Oculus VR Gets $75 Million in New Round of Funding

News
By
published

Fresh round of funding to get Oculus Rift into consumers' hands.

Oculus VR, the makers of virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift, have secured $75 million in funding that will help the company finish off the consumer version of the gaming accessory. Venture Beat's Dean Takahashi reports that the round of funding comes from  VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. Andreessen Horowitz was founded by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and his business partner Ben Horowitz in July of 2009. 

 

Oculus VR says it will use the money to hire more staff as well as for building a commercial version of the virtual reality headgear. At the moment, the product isn't available to consumers and is still in development.

Oculus VR last month celebrated the arrival of id Software cofounder John Carmack as CTO. Carmack joined the company in August but remained at id Software in addition to his new role at Oculus VR. He handed in his resignation at id Software in late November. That, combined with this new round of funding, will go a long way towards the company achieving its goals. Not bad for a Kickstarter project, eh?

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Jane McEntegart
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gmarsack
    This is good news. Can't wait to get mine when it's available to the public!
    Reply
  • Fluffy Thedestroyer
    The oculus rift is nice but I wounder how many dev's and game company will implement it cause it wont be cheap...lots of things will have to change. Just think about it, just the main menu on how it looks will have to change. Can you also imagine with the oculus rift...if I don't want to view that cut scene then all you have to do is turn your head lmao.. as in...fuck off, your not interesting enough for me lmao
    Reply
  • obiown77
    I just wanna play my modded skyrim with these.....droooooool!!!!!
    Reply
  • jonainpdx
    If this thing is really going to be 4K resolution it will be a bit more than $300
    Reply
  • icemunk
    This is really the next big thing in video games. I'm glad to see they're getting the funding they need to pump out a nice consumer model. I've used the dev-kit on several occasions, and it is really awesome. You can buy the dev-kit now, but most people are waiting for the consumer version.
    Reply
  • Borisblade7
    @jonainpdx It's gonna be 1080p most likely, but no less, they have said so. I doubt any higher since it can get expensive and cost is a huge factor for them, they want it as absolutely low as possible. Heck they would like to get deals with partners or bundles to get it out below cost. And those talking about games needing alot to change, UI and menus are easy to fix, thats no biggie. But you are talking about regular games being converted. The real appeal is the games that are made just for this or have modes designed from the ground up for this...then other versions get adapted for non rift players. Ive seen the indie games developed for the dev version and some of them are amazing with stuff that really only works on the rift.
    Reply
  • obiown77
    I just wanna play my modded skyrim with these.....droooooool!!!!!
    Reply
  • zambutu
    They need to get this thing to market. Taking soo long... I thing a 1080p with a wire is ok for an initial release. Keeps the cost down and min systems specs down too. I have a dev kit and I say resolution and FOV at the two main things that hold back the experience.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    It'll need some technology in it that offers the same benefits from tech like nvidia's g-sync while still being hardware agnostic.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    AMD's kinda getting pulled into a couple different directions it seems. They want solid drivers for Windows that address frame pacing in all scenarios, they want solid linux drivers for Valve's Steam OS, they want a solid response to nvidia's g-sync, and getting Mantle to a state they feel comfortable in showing people. They are capable of doing all those things, but all at once? That's a lot of salaries and teams of people working on different projects, that all also need to work seamlessly together. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. 2014 is going to be badass.
    Reply