Most gamers have been wondering when gaming will be taken in a Virtual Reality (VR) direction. With products like the Oculus Rift about ready to hit the market, one would think that would have happened already. Fortunately, there will be an announcement from Palmer Luckey at the Game Awards about his Oculus Rift, and it could be a game changer.
According to CNET, the creator of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, is planning on making a "special announcement" during the Game Awards. This was announced in a tweet, where Luckey stated: "Really cool announcement happening at The Game Awards! (Not preorders opening)".
Considering that the Oculus Rift, one of the several devices that could usher in a VR age, it is not surprising that he gave a hint saying that it won't be preorders for it. So far, there really hasn't been any word about the release date and date of the virtual reality headset. This certainly points to the most likely announcement that Luckey would reveal at the Game Awards, which will be broadcasted on December 3rd online at 6 PM Pacific Time.
Oculus Rift is owned by Facebook, and it has quite an interesting history. Palmer Luckey built a prototype of this VR technology in early 2012 in his parents' garage, and then raised a Kickstarter campaign where he was able to bring in $2.4 million. Mark Zuckerberg saw the potential of the device and bought the company for $2 billion.
According to Investor Place, Zuckerberg was first seen as rash for this purchase, but he saw that not only did the Oculus Rift have great potential as a gaming device, but it is also good for social media as well. So far, there isn't really any plan to see Facebook go into VR mode, and much of what is seen with the Oculus Rift involves very interactive gaming. The fact that social media giant Zuckerberg bought Oculus Rift shows that there is some plan that isn't being said at this point.
Virtual Reality was one of those technologies that was really thought to be a breakthrough in the early nineties, but after products like Virtual Boy and other attempts at it never took off, it was practically declared dead. It wasn't until the Oculus Rift started gaining popularity has there been such a revival of it, and there will be others hitting the market like the HTC Vive, the Samsung Gear, and Sony with its PlayStation VR.
To see the announcement for yourself, watch the 2015 Game Awards via Live Steam on home consoles and PC on December 3rd at 6:00 PM (Pacific Time), taking place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. If you want to schedule a time for the event, head over to The Game Awards website and find out where you want to watch it. You can choose from Go90 (Sponsor of the Awards), PlayStation Network (PSN), Xbox Live, Wii U, Steam, Twitch, YouTube, IGN, Polygon, Gamespot, Kotaku, Niconico, MLG, Azubu, Hitbox, and UOL.
