facebook

Oculus to get hands on with new virtual reality gear

Standard

Virtual reality pioneer Oculus VR doesn’t just want to get its products on your head, it wants them in your hands as well.

The headset maker has been quietly preparing motion controllers — devices that let you drive the action and manipulate objects in games with hand and body movements — to complement its forthcoming goggles, people familiar with the development process say. The result: a more immersive experience in video games and other simulations.

How Oculus Goggles Became More Than a Virtual Reality

Standard

Brendan Iribe traces the surprising rise of Oculus VR Inc., FacebookInc.’s second-largest acquisition, to a demonstration in a hotel meeting room two years ago.

The videogame-industry executive had traveled to the hotel in Long Beach, Calif., after meeting with Palmer Luckey, a virtual-reality enthusiast who at the time was planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter Inc.’s website for high-tech goggles. His product eventually became “Oculus Rift.”