Oculus Rift
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Oculus' Carmack to Minecraft creator: 'Say the word'
Earlier this year, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson announced that his game would not be coming to Oculus' Rift due to the company's acquisition by Facebook. "Facebook creeps me out," Persson said. It seems those heebie-jeebies are starting to subside though, as a different life crisis has come to the forefront: "And about now I'm officially over being upset about Facebook buying Oculus," Persson recently tweeted. "I'm upset about there being a hole in my favorite sock instead." John Carmack, co-creator of Doom, Oculus convert and center of a legal battle with former employer ZeniMax, responded enthusiastically. "Say the word, ship the source, and i'll make sure It runs well on you-know-what," he wrote. Sounds nice, but we're not sure how Carmack would make Persson's sock run well on ... oh. Ohhhh. Nevermind, we just got it. We see what you did there, John. [Image: Mojang]
Palmer Luckey looks years out, sees Oculus doing software
Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey compares the future of virtual reality to the current television industry – the money isn't in manufacturing TVs, it's in creating content for those TVs. "It's going to be the same thing with VR," Luckey said during an interview at Gamescom. "Eventually, it's going to be commoditized and the hardware differences between all the different vendors are going to be meaningless. It's all going to be about the content and the software. So I think we're actually – in the long haul, looking years or decades out – probably more on the software side." Luckey has a clear vision for the final Oculus hardware – higher resolution, higher framerate, 1080p, 90Hz, smaller, lighter and more comfortable. Get all of Luckey's specs in our video interview.
Gamescom Awards evolve, favor 2K's monstrous game
The votes are in, and the winner of the Gamescom 2014 Awards is ... *drumroll* Oh, you saw the headline and figured out the pun already? Well, you're right; it's Evolve, the 4v1 monster-on-human huntfest from Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios. The game took home not only the award for "Best of Gamescom," but also the awards for "Best Console Game Microsoft Xbox," "Best PC Game," "Best Action Game" and "Best Online Multiplayer Game." Other highlights include Super Smash Bros. taking home the "Best Mobile Game" award for its 3DS iteration, while its console counterpart took home the "Most Wanted Consumer Award," a title that premiered at this year's ceremony. LittleBigPlanet 3 also won multiple awards, specifically the "Best Social / Casual / Online Game" award and the "Best Family Game" award. We're relatively sure that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call won the award for "Best Simulation Game" due to its simulation of music, but we can pretend it won because it simulates being an adorable JRPG character singing along to catchy tunes, too. Check out the full list of winners after the break.
Open-world skiing game Snow drifting to PS4, Oculus Rift
Swedish developer Poppermost will bring its open-world skiing game Snow to PlayStation 4 as well as PC, which gets additional Oculus Rift support. Snow arrived on Steam's Early Access service in October and is expected to move into a closed beta phase by the end of the year as a free-to-play game. The game is console-exclusive to the PS4. Those that want to check out the Early Access version on PC can pick up founders packs with alpha passes and in-game items, ranging from $15 to $60. Poppermost crammed eight square kilometers of open space and alpine terrain into its first game, which is powered by Crytek's Cryengine. In Snow, players thumb through hundreds of items in the game's catalog to equip their riders with 11 pieces of gear simultaneously before hitting the slopes to perform tricks. [Image: Poppermost]
Peek into Oculus Rift dev kit 2, see a Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Want to get a preview of the Oculus Rift as it exists in Dev Kit 2 state, but don't have $350 to spare (never mind waiting for the retail version)? Try heading to your nearest electronics retailer and hold a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 right up to your face. Oh sure, it won't give you the 360 degrees of stereoscopic 3D that the full headset offers, but according to a teardown by iFixit, the Rift DK2 nonetheless uses the Note 3 screen to display a resolution of 1080 x 960 in each eye. This isn't the same type of screen or same screen technology, by the way. The screen appears to be literally the same; camera holes, button hole, Samsung logo and all. Oculus even left the touchscreen controller attached. The screen is being overclocked from its usual refresh rate of 60 Hz to 75 Hz, so even though it's the same tech, it's being pushed and used in a way different from the smartphone it comes from. But hey, we'll take what we can get until Oculus and ZeniMax sort out their legal feud. [Image: Oculus]
Combatless MMO Wander releases Gamescom trailer
We last looked at Wander in detail at PAX Prime 2013, but the indie "collaborative exploration" MMO has been hard at work on its cross-platform, VR-friendly, combat-free experience since then. Today, the game's creator, Loki Davison, has released a brief trailer ahead of Gamescom, where Wander will be one of a very few MMOs featured at the Indie MEGABOOTH. Enjoy the video below.
