It was one of the last pioneers of Oculus to work at Facebook. Nate Mitchell, co-founder of the start-up of virtual reality which was acquired by the social network in 2014, announced his departure on 13 August, reports the american media The Information . Oculus was one of the first companies to commercialize a headset of this technology to be immersed in a 3D world with the aid of glasses. The start-up has made a name selling a device that is compatible with the universe of video games, the Oculus Rift, in which Mark Zuckerberg had one day said to see “the future of human interactions”.
From 2018, Nate Mitchell was in charge of the products of virtual reality with Facebook. He had overseen the launch of the Oculus Rift to its commercialization in 2016. “After seven years of incredible, I decided to from Oculus / Facebook,” wrote Nate Mitchell on the social network Reddit. “What will follow for me: take the time to travel, see my family, and recharge the batteries”. He said that he will always be a part of the community of virtual reality, even if it has a more modest role to play. With the co-founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe, who have respectively left Facebook in 2017 and 2018, he was one of the last well-known faces from Oculus to work in Facebook.
Change of course
If Nate Mitchell has not detailed the reasons which have pushed from, several u.s. media to evoke the way in which Facebook has evolved its strategy in the field of virtual reality. The social network has gradually away Oculus of its universe of origin, one of the senior players, to make it evolve to a world wide audience. Originally, the Oculus Rift was a headphone for enthusiasts, able to spend 700 euros for the device. It depended necessarily a powerful computer to run. Facebook has attempted to simplify the device, to cope with the offers most accessible part of the competition. For example, the “Samsung Gear VR” allows you to take advantage of the virtual reality for a paltry sum, by sliding a smartphone into a headset.
The vision of Facebook was achieved with the commercialization in 2018 of the”Oculus” Go”, a mask of virtual reality, stand-alone 250 euro which requires neither computer nor smartphone to operate. The firm has accelerated in 2019 with the”Oculus Quest”, virtual reality goggles autonomous more efficient but also more expensive (about 500 euros). In parallel, Facebook has totally abandoned the devices reserved for players with the most passionate. The firm has canceled its “Rift 2”, a headset dedicated to gamers and requiring a computer to operate. This abandonment would have precipitated the departure of Brendan Iribe in October 2018, according to the media specialist. TechCrunch.
Even if this change of course is displeasing to the founders of Oculus, the strategy of Facebook seems to be paying off. According to a report by SuperData Research, the firm of Mark Zuckerberg has elapsed 550.000 masks “Go” in the last quarter of 2018, as well as the 160,000 copies of the Oculus Rift over the same period. On this period of time, the firm has stood up to the leader of the virtual reality, Playstation, which has sold 700.000 “PS ” VR” on the same quarter. But Playstation is still far in front. According to figures relayed by the site Statista, 3.7 million of “PS ” VR” were sold between 2017 and 2018, while Oculus has sold only 1.6 million of products over the two years.
