Oculus, the well-known virtual reality startup recently acquired by Facebook, sees their field as a prime opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Oculus head of studios Jason Rubin, referencing public statements of reluctance to embrace virtual reality made by EA’s Blake Jorgensen and Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick in recent months, delivered his remarks at a CES 2015 panel in Las Vegas.
“The early movers do really well in these situations because they fail, and they learn how to do the right thing on the second or third attempt,” Rubin said, pointing to a tradition of established corporations allowing smaller competitors to champion new — and, by extension, largely unproven — technologies. “And by the time the big companies that are looking at a number of assets they can deploy to make various games – and they say “there is a zero install base in VR right now, we need to focus on these other (things)” – they will miss it, they always do.”
Rubin, formerly of Crash Bandicoot creator THQ, thinks the untold riches virtual reality will surely produce are ripe for a startup’s taking. “One of these early teams will generate a billionaire or a group of splitting of a billion dollars, just as Rovio did and just as Zynga did.”
Pressed for specifics on what a Rovio or Zynga-esque VR company could look like, Rubin saw the future as being just as wide open and unpredictable as the sharing economy was when the iPhone came into existence.
“…we have no idea what the Uber is of VR. When they put the iPhone out, no one said “this is going to revolutionize taxi driving”… people will use VR for its inherent advantages over other past platforms, and it will become a future platform.”
Rubin praised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his company’s acquisition of Oculus, saying the social visionary’s belief that a new platform rises roughly every decade points to virtual reality as the next great leap forward.
Though virtual reality might be a brave new world rife with uncertainty for the moment, it would appear from Rubin’s remarks that a host of startups are willing to step in to take the technology to soaring new heights, delivering previously unforeseen benefits for consumers and marketers alike.
