Virtual Reality Facebook: The platform of tomorrow

It looks like 2014 is going to be a very expensive year for Facebook, first buying WhatsApp for $19 billion and now they have purchased Oculus VR, the company who created the Oculus Rift (above), for $2 billion!

Facebook say that they see the Oculus Rift as a format of the future, "post-PC and post-mobile platform". The move may seem a bit unusual but with the purchase of WhatsApp, it appears they are manoeuvring to expand Facebook’s platforms…

From the lengthy post on Facebook, Zuckerberg states that Oculus will continue to work independently of Facebook, so those of you who have been following the Oculus Rift project it doesn’t look like Facebook will be tampering with them for the time being.

However in the detailed statement it said that Facebook recognises that Oculus has built a large following among game developers but they would expand the virtual reality technology into other industries from communications and entertainment to education and media.

Mark Zuckerberg said "Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow, Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate."

"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"

Oculus VR was formed by Palmer Luckey and took off when the company managed to raise over $2 million to manufacture the Oculus Rift VR headset through Kickstarter!

The device features a head-mounted display and motion tracking sensors and over 60,000 developer versions of the headset have been sold, with a fair amount of games that are already support the technology.

The device however isn’t expected to be released to the public until early 2015…