If you haven’t yet heard of the Oculus Rift, it’s time to crawl out from beneath your rock. This virtual reality headset is designed to place you inside your favorite games and movies and etc. This headset makes virtual gaming so realistic that you actually feel you are in the game, standing where the action is happening. It’s so realistic you can hear the sounds like you’re standing right next to them. Read on to find out five more things you didn’t know about Oculus Rift.
It’s Parent Company is Facebook
The Oculus Rift was designed and created by a company called Oculus VR. Oculus VR was recently purchased by a big company you might have heard of called Facebook. The social media giant acquired Oculus VR for a staggering $2 billion. The deal was considered a huge one – as well as a major bargain – for Facebook.
It Began on Kickstarter
By now, everyone has heard of Kickstarter, the online fundraising site for business startups. A year and a half ago, Oculus VR placed the Oculus Rift on the site looking for donations to get the product created and marketed. Lo and behold, 18 months later it was purchased for $2 billion by Facebook.
It’s Reasonably Priced
While the company hasn’t yet set a price for the as-yet unavailable Oculus Rift, it’s expected that the company is going to ensure that the product is competitively priced. There are other VR headsets like it on the market, but they’re exceptionally expensive and/or available only for military use. This one will be available to the average Joe.
You Can Get Inside Movies
This virtual headset is unlike others. It’s for more than just online gaming. In fact, can you imagine watching Harry Potter or Hunger Games while wearing a headset that will have you standing inside Hogwarts or The Capitol looking around, listening to the words of other wizards and/or the animals in the Games as if you’re standing in the castle or forest with them? That’s what this is going to do to movie watching; it’s revolutionary.
Backers are Upset
The deal with Facebook has early backers of the project angry. They don’t know why they spent their money funding the project when it was sold out to Facebook for $2 billion. Many say they will not support the Oculus from this point on.
(Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
