Oculus VR nets $75m in funding
New investment will be used to build consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset
Oculus VR has secured a further $75 million in investment to finalise the consumer version of its highly anticipated virtual reality head-set.
The series B round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, and featured contributions from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners and Formation 8. Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape and the driving force behind Andreessen Horowitz, will join the Oculus VR board.
"Over the past 16 months, we've grown from a start-up to a company whose virtual reality headset is poised to change the way we play, work and communicate," said Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe said in a statement issued to the press.
"40,000 developers and enthusiasts, as well as a number of great partners, have joined our cause and helped us bring the seemingly impossible to life. This additional infusion of capital, as well as the leadership and experience of Marc Andreessen, will help us take the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy."
Andreessen stated his belief that the Oculus Rift would revolutionise not just games, but film, education, architecture and design.
"The games industry is well past the point where more pixels, texels, flops, and frames displayed on the same fixed screens are really changing the experiences that players get," said Oculus CTO John Carmack, who joined the company full-time last month after resigning his position at id Software.
"I could say the same about other digital experiences as well. What will revolutionize gaming, and interactive content in general, is putting people inside the digital world. That is our goal at Oculus, and this Series B will help us get there,"
The size of this latest investment proves just how much faith is being placed in the Oculus Rift. In June, the company raised $16 million in its first round of funding.
It will further complicate the thousand year old debate of gamepad vs (keyboard + mouse).
I'm NOT saying the tech isn't sound, folks - I'm just saying that outside thrilled game developers and journalists bouncing up and down at every opportunity to say how great it is, the general public with their short attention spans will be "meh-ing" this as a fad even if it's all over the news as the next big thing. It will succeed to some extent, but it won't catch on unless it's a mandated evolution.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Todd Weidner on 15th December 2013 6:47am
(Also can't wait to develop for it!)
I've played it quite a few times, now, and I still get dizzy and nauseous after taking it off. Everyone I know who has used it has also felt this way to some degree. It's messing with my mojo! I hope it succeeds, mind... probably in the virtual porn industry! LOL!
Binaural Audio has been a big opportunity, along with spacial audio systems for the original VR platforms - I hope that it will also play a big part in the application of VR his time round.
It's ALWAYS like that with new tech and again, I'm not saying it's NOT going to succeed at all.
I just think there are assorted elements that, until they're worked out, will keep this out of the hands of people who may want to buy it, but are all thumbs once they open any product box. I've worked in retail in the past (electronics and video games), and the amount of people who aren't capable of getting past a few lines in a manual is astounding. As I said, the tech folks and others ready will eat this up, but the average person on the street is going to maybe do a demo somewhere, but it and not use it much unless they're going to use it outside gaming applications and there's content made for it.
Some of you guys will take care of that, but is Hollywood on board yet? I think any actual major commercial success outside the gamers whom buy in day one will be in cinema or some non-gaming applications (such as the virtual tour idea I've seen and heard talked about) where people don't mind spending whatever it costs for a trip to wherever that's a lot less than a plane ticket.