Thus far the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has solely been used with video games, though one of its creators has revealed that the future of the device may not lie in the hands of the gaming industry after all.
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Nate Mitchell, Oculus VR’s vice-president for product, has stated that although the Oculus Rift’s initial pitch was for it to be used in conjunction with video games, when the consumer build arrives it may find itself being used more prominently by the film industry.
Speaking to the LA Times in an interview held at CES 2015, Mitchell said: “We’ve said from the beginning we’re big gamers, and we started Oculus to deliver consumer VR and revolutionize games. But it may well end up being that VR is more about film than games. We don’t know what the killer app is.”
The consumer model of the Oculus Rift is expected to release at some point during 2015, with its developer build having already been implemented in many PC games. The only feature-length film to have used the tech thus far is Banshee Chapter, which is available to download for free for anyone who owns the device.
Check out behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the movie below:
With Sony having already revealed that they’ll also be entering the VR market with their own Project Morpheus headset and the rights to the Oculus Rift having been acquired by Facebook, it seems likely that if the device were to stay focused upon the video game industry, it would solely be used for PC gaming. Therefore it is likely that the company would want to explore other avenues, meaning that incorporating the tech into the mainstream film industry could be the way to go.
Photo: Getty Images
