headset-price-specs-features.
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 "Who needs the Rift S when the Oculus Quest can do everything?" (in en). https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/25/oculus-rift-s-vs-quest/.
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 38.4 Statt, Nick (March 20, 2019). "Oculus unveils the Rift S, a higher-resolution VR headset with built-in tracking". https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/20/18273152/oculus-rift-s-vr-headset-announced-pricing-release-date-features-gdc-2019.
- ↑ Rubin, Peter (August 13, 2019). "Nate Mitchell Exits Facebook, Taking Oculus Era With Him". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/nate-mitchell-leaves-facebook/.
- ↑ Damiani, Jesse. "John Carmack Stepping Down To Focus on Artificial General Intelligence, Remains "Consulting CTO" At Oculus" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/11/14/john-carmack-stepping-down-to-focus-on-artificial-general-intelligence-remains-consulting-cto-at-oculus/.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (August 19, 2020). "Facebook is making Oculus’ worst feature unavoidable" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/19/21375118/oculus-facebook-account-login-data-privacy-controversy-developers-competition.
- ↑ "Palmer Luckey on Oculus’ Facebook deal: "You will not need a Facebook account to use or develop for the Rift"" (in en-GB). https://www.pcgamesn.com/palmer-luckey-oculus-facebook-deal-you-will-not-need-facebook-account-use-or-develop-rift.
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 Machkovech, Sam (August 20, 2020). "Why the Facebookening of Oculus VR is bad for users, devs, competition" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/why-the-facebookening-of-oculus-vr-is-bad-for-users-devs-competition/.
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 "Oculus becomes a division of 'Facebook Technologies'" (in en-GB). November 20, 2018. https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/oculus-becomes-a-division-of-facebook-technologies/.
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 Machkovech, Sam (September 15, 2016). "Facebook login adds real-name policy, auto-updated friends list to Oculus [Updated"] (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/09/facebook-login-adds-real-name-policy-auto-updated-friends-list-to-oculus/.
- ↑ Healey, Nic. "You can now connect Facebook to Gear VR and play games with friends" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-facebook-oculus-gear-vr-social-vimeo-twitch/.
- ↑ Hollister, Sean. "How Mark Zuckerberg became the new face of VR" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/news/oculus-from-facebook-zuckerberg-luckey/.
- ↑ Jagneaux, David (April 12, 2017). "New Gear VR Sign-Up Process Highlights Facebook Over Oculus" (in en-US). https://uploadvr.com/facebook-oculus-home-login/.
- ↑ "Introducing the new Facebook Reality Labs, plus save the date for Facebook Connect on September 16" (in en-US). https://tech.fb.com/introducing-the-new-facebook-reality-labs-plus-save-the-date-for-facebook-connect-on-september-16/.
- ↑ Parlock, Joe. "VR Industry Leader Oculus Has Been Renamed To Facebook Reality Labs" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/joeparlock/2020/08/26/vr-industry-leader-oculus-has-been-renamed-to-facebook-reality-labs/#45876eb110ea.
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 Sam Machkovech. "The Facebookening of Oculus VR becomes more pronounced starting in October". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/oculus-vr-accounts-will-soon-require-facebook-ties/.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (August 18, 2020). "You’ll need a Facebook account to use future Oculus headsets" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/18/21372435/oculus-facebook-login-change-separate-account-support-end-quest-october.
- ↑ "A Single Way to Log Into Oculus and Unlock Social Features" (in en). https://www.oculus.com/blog/a-single-way-to-log-into-oculus-and-unlock-social-features/.
- ↑ Hayden, Scott (2020-09-02). "Facebook Halts Sale of Rift & Quest in Germany Amid Regulatory Concerns" (in en-US). https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-oculus-germany-rift-quest-halted-antitrust/.
- ↑ Orland, Kyle (September 3, 2020). "Facebook halts Oculus Quest sales in Germany amid privacy concerns" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/facebook-halts-oculus-quest-sales-in-germany-amid-privacy-concerns/.