Pacific Rim and Oculus Rift go together like robots and kaiju
Legendary Pictures has a special treat for Pacific Rim fans visiting San Diego Comic-Con this weekend: the chance to pilot a Jaeger, one of the giant monster-punching robots from Guillermo Del Toro's 2013 action flick. Using the Oculus Rift, attendees can step into the virtual cockpit of the Jaeger Gipsy Danger as it fights off the Kaiju (see: giant monster) named Knifehead. The VR demo is built in Unreal Engine 4, using the original film assets created by Industrial Light & Magic. Unfortunately, the promo video above doesn't show anything from inside the experience and Legendary has not said anything regarding a public demo, so those of us not in San Diego will have to settle for playing pretend without the benefit of hundreds-of-dollars-worth of technology strapped to our faces. Oh well. *insert Pacific Rim theme song* Dunnuh-duh dunnuh-DUNNNN ... [Image: Legendary Pictures]
Facebook's acquisition of Oculus is now official
Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR closed today, officially cementing the deal that was announced in March. Oculus and Facebook are as inseparable as a vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity. Or a tech company and another tech company targeting a slightly different market. To celebrate their unity, Facebook and Oculus released a single, joint statement regarding today's finalization: "We're looking forward to an exciting future together, building the next computing platform and reimagining the way people communicate." We discussed the Facebook deal with Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe at E3: He said that Oculus always planned to reach a mass market, and Facebook, with its 1.2 billion users, helps the company reach that goal. [Image: Oculus VR]
The Trinity Magnum VR controller is like a PlayStation Move for your PC
The Oculus Rift isn't even a consumer product yet, but it already has a shadow hanging over its head: how, exactly, are its users going to interact with its intangible, virtual worlds? It's starting to look like the answer will be multifaceted, requiring users to own different devices for different gameplay scenarios. Trinity VR wants to be gamer's go-to product for the FPS genre, and have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its Magnum VR controller. We caught up with the company in San Francisco to give its prototype controller a quick look; here's what we found out.
Perfect Ten: Why the second half of 2014 will be awesome for MMOs
In the midst of mid-summer doldrums, it's easy to fall into a mild depression thinking that everything cool that was going to happen this year already has -- especially in gaming. The spring launch blitz is now officially over, with two highly anticipated MMOs launched, and now some people might be wondering if the rest of 2014 will be all downhill. Spoiler: It will not be. We started talking the other day in the Massively office about just how much there's coming for the latter half of this year and why we're excited to see what the fall and winter months bring. There's so much to look forward to, in fact, that it was incredibly difficult to narrow it down to a mere 10 entries. But that's my job, and that's what I did. Here's why the second half of 2014 will be awesome.
Oculus halts Rift pre-orders for suspected resellers
If you've pre-ordered a second-generation Rift headset, don't expect to sell the gadget on eBay. Oculus VR has begun canceling orders for anyone hoping to turn a quick profit. The Oculus Rift developer community was recently outraged by an eBay listing which promoted a pre-ordered Oculus Rift Developer's Kit 2 for $5,000 - a sizeable markup over the gadget's $300 base price. Oculus VR quickly investigated the seller and canceled the pre-order. The listing vanished a short time later. This then prompted a deluge of community members reporting online auction listings, and numerous pre-orders were canceled as a result. Though its hammer of justice is swift, Oculus assures community members that the company performs due diligence before canceling any pre-orders. "Just so everyone is clear, the information provided alone was not enough to take action," Oculus stated, according to a TechCrunch report. "We perform our own investigations with tools at our disposal to make sure that there isn't a false positive." [Image: Oculus VR]
Oculus cracks down on Rift scalpers reselling hardware on eBay
Yes, we're all excited to get our hands on the consumer version of Oculus' VR gear, but that doesn't mean that the company doesn't take too kindly to scalpers offering dev kits ahead of time. After banning any orders from China after resellers tried to buy them at extreme rates, the Facebook-owned business has now turned its attentions to individuals who were trying to make a fast buck on eBay. When the community spotted one of the forthcoming DK2 development kits being listed for $5,000 and reported it, Oculus found the pre-order and swiftly cancelled it. The VR firm has also reminded would-be buyers that second hand sales don't come with a warranty, so even if you did spend that sort of cash but the hardware was faulty, it'd be hard cheese.
Oculus announces Oculus Connect conference, acquires RakNet
As the latest Oculus Rift development kits begin shipping, Oculus VR has made a pair of important announcements for up-and-coming virtual reality developers. First, the company will be hosting a new VR development conference later this year. Called Oculus Connect, the conference will feature "sessions and workshops led by Oculus engineers and industry pioneers," as well as keynotes from Oculus founder Palmer Lucky, CEO Brendan Iribe, chief scientist Michael Abrash and, of course, John Carmack. Oculus Connect 2014 runs September 19-20, and registration begins July 10. Alongside Oculus Connect, the company also announced the acquisition of RakNet, a C++ networking middleware system for game development. Essentially, the system provides developers the essentials for implementing online multiplayer (voice chat, object replication, etc). The system is currently used by companies like Sony Online Entertainment, Mojang and even Lockheed Martin. More important than the acquisition, however, is Oculus VR's decision to make RakNet open source, starting today. Interested developers can snag it right now from Oculus' GitHub. If you decide to develop any online-enabled, virtual face touching, let us know.
