On the final day of Oculus Connect 3, Mark Zuckerberg announced a whole slew of updates for the Oculus platform. For me, the most exciting feature was the Oculus Room demo; the games were just a sideshow.
I’ve not been alone in wondering what Facebook planned to do with Oculus. Initial suggestions that we’d be browsing Facebook in a VR world seemed rather absurd, as was the idea of playing Facebook games in VR.
Surprisingly, Zuckerberg offered just that at the event, and it was downright impressive. If I completely ignore the cost of the Rift and accompanying hardware, I can see myself spending hours hanging out with buddies in VR.
The Oculus Room, for example, is a virtual space for you and your buddies to hang out in. Before you do that, you’ll need to pick a kind of avatar for yourself because that’s who your buddies are going to see in that room.
Think of the Room as a virtual lounge where you can have a conversation, play games (Zuckerberg demoed Chess and some card games on stage), and even watch videos on a massive, virtual screen. Sharing photos and videos can also happen very naturally in that virtual space.
Given the current state, and cost, of VR, I doubt we’ll see the Room anytime soon. But the potential of that room is so exciting! I mean, games we have and they will get better in VR for sure. They’ll become more immersive, more engaging and even more interactive, yes, but that’s expected.
These Oculus-enabled social interactions offer something else entirely. Want to recreate the fabulous bar scene from Inglorious Basterds with your buddies? You can. How about a game of poker à la Casino Royale? Of course!
Zuckerberg is himself quick to point out that such social interactions aren’t a focus for Oculus. He’s only looking to the future when such interactions can be a reality. “The platform needs to be ready for it,” he said.
None of these social experiences exist right now, but they can, and that’s infinitely more exciting than anything a game has to offer me.
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