Oculus VR is just gobbling talent up. A couple of weeks ago the company acquired Valve’s Atman Binstock, and today Valve’s VR guru Michael Abrash has joined the team as chief scientist. This could soften the blow from Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus a couple of days ago.
“We’re on the cusp of what I think is not The Next Big Platform, but rather simply The Final Platform – the platform to end all platforms – and the path here has been so improbable that I can only shake my head,” said Abrash in a blog post.
Against the odds, and contrary to others have reacted to the Facebook deal, it was this event that made Abrash believe that VR can succeed. He calls it the “final piece of the puzzle.”
Abrash says that VR is well understood at this point and that it’s engineering that is needed to push it forward, not research; engineering that requires capital. “We’re on the cusp of what I think is not The Next Big Platform, but rather simply The Final Platform – the platform to end all platforms – and the path here has been so improbable that I can only shake my head.
“That worry is now gone. Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus means that VR is going to happen in all its glory. The resources and long-term commitment that Facebook brings gives Oculus the runway it needs to solve the hard problems of VR – and some of them are hard indeed. I now fully expect to spend the rest of my career pushing VR as far ahead as I can.”
But with two of its major VR players joining Oculus along with it partnering with Facebook, where does that leave Valve’s VR plans? It was working with Oculus on VR tech is showed off at Steam Dev Days – but massive shifts in the VR space could change this relationship.