- ↑ "Facebook-Oculus login rift grows as sales stop in Germany" (in en-GB). BBC News. September 3, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54014217.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (June 16, 2021). "Facebook will start putting ads in Oculus Quest apps" (in en-us). https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22535511/facebook-ads-oculus-quest-vr-apps#541439158.
- ↑ "Facebook Deprecates Proprietary Oculus APIs For OpenXR Focus" (in en-US). https://uploadvr.com/facebook-deprecates-oculus/.
- ↑ VR, Oculus. "Oculus All In on OpenXR: Deprecates Proprietary APIs" (in en). http://url/.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (2021-10-28). "Facebook’s Oculus Quest will soon be called the Meta Quest" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/28/22751220/facebook-portal-oculus-quest-meta-horizon-renaming.
- ↑ "Company formerly known as Facebook unceremoniously kills off ‘Oculus’ brand" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2021/10/28/facebook-errr-meta-unceremoniously-kills-off-oculus-brand/.
- ↑ 62.0 62.1 Marshall, Cass (November 18, 2019). "Your Quest can now play Oculus Rift games, with the right cable and gaming PC" (in en). https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/18/20966968/oculus-link-open-beta-quest-rift-pc.
- ↑ 63.0 63.1 63.2 Robertson, Adi (September 16, 2020). "Facebook is discontinuing the Oculus Rift S" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/16/21422717/facebook-oculus-rift-s-discontinued-quest-2-vr-connect.
- ↑ "RAY-BAN STORIES". https://www.luxottica.com/en/ray-ban-stories.
- ↑ "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: 'Oculus Quest Completes Company's First-Gen Lineup'". RoadtoVR.com. October 15, 2018. https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-oculus-quest-completes-companys-first-gen-lineup.
- ↑ "Oculus "phasing out" Rift, launching $399 Rift S this spring" (in en). https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-03-19-oculus-phasing-out-rift-launching-usd399-rift-s-this-spring.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (February 28, 2019). "Oculus won't approve Quest games unless it thinks people will buy them" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18245125/oculus-quest-vr-headset-developer-standards-store-screening-policy.
- ↑ "Oculus sold $5 million worth of Quest content in first 2 weeks on sale" (in en-US). http://social.techcrunch.com/2019/06/10/oculus-sold-5-million-worth-of-quest-content-in-first-2-weeks-on-sale/.
- ↑ Lang, Ben (May 14, 2020). "Oculus Quest Can Now Tether to PC with Its Included USB 2.0 Cable" (in en-US). https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-link-usb-2-0-tether-quest-charging-cable/.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (May 18, 2020). "Oculus Quest games are getting controller-free hand tracking this month" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21260554/oculus-quest-anniversary-hand-tracking-third-party-games-beat-saber-tracks.
- ↑ Wickens, Katie (2020-11-16). "Oculus Quest 2 gets a cheeky 90Hz refresh rate update, finally rivaling competitors" (in en-US). https://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-quest-2-gets-90hz-refresh-rate-update/.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (2021-04-23). "Oculus has turned on wireless PC streaming for the Quest 2" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/23/22400197/oculus-quest-2-air-link-pc-streaming-v28-launch.
- ↑ Stark, Chelsea. "Oculus will reward its original Kickstarter backers with the new Rift". http://mashable.com/2016/01/05/oculus-rift-kickstarter.
- ↑ "You can now pre-order Oculus Touch controllers for $199". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/10/oculus-touch-pre-orders/.
- ↑ "IFA 2014: Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note Edge, Gear VR and Gear S hands-on". http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_ifa_2014-review-1126.php.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (2015-09-24). "The new Gear VR will work with any new Samsung phone and cost $99" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/24/9392037/samsung-gear-vr-oculus-connect-2015.
- ↑ Ralph, Nate. "Samsung Gear VR (2015) review: The best mobile VR experience so far -- but only for Samsung phones" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/reviews/samsung-gear-vr-2015-review/.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (May 1, 2018). "The Oculus Go improves mobile VR, but there's still a long way to go". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17306458/oculus-go-standalone-vr-headset-review.
