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Oculus VR News | March 28, 2024

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Heading into New Year '2017 Should be Mind-Blowing', says Oculus

Heading into New Year '2017 Should be Mind-Blowing', says Oculus

Image courtesy of: Oculus

FRΛNK R.

As we look back on the accomplishments the VR industry has achieved throughout 2016, we’re reminded that this is still just the beginning. While many consumers finally jumped into virtual reality for the first time this year, it’s clear that there is still much growth and challenges ahead to overcome before we truly hit the pinnacle of this VR revolution.

In a recent Oculus’ blog post, the Oculus team reflected on some of the key highlights of this year that changed how we view and interact with the world and looked further ahead into 2017, which the company says should be a year that is “mind-blowing” for the VR industry.

“This year, we went from prototypes and dev kits to shipping consumer VR to the world,” reads the post. “Millions of people stepped into virtual reality for the first time—and this is just the beginning! With more than 700 made-for-VR titles available on the Oculus mobile and PC platform and new experiences launching every week, we expect the community to continue growing hand-in-hand with its robust ecosystem.”

Looking back on this year, the Oculus team highlighted some of the big moments, including President Obama being featured as the first sitting President to star in a VR experience touring Yosemitewhich involved technical innovation including a new VR camera, software, and a post-production process to film timelapses in spherical 3D.

Other highlighted moments through this year’s VR journey include delivering on the promise of empathy in a virtual reality experience like the Notes on Blindness, which gives you a sense of what it’s like to be blind. Also taking you courtside to relive the 2016 NBA Finals in a groundbreaking VR mini-documentary, as well as, the launch of the Oculus Touch motion controllers that finally deliver on the magic of hand presences to users in the Rift and take social interaction in virtual reality to an entirely new level.

Big upcoming game titles are also slated to come to the Rift in 2017 including Robo Recall, Lone Echo, and Arktika.1, as well as the much-anticipated release of Wilson’s Heart from Twisted Pixel and Oculus Studios. According to Oculus, all four titles were built from the ground up to take full advantage of the motion controls and haptic feedback capabilities of Touch.

“From indigenous peoples and world leaders to celebrities, artists, and more, 2016 has shown us VR’s ability to impact lives on a global scale. Thanks to the entire community for all of your support. If the past 12 months are any indication, 2017 should be mind-blowing,” the post concludes.

It’s going to be an exciting ride to see what comes next for Oculus and the entire VR industry as a whole in 2017. We’ll be sure to bring you the latest updates, as it develops. Until then, Happy New Year everyone!