Facebook's Oculus Working on Stand-Alone Virtual Reality Device
October 06 2016 - 4:40PM
Dow Jones News
Facebook Inc.'s Oculus VR is in the early stages of developing a
lower-end virtual-reality device, in a bid to broaden consumer
interest, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said during a
conference of Oculus developers Thursday.
Oculus is also spending $500 million to help developers create
virtual reality content, the kinds of games, films and other
experiences that could catapult virtual reality devices to a
must-have.
The stand-alone device, which is in the prototype stage, won't
require a personal computer like Oculus' current $599 goggles,
called the Rift, which launched earlier this year, Mr. Zuckerberg
said. But the coming product aims to do more than the
smartphone-powered $100 Gear VR headset co-developed by Samsung
Electronics Co. and Oculus.
Oculus is working to "unlock this completely new category of
virtual reality product," Mr. Zuckerberg said during a keynote
speech at the annual Oculus developers conference in San Jose,
Calif. He provided few details about the product but hinted at the
look of the new device by showing a video of a man in a headset
moving freely in a room, untethered by the personal computer
required to run the Rift.
Virtual reality devices have remained niche products because of
their high cost, clunkiness and the absence of any most-have
content on them.
This new device would be powered by a new generation of
virtual-reality software that would be more social than the current
technology, he said. Facebook said it has already invested $250
million to help developers create virtual reality content and plans
to invest $250 million more to help developers create new types of
content.
He added that Facebook is also starting a $10 million fund
specifically for virtual-reality educational content.
Mr. Zuckerberg reiterated his belief that virtual reality will
be the next big computing platform. Oculus, which Facebook snapped
up for $2 billion in 2014 before it had launched a single product,
plays a chief role in achieving that goal.
But over the last year, developers have grown disenchanted with
Oculus, especially after the rocky Rift launch, which was hurt by
shipping problems and a higher-than-expected price. Facebook now
faces competition from Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit, HTC Corp. and
Sony Corp.
"We had a little bit of a slow start earlier this year on Rift
but that's rolling out quickly," Mr. Zuckerberg said. He added that
Oculus plans to ship its Touch hand controllers for grabbing and
moving virtual objects, also unveiled Thursday, by the end of the
year.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 06, 2016 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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