The Oculus Rift is a landmark piece of technology, representing the first truly immersive, consumer-friendly virtual reality headset. Oculus VR has been commended for its vision, but the problem until now has been the games. Until the Oculus Rift is out on store shelves and boasting a large install base, how do you persuade developers to create games for it?
The answer, it would seem, is for Oculus VR to become a publisher. The company revealed its intentions in a blog post earlier today, alongside its new Head of Worldwide Publishing, David DeMartini. The former EA executive, who worked on a number of high-profile franchises such as The Godfather and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, will lead the new initiative moving forward.
Oculus VR said it will be providing developers with additional resources to help them realize their next games, including “direct support”, which suggests a tangible budget for persuading creators to come on board.
“One of our long-time, favorite ideas has been to actually fund and publish Oculus games, applications, and experiences ourselves by providing additional support and resources for key developers building the games and content that we believe will define the platform,” the company said in a blog post.
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It’s been a little less than a week since Oculus VR raised $75 million in a funding round led by Silicon Valley investor Mark Andreessen of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Not so long ago, the Oculus Rift was a fledgling Kickstarter project. Now it’s on the brink of fostering its own software ecosystem.
➤ Fostering the Ecosystem [Blog Post]
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