Yesterday saw virtual-reality developers gather for Facebook’s Oculus Connect conference in San Jose, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg making a keynote appearance.
Among the announcements: Facebook has spent $250m funding new VR content and apps, and is now planning to throw $250m more at the sector – including $50m for mobile VR content. ‘Entertainment’ is one of the key categories for funding.
Zuckerberg also dropped an interesting stat: “One million people use VR every month.” Journalists attending the event were unsure whether he meant on Oculus-powered devices (the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR) alone, or on every VR device.
Other news from the event: Facebook is working on a standalone (i.e. untethered to a PC) Oculus headset, which will be more affordable; its Oculus team is working on a VR web browser codenamed ‘Carmel’; and thanks to improvements in its software, the Oculus Rift can now work with much cheaper PCs – as affordable as $500 – rather than the high-end computers it has been restricted to until now.
Mac users are still out of luck, though.
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