Oculus founder and CEO Palmer Luckey made the pretty awesome decision to hand-deliver the very first Oculus Rift yesterday, venturing out to Alaska to hand over the virtual reality headset to Ross Martin.
Martin was the very first individual to purchase a Rift, beating out many other customers by a fraction of a second to be the first person to pre-order the VR device. Luckey marked this momentous occasion by personally travelling out to hand over a signed box containing the headset, live-streaming the entire exchange on his Facebook page. However, the end result didn’t exactly lead to the enthusiastic reaction Luckey was hoping for.
Handing Martin his Rift at his office, Luckey then tells Martin he has a “nice place.” “Hey,” Martin replies. “Man, this is incredible. I’ve been working on this for so long, and you’re the first person to actually get one… it’s kinda like me taking all this work and handing it off to you, so you have to make sure you have fun with it or something,” Luckey tells Martin. “Yeah,” Martin replies.
While we don’t doubt that Martin was actually elated about receiving his Rift given he was literally the first person who bought it, it’s understandably difficult to feel comfortable conveying excitement when you know you’re being livestreamed in front of thousands upon thousands of people. We do feel bad for the guy, but there’s something painfully hilarious about this notably awkward exchange, especially when Luckey is informed that Martin doesn’t actually have a PC nearby that can run the Rift, and is therefore forced into small talk regarding his day job before the conversation is mercifully concluded.
Watch the video below:
Personally delivering the first Rift to Alaska!
Posted by Palmer Freeman Luckey on Saturday, 26 March 2016
