A year after buying virtual reality trailblazer Oculus, Facebook has confirmed that it’s making its own VR apps.
However, the company doesn’t just want its users to consume VR content. It wants it to be as easy to make virtual realities as it is to upload a photo or a video, so that anyone can do it — whether that’s a typical user, or even superstars like Beyoncé.
With some understatement, Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox told the Code/Media conference that “virtual reality is pretty cool”.
“We’re working on apps for VR,” he said, citing as inspirations existing experiences such as flying a fighter jet, or sitting in a Mongolian yurt.
“You realise, when you’re in it, that you’re looking at the future, and it’s going to be awesome. When you’re in Facebook, you’re just sending around these bits of experience — a photo, a video, a thought,” Cox said.
In contrast, VR is about “sending a fuller picture ... You’ll do it, Beyoncé will do it.”
Facebook’s desire for premium content to deliver over virtual worlds was explained by Palmer Luckey, the chief executive and co-founder of Oculus, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “We’re trying to predict where it’s going with the hardware as it is now — and it’s very hard,” Luckey said.
“Looking at a larger than life News Feed or someone’s photos in VR isn’t interesting. It needs to be new experience. I don’t think it’s going to be Facebook the social network in VR, but people are narcissists and they want people to see what they think are their amazing lives.”
Of course, Facebook has a while longer to tackle the questions. As Cox admitted, “we’re probably a long way from everyone having these headsets”.
