Facebook to Acquire Oculus for $2 Billion, Time to Bring VR to Social

It seems that John Carmack wasn’t the only one with major interest in Oculus; Mark Zuckerberg has just announced that Facebook has acquired it for a cool $2 billion. Yes, $2 billion. Not bad for a company with an unreleased product, right?

How on earth does a company like Oculus fit in with Facebook’s goals? Zuckerberg explains:

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we’re in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.

This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you’re actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it’s different from anything they’ve ever experienced in their lives.

We’ll see where this goes. Talk about a surprise acquisition!