Oculus Rift secures $16 million in Series A round of funding

[Shawn Knight]

The Oculus Rift is one step closer to a commercial launch as the company just announced their first round of funding to the tune of $16 million. Along with the announcement comes news that two investors have now joined the company’s board of directors - Santo Politi of Spark Capital and Antonio Rodriguez of Matrix Partners.

In addition to the aforementioned investors, Oculus notes that Founders Fund and Formation 8 also participated in the Series A round of funding. We’re told the money will be used to accelerate the development of virtual reality hardware, software and services which will ultimately create a full virtual reality platform for gamers.

Prototypes of the Oculus Rift are already in the wild resulting from an overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign. The virtual reality headset initially took to the crowd funding website in August 2012 to seek funding of $250,000. Backed by the gang at Epic Games and Valve, the campaign managed to net nearly $2.5 million.

Developers have already cranked out a few Rift-optimized titles including Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft. Big-name companies like EA’s DICE are also currently exploring the Oculus Rift for future game and there are even some titles being built from the ground-up to make the most of a virtual world.

No release date has been set for a commercial release, the company noted in a press release on the matter.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52932-oculus-rift-secures-16-million-in-series-a-round-of-funding.html

 

[Guest]

I wonder if $16 million will pay for the release date I've always wanted!

They might as well buy the Omni Treadmill, and sell it as a set.

 

[Puiu]

It's good to see that this kind of tech is getting a lot of attention and funding.
You can also add CCP Games to the list of devs.

 

[9Nails]

Looks like you can pre-order development kits for $300. I wonder if that's an indication of what the full price will be to consumers when this becomes available? If this takes off future generations of this device would be amazing. I'd like to see headsets built in, room for eye glasses. But as-is, I think I'd still be an early adopter. It's taken to long to get good quality / low latency VR in the hands of conumers. And it's about time they do this!

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

This could be the start of the next big thing in gaming. I hope Microsoft is taking notes because from what I read, their upcoming gaming console is looking as popular as a severe case of the clap.

 

[Littleczr]

This will never be popular. Just look at the 3d glasses, they all have fallen down head first. People don't want an ugly thingamabob on their head.

 

[hammer2085]

This will never be popular. Just look at the 3d glasses, they all have fallen down head first. People don't want an ugly thingamabob on their head.

Not necessarily, I find this concept very Intriguing. See

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGFuedKS9Mg

 

[jeffz6]

I have the dev kit, and its the most fun Ive had in years. However the controls will, untill resolved, be a show stopper. There will never be a phisical way to naturally control movment etc, without being restrained by some means.

Ture virtual realitly will only be when a matrix is upon us.