This week at AWE 2024, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey spoke briefly a few new XR headset he’s growing. Although the headset would see Luckey returning to the XR house, this one is being constructed with navy, relatively than shopper, makes use of in thoughts.
Luckey confirmed earlier this month that he intends to construct a brand new XR headset, however revealed virtually no particulars in regards to the venture.
Throughout a panel dialogue at the moment at AWE 2024, he supplied only a bit extra, saying the headset’s design is “being pushed by navy necessities, but additionally going for use for non-military stuff. It’s actually cool, it’s actually one thing.”
Although Luckey was on stage with Bigscreen Past creator Darshan Shankar, the 2 didn’t point out any joint work collectively.
Luckey mentioned he’s saying the venture now as a result of making an attempt to maintain it secret means fewer alternatives to seek out key collaborators and suppliers.
His point out of the upcoming headset’s navy necessities suggests the venture originates from inside his present firm, Anduril, a tech-focused navy contractor.
Though “navy necessities” can usually be seen as synonymous with “extremely costly,” Luckey has grown Anduril right into a multi-billion greenback firm on the premise that main navy contractors cost an excessive amount of and ship extra slowly than they ought too.
Contemplating the headset’s angle, it appears unlikely {that a} military-focused headset would plug into any shopper XR ecosystems like Horizon OS or SteamVR. That leaves it up within the air whether or not the headset will probably be constructed on a proprietary platform—and the way it will help the “non-military stuff” that Luckey talked about. Probably that “stuff” refers to enterprise-focused use-cases like coaching, training, and design.
Luckey based Oculus in 2012, the corporate whose Rift headset was the spark that rebooted the trendy period of VR. As a quickly rising startup, Oculus attracted the eye of Meta (on the time Fb), which acquired the corporate in 2014 for greater than $2 billion. Luckey continued in VR beneath Meta’s roof for a number of years however was finally pushed out of the corporate on account of backlash to his politics. After leaving Meta, Luckey went on to discovered Anduril, a tech-defense startup which itself went on to realize a multi-billion valuation. Although Luckey hasn’t been energetic in XR since leaving Meta, he’s continued to be regarded to as a thought chief within the house.