- ↑ Machkovech, Sam (May 1, 2018). "Oculus Go review: The wireless-VR future begins today for only $199" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/oculus-go-review-the-wireless-vr-future-begins-today-for-only-199/.
- ↑ "VR Headset Market Rebounds as Standalone Products Gain Traction While AR Headset Market Also Saw Positive Movement, According to IDC". International Data Corporation. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44509518.
- ↑ Fogel, Stefanie (January 24, 2019). "Oculus Expected to Sell 1.3 Million Quest Units in 2019, SuperData Believes". Variety Media, LLC. https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/superdata-extended-reality-report-1203115821/.
- ↑ Carmack, John (September 27, 2018). "Oculus Connect 5 | Keynote Day 02". Oculus VR, LLC. 3 minutes 46 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW6tgBcN_fA. "Now, I was probably the most optimistic inside Oculus about how well Go would do, but it turned out that it exceeded even my expectations. A remarkable point is, Go is retaining as well as Rift. And that's pretty shocking. Nobody predicted that."
- ↑ Carmack, John (September 27, 2018). "Oculus Connect 5 | Keynote Day 02". Oculus VR, LLC. 6 minutes 23 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW6tgBcN_fA. "The one shock was how well we've done in Japan. … we are not catering to the Japanese market. We don't have great internationalisation for Japanese and different areas, but something about Go has really struck a nerve in the Japanese market consciousness."
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (June 23, 2020). "Oculus discontinues its low-end Go headset to focus on Oculus Quest" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/23/21299311/oculus-go-headset-discontinued-quest-alternative-app-channel-launch.
- ↑ Statt, Nick (March 20, 2019). "Oculus unveils the Rift S, a higher-resolution VR headset with built-in tracking" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/20/18273152/oculus-rift-s-vr-headset-announced-pricing-release-date-features-gdc-2019.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (2020-09-16). "Facebook is discontinuing the Oculus Rift S" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/16/21422717/facebook-oculus-rift-s-discontinued-quest-2-vr-connect.
- ↑ Robertson, Adi (2021-04-06). "Facebook says it’s no longer replenishing Oculus Rift S supplies" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/6/22370100/facebook-oculus-rift-s-sold-out-vr-headset-discontinued.
- ↑ "Every Game That Supports 120Hz On Oculus Quest 2". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/every-game-120hz-quest-2/.
- ↑ Oculus Rift Experiences, accessed January 22, 2019
- ↑ Oculus Go Experiences, accessed January 22, 2019
- ↑ [1], Oculus Gear VR Experiences, accessed January 22, 2019
- ↑ Facebook buys VR studio behind Beat Saber , accessed June 21, 2020
- ↑ Facebook acquires the VR game studio behind one of the Rift’s best titles, accessed June 21, 2020
- ↑ Gach, Ethan (June 22, 2020). "Facebook Buys Creators Of The Order: 1886". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-creators-of-the-order-1886-1844123560.
- ↑ Zeitchik, Steven (January 26, 2015). "Sundance 2015: Virtual-reality company Oculus to launch film label". LA Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-sundance-2015-oculus-vr-films-headset-20150126-story.html.
- ↑ 96.0 96.1 "Oculus Announces Closure Of Oculus Story Studio" (in en). http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/05/04/oculus-closure-story-studio.aspx.
- ↑ Constine, Josh (January 26, 2015). "Oculus' Pixar Exec-Led Story Studio Will Release VR Cinema Examples". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/26/story-studio/.
- ↑ Sundance 2015: Virtual-reality company Oculus to launch film label, Los Angeles Times, By Steven Zeitchik, January 26, 2015
- ↑ Larson, Selena (February 1, 2017). "Facebook loses $500 million Oculus lawsuit". CNN. https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/01/technology/zenimax-oculus-lawsuit-500-million.
- ↑ Wawro, Alex (June 21, 2017). "After winning $500M in lawsuit against Oculus, ZeniMax pushes for more". Gamasutra.
External links
- Official website
- Official Oculus 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.