Oculus VR suspends Rift sales in China due to scalpers
Despite hardware refinements and positive impressions, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is not yet intended for consumers. That hasn't stopped VR enthusiasts from wanting to snatch up the device ASAP though, and where there is demand, there will be people seeking (not always legitimate) supply. Such is unfortunately the case with China, where Oculus has suspended sales of the Dev Kit 2 version of the Rift due to what a company representative called "extreme reseller purchases." "We need to make sure that we are doing what we can to make sure that resellers that are looking to flip our product for a profit are not taking stock away from legitimate developer purchases globally," the Oculus rep wrote. "Our product, in its current form, is a developer kit, meant for developers that develop VR content. We are looking into alternative ways to make sure that our development kits are getting into legitimate developer hands in China." When asked just how bad the reselling situation was, the rep responded, "We were forced to suspend an entire country from purchasing. I'll let you put two and two together." So ... not good? [Image: Oculus]
Barely Related: Community lives on, buy Laura Palmer's house
Light up the grills and pop open those cold cans – it's nerdy news time! Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
China's scalpers force Oculus to suspend Rift sales
With over 100,000 developer kit sales logged in its docket, it's fair to say interest in the Oculus Rift is high. While we wait for the inevitable release of the consumer model, scalpers in China snapping up developer versions at such a rate that the Facebook-owned company has been forced to suspend sales in the country. According to comments made by an Oculus representative on Reddit, the VR specialist was seeing "extreme reseller purchases," which were presumably sold at an unhealthy markup and took stock away from legitimate developers. While the company's DK2 headset is making its way to buyers, it's considered an in-development version of Rift and isn't intended for consumers.
Next batch of Oculus Rift development kits shipping
The next prototype development kits for Oculus Rift are now shipping, the virtual reality headset manufacturer announced this week. Sales of the $350 second kit have reached 45,000, an increase of 20,000 headsets since April. Pre-orders for the second kit started in March, just before Oculus VR was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion. The kits are expected to reach developers by the week of July 14. Oculus VR has been busy these last few months. It acquired the Xbox 360 controller design team Carbon Design last week, Steam pioneer Jason Holtman in early June, former Valve VR head Atman Binstock in March and ID Software Co-Founder John Carmack in August. [Image: Oculus VR]
Head on up to 'South Park' with Oculus Rift and have yourself a time
If it's been your childhood dream to explore South Park in 3D, consider it realized thanks to a new Oculus Rift experience from Tool. Over the course of a "few short weeks in June," the production company, inspired by The Stick of Truth RPG, faithfully recreated the fictional Colorado town allowing anyone with an Oculus headset to explore its scrapbook streets, interact with characters and find hidden easter eggs. For example: if you navigate through the town's church doors, you'll almost certainly "fall" into Hell. You can beat a hasty retreat, however, if you bump into Saddam Hussein, who'll whisk you back to the snowy streets of South Park (just don't ask us who killed Kenny). While the experience is best suited for Oculus Rift owners, the cartoon landscape is also available inside your browser. You can find that and the Oculus source files using the links below.
Oculus to acquire Xbox 360 controller designer Carbon
Virtual reality company Oculus VR announced the acquisition of Carbon Design team this week. Carbon Design is best known as the designer of Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller, and will continue working from its studio in the Seattle area. Oculus said it has been working with Carbon "for nearly a year on multiple unannounced projects." Carbon also designed the transforming d-pad for the follow-up Xbox 360 controller that launched in November 2010 and contributed its mechanical engineering expertise to the Xbox 360 version of the Kinect. Carbon Design will become a "key component of the product engineering group" for Oculus, which itself was acquired by Facebook in March for $2 billion. Oculus continues to bring industry talent into the fold, such as former Valve VR head Atman Binstock in March, Steam pioneer Jason Holtman earlier this month and ID Software Co-Founder John Carmack in August 2013. [Image: Carbon Design]
Oculus slams ZeniMax in latest legal statement
The war of words continues between Oculus VR and ZeniMax. The latest salvo comes courtesy of a legal statement issued by the former in which it denies ZeniMax's claim that key tech was developed by John Carmack before he left ZeniMax for Oculus. "By deliberately misstating some facts and omitting others, ZeniMax makes the incredible assertion that it, a videogame software publishing company for personal computers and consoles like the Sony PlayStation, invented and developed a virtual reality hardware and software system," the statement reads, in part. It goes on to state that the Oculus VR headset tech was developed by Palmer Luckey and that the "lawsuit is nothing more than ZeniMax seeking to correct for a massive missed opportunity through the assertion of meritless litigation."
