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Facebook acquires Oculus VR for $2billion

Published

11 years ago

March 26, 2014

Source: Mark Zuckerberg:
I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Oculus VR,
the leader in virtual reality technology.
Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For
the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that
help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more
to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we’re in a position where
we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable
even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.
This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality
technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you
enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like
a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing
about the technology is that you feel like you’re actually present in
another place with other people. People who try it say it’s different
from anything they’ve ever experienced in their lives.
Oculus’s mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their
technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of
experiences.
Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big
plans here that won’t be changing and we hope to accelerate. The
Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there’s a
lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We’re
going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop
partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating
independently within Facebook to achieve this.
But this is just the start. After games, we’re going to make Oculus
a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court
side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and
teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-
face — just by putting on goggles in your home.
This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly
present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the
people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your
friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.
These are just some of the potential uses. By working with
developers and partners across the industry, together we can build
many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented
reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.
Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the
internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and
smartphones. The future is coming and we have a chance to build it
together. I can’t wait to start working with the whole team at
Oculus to bring this future to the world, and to unlock new worlds
for all of us.