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posted by martyb on Monday July 15 2019, @06:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the predicted-sales-of-6-or-7-mainframes-by-IBM dept.

Facebook will never break through with Oculus, says one of the VR company's co-founders

Five years after its $2 billion purchase of Oculus, Facebook is still pushing forward in its efforts to bring virtual reality to a mainstream audience. But one of the company's six co-founders now doubts Oculus will ever break through.

Jack McCauley told CNBC he doesn't think there's a real market for VR gaming. With Facebook positioning its Oculus devices primarily as gaming machines, McCauley doesn't believe there's much of a market for the device. "If we were gonna sell, we would've sold," McCauley said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

[...] The $199 Oculus Go has sold a little more than 2 million units since its release in May 2018, according to estimates provided by market research firm SuperData, a Nielsen company. The Oculus Quest, which was released this May, has sold nearly 1.1 million units while the Oculus Rift has sold 547,000 units since the start of 2018, according to SuperData.

[...] Since leaving in November 2015, McCauley has enjoyed a semi-retired life. He's an innovator in residence at Berkeley's Jacobs Institute of Design Innovation and he continues to build all sorts of devices, such as a gun capable of shooting down drones, at his own research and development facility.

The cheaper, standalone headsets are selling more units. Add foveated rendering and other enhancements at the lower price points (rather than $1,599 like the Vive Pro Eye), and the experience could become much better.

Related: Oculus Rift: Dead in the Water?
HTC: Death of VR Greatly Exaggerated
As Sales Slide, Virtual Reality Fans Look to a Bright, Untethered Future
Virtual Reality Feels Like a Dream Gathering Dust
VR Gets Reality Check with Significant Decline in Investment
Creepy Messages Will be Found in Facebook's Oculus Touch VR Controllers


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Monday July 15 2019, @10:21PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday July 15 2019, @10:21PM (#867346) Journal

    For those that have issues with "I can't see my hands", "I can't see my kid", "I can't see my keyboard", "I can't see my cat", "I'm going to hit the wall!". The HTC Vive, and I assume the Valve Index, have the option to render the "Chaperone" using the Camera on the front of the headset. What this means is that you can use the camera, to create outlines of objects in the room, "ghosts"/ filled objects in the room, or even full color images of the entire room as your chaperone. (You can also vary the color, opacity, etc. of the chaperone. Depending on the mode.) So, you won't have to worry about stepping on the cat, can see your keyboard, if you want to, etc. You'd have a hard time seeing the letters on the keys, but I assume you can touch type at this point in your life. Otherwise, there's an app for that. Might I suggest "The Typing Dead" or whatever that Zombie typing game was called. Also, there's tons of tools out there for you to learn how to touch type. It's a very convenient and sometimes highly necessary tool in modern society.

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