Summary: News: Oculus founders: Facebook lets us bring the best VR experience to a billion people Oculus VR co-founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe had a vision for their company: to bring virtual reality to as many people as possible, in the best way possible, at the lowest possible price. And, according to the duo, selling the company to Facebook is the best way to reach those goals. "This is the best thing for us to do," Luckey told us in a post-announcement interview. "It leaves us in the same position we've always been in, doing the same things we wanted to do." The surprise deal, according to Iribe, came together after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked for an Oculus Rift demo. "The initial expectation wasn't that he was coming down to acquire us," Iribe said. "He just wanted to see what we were up to." It quickly became clear, he said, that the two companies had a lot in common, and that being acquired by Facebook wouldn't require Oculus to sacrifice any of its independence. "We looked at other companies and thought, if we're partnering with them, they're going to turn us into their own brand and product and they'll change our emails and we'll be wearing different hoodies. We're proud of who we are." Iribe confirmed that the entire Oculus team will be making the move, and said that being part of Facebook will allow them to "accelerate hiring and build out a team with a focus of getting the best and brightest in the industry." "[Another company might] change our emails and we'll be wearing different hoodies. We're proud of who we are." In Zuckerberg's announcement earlier today, he said that the company wasn't concerned with making an immediate profit selling the Oculus Rift hardware, and Iribe confirmed that. "We don't know what we'll price this at," he said. The goal is to "get this out at the most affordable price possible." Zuckerberg, according to Iribe, offered Oculus the chance to "reduce or eliminate the hardware margin and just get this out there." The Facebook CEO told Iribe he wants to help "connect a billion people with VR." For Luckey, who began work on the first Rift prototype while he was still in college, the fact that Facebook isn't a gaming company is actually a good thing. "Almost anyone in a gaming place would want us to do it based on their vision," he said. "We already had a vision for the company. Facebook is going to let us do it, but with their resources behind it." "We have zero interest in doing what someone else thinks is the right thing," he added. http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/oculus-founders-facebook-lets-us-bring-the-best-vr-experience/ How PS4 will power Project Morpheus Sony grabbed a lot of people's attention when the company announced plans at last week's Game Developers Conference to enter the virtual reality space with Project Morpheus. The peripheral is currently in its prototype stage, but creator Richard Marks took some time to discuss how the product will ultimately work with PS4 to deliver an optimal virtual reality experience. "PlayStation 4 is one of the reasons that we can actually do this now, because the graphics horsepower it takes to drive a virtual reality kind of experience is pretty significant," creator Richard Marks told GamerHub TV. "It would have been hard to do earlier and, also, we needed the tracking technology and display technology to be at a certain point. So PlayStation 4 is the graphics driver." Marks goes on to describe Morpheus as it's currently constituted, which includes gyroscopes and accelerometers within the unit. It also includes a camera to help track the LEDs on the front of the unit to help monitor movement. Combining the camera's trackers with Morpheus' internal sensors allow for the PS4 to create a tracking experience. For more on Project Morpheus, including how PlayStation Move controllers work with the headset, check out the full video below. http://www.shacknews.com/article/83733/how-ps4-will-power-project-morpheus
