Post by Dan @ 03:47pm 13/12/13 | 23 Comments
Andreessen also currently sits on the board of other high profile tech companies such as Facebook, eBay and HP, so his support of Oculus is a pretty massive vote of confidence in the company from someone that has picked some serious winners in his time.
Tech publication Wired reports on comments from 'sources close to the conversation', that "the funding is based on a valuation of more than $250 million".
It is the largest investment thus far in Oculus, a company founded last year by 19-year-old Palmer Luckey. (The Rift first surfaced at the E3 videogame trade show last summer, when legendary programmer John Carmack brought a duct-taped prototype to the show.) Luckey envisioned the Rift as a DIY kit for hobbyists; but after bringing on two partners, Oculus began selling an early version to software developers through Kickstarter in August 2012.The move is expected to spur the development of a consumer version of the still prototyping Oculus Rift head-mounted display, and the conversation suggests that launch intentions are aimed at 2014.
Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz, said that while he’d been impressed with the Kickstarter devkit, he was concerned by several technical obstacles that it had yet to overcome. But after a recent visit to Oculus’ headquarters in Irvine, California, Dixon — along with Marc Andreessen and two other partners — saw a new prototype that changed his mind.
“I think I’ve seen five or six computer demos in my life that made me think the world was about to change,” he tells WIRED. “Apple II, Netscape, Google, iPhone… then Oculus. It was that kind of amazing.”
Our own impressions of the currently available devkit prototype reflect the reserved experience described by Chris Dixon above, so if things have improved as much as his comments suggest, we can't wait to try out a consumer-ready device.
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Posted 04:30pm 13/12/13
Posted 04:34pm 13/12/13
Posted 04:35pm 13/12/13
Posted 05:32pm 13/12/13
Even for 1k i wouldn't call that a "pricey bit of kit" if it does what they are saying it will do and it looks like it will do - ie. a realistic sex simulator
Posted 06:39pm 13/12/13
Posted 09:37pm 13/12/13
I'm getting so much more excited! Starting saving for the 1080p version :D
And Bookz, it's anything but a "pricey bit of kit". They're looking to launch for around the same price as the current Dev kit, which is only $300 or so.
For what it is, that's actually a f*****g bargain.
And badfunk, they've certainly gotten plenty of devs VERY excited and I'm pretty sure it's going to hit a critical mass where most games are going to have support just based off the engine alone, so I'm pretty sure this won't be a "meh, it's a toy, throw it away" after year type ordeal.
I'm legitimately starting to think that with all the momentum behind it (press, funding and highly respected people joining / saying it's amazing) that it could actually be "The Next Big Thing™"
Posted 09:55pm 13/12/13
Posted 10:11pm 13/12/13
Posted 10:30pm 13/12/13
Posted 02:03am 14/12/13
All I know is SHUTUP AND TAKE MY MONEY I want one so bad.
Posted 09:20am 14/12/13
From all accounts, the 1080p one eliminates that, plus the head tracking is significantly better (apparently the dev kit had lag issues)
Posted 01:34pm 14/12/13
for $300 USD it is a bargain, I'd gladly pay $2k for it, that's how much I liked it. I've spent more on worse things so yeah lol...
Posted 02:59pm 14/12/13
Posted 03:18pm 14/12/13
Posted 03:41pm 14/12/13
Posted 02:52am 15/12/13
Posted 03:05am 15/12/13
Posted 09:47pm 16/12/13
Posted 04:22am 17/12/13
You are right in that there will be competition but as long as they get their product out the door first and it is remotely successful they have a pretty good chance of being the dominant player in the market.
That said, MS or someone might be dumping billions into R&D and production to try to get ahead - a cheaper alternative that is basically equivalent could be a problem.
Posted 10:16am 17/12/13
I am concerned that no standard will apply for software/hardware integration, which may slow down development. People should be working on standards now if they haven't already.
Posted 10:57am 17/12/13
Open standards.
Posted 12:27pm 17/12/13
Not sure why people keep saying this - its resolution is 1280x800. If you try for 720p in-game, you can come across aspect-ratio problems, which can contribute to motion sickness.
Next dev-kit should be ramping up around Jan 2014 AFAIK, with motion tracking (so that you can look around poles and lean over edges, something you can't do now) as well as most motion sickness issues apparently solved. Definitely getting this!
Posted 12:51pm 17/12/13