Palmer Luckey says he’ll announce that he is engaged on a brand new headset at AWE 2024, which is going down June 18-20.
It comes as Luckey’s new firm ModRetro simply introduced and opened preorders for Chromatic, a $200 handheld that may play Sport Boy and Sport Boy Shade cartridges on a show with the identical decision and colours as the unique consoles for a pixel-perfect and color-accurate expertise.
VR fanatic and YouTuber Brad Lynch responded to the Chromatic announcement on X by saying “Even Palmer would fairly launch a handheld than a VR HMD”, referencing Valve releasing Steam Deck as an alternative of an Index successor or new standalone headset (Index is now 5 years outdated). However Luckey replied to Lynch to say “I’m going to be asserting the truth that I’m engaged on a brand new HMD at AWE!”.
I’m going to be asserting the truth that I’m engaged on a brand new HMD