For excited gamers who haven’t strapped on the headset yet, it has been a long wait full of second-hand hyperbole from media outlets raving about the technology. That patience is getting closer to being rewarded though as Oculus VR recently received a cash injection to help complete the consumer version of the Rift. Oculus VR has revealed that it raised over $75 million in order to get the product to consumers and received the massive investment from the Andreessen Horowitz firm, which was founded by Netscape creator Marc Andreessen.
The funding is going to go towards staffing Oculus VR in order to get the hardware ready for consumers. This investment cements the company as a serious player in the video game market, which it’s going to need to do as it’s sure to come up against some serious competition.
Brendan Iribe, Oculus VR’s Chief Executive confirmed that this investment has brought the company substantially closer to getting the product out to the consumers.
Andreessen, who is known for his pioneering work of the internet in the 1990s, appears to think that the Oculus Rift has massive potential. Along with his huge investment, he made a glowing statement about the sky high hopes he has for the Rift.
The hardware has been putting together an all-star team of industry professionals during the last few months and Andreessen’s support comes after legendary developer Jon Carmack was recently announced as Oculus VR’s Chief Technology Officer.
It is rumored that Sony and Microsoft have their own VR headsets in the works to rival the Oculus Rift on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but with such a big vision, team and now the capital behind the Rift, do you think that Oculus VR can beat off any competition thrown at it? Are you excited about the future of VR? Do you think it is all just a big gimmick?
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Source: Venture Beat
