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VR Studio Owlchemy’s Acquisition By Google

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Virtrual Reality is the next big thing which is going to change (to some extent, it already has) the way we consume media; especially videos and games. Nearly 7 years ago, the grand success of Avatar did ‘the thing’ for 3D technology after which every big movie releases in 3D. Fast forward to 2017, we have Virtual Reality taking the same road and it’s becoming popular with every passing day. Talking about development in this field, every major technology firm is involved; Microsoft, Google, Facebook- you name it!

Coming to Google, the company has already contributed a lot towards VR tech with their Daydream headset, which claims to give the best virtual reality experience at present. Google is not stopping there and aims to provide best VR content as well. They made it clear with the recent acquisition of Owlchemy Labs, the developer behind a number of acclaimed PC and console VR games like Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality.

In a blog sharing his enthusiasm, Owlchemy co-founder Alex Schwartz said “We are continuing to do all of this with even more support and focus on building awesome stuff. It’s incredibly exciting that Google and Owlchemy are so well aligned on our goals and vision for the future of VR.”

Established in 2010, Owlchemy Labs specializes in creating interactive VR games and simulators using hand gestures as controls, eliminating the need of remote whatsoever. Probably, that’s what Google is interested in given the Daydream Project uses a remote as well. Daydream is an amazing device to experience quality VR, there is no doubt in that. But, using a remote is not very intuitive when it comes to complete immersive experience. And that’s where Owlchemy comes into play.

Relja Markovic, Engineering director VR and AR, Google said “Together, we’ll be working to create engaging, immersive games and developing new interaction models across many different platforms to continue bringing the best VR experiences to life.”

In the official press release, there is barely any info regarding future plans with Owlchemy, but the speculations are they will be working together on Daydream VR Project. There’s a I/O developer conference next week and we hope Google is going to reveal, if not all, some important details. Till then, we can assume VR has a bright future in Google’s hand.

 

Palmer Luckey: An iPhone repair technician who built a $3 billion VR company

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Success is most often linked to age and a good experience. It is generally assumed that one could achieve success only after reaching a certain age but lately, these assumptions are breaking as today youth are coming forward to take control of entrepreneurial world in their hands. Like Oyo’s Ritesh Agarwal, Palmer Luckey, established a company, Oculus VR at the age of 21. He has established the notion that if you are truly interested and dedicated in something, nothing can take it away from you.

Early Interest in Electronics and Technology
Getting success in any field is not an overnight thing. One has to start building up for it from a very early age. Passion for technology was deep seated in Luckey right from his childhood. Although he was home schooled by his mother when he was a child, yet the drift towards electronics and technical world was initiated by then. At the age of 14 he founded a forum called ModRetro which concentrates on modifying vintage game consoles. This forum was made for all the electronic enthusiasts. Despite not gaining any formal training in electronics, he kept on experimenting with various complex electronic objects like lasers, coil guns, Tesla coils etc. His passion for electronics grew more with age and this could be marked by his success in stepping into the gaming world when he made a PC gaming ‘rig’. It costed him a lot of money but he took it as a challenge and went ahead to develop the game with a six-monitor setup.

As he began stepping out of teenage, he found himself very passionate about Virtual Reality. Trying new projects is a costly affair and need a good amount of funding. Luckey, being a self-dependent boy didn’t turn to his parents, friends or relatives for financial help. Rather, his own talent got him all the funding for his new experiments and projects. He repaired and resold damaged iPhones from which he received around $36,000. He also worked as groundskeeper, computer repair technician and youth sailing coach in his free time. His dedication and passion for his work made him build a private collection of more than 50 head-mounted displays.

palmer_luckey_at_svvr_2014
Image Credit: Wikipedia

His Enthusiasm for VR Led Him to Build Oculus VR
He enrolled himself at California State University and joined a degree course in journalism. However, his love for technical filed did not fade even for a moment. As a result of which he had to drop the course and dedicate his whole time to Virtual Reality. His motive behind establishing the company was to develop a unique head-mounted display which would be highly efficient, low cost, light weight and easily portable. The first prototype of his model was designed by him at the age of 17 in his parents’ garage. This gave a 90 degree featured view and also proved to be a push for his company. From then on he developed a series of such prototypes and kept modifying them as per the need. He intended to sell one of his prototypes which he named as ‘Rift’ on Kickstarter crowdfunding website and for the launch of Rift’s Kickstarter campaign he officially started Oculus VR.

With the establishment of his company, more responsibility piled upon him as he was the sole worker and owner of the company. He did all the paperwork, model making, and client dealings all by himself. But not for a single moment he tried to escape from the hard work and stood up all alone to take his company further in the entrepreneurial world. With time his company got more members and soon he was joined by Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov. Luckey’s prototypes greatly interested Iribe and he agreed to invest a few hundred thousand dollars in the Rift Kickstarter Campaign and later joined in as the CEO of Oculus VR. Anatonov left his job in a company named Scaleform and joined in as chief software architect of the company. The Kickstarter Campaign turned out to be a huge success as its value raised to $2.5 million with an additional funding of $16 million.

Oculus VR Acquisition by Facebook
Facebook never fails to get hold of any great product. When the popularity and success of Oculus VR reached Zuckerberg’s ears, his interest grew more in it. In March 2014 Facebook acquired the company for $3 billion. But Luckey still works at Oculus VR on the technology he developed.

In September 2016, Luckey in support for Trump donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a group against the then Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. There was a hate post on Reddit from Luckey’s user id in the name of Hillary Clinton. This brought down his image and also posed much loss for Oculus VR as many clients turned down their deals with the company. Palmer Luckey has been named as most richest entrepreneur (22th) under 40 in America. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth around $700 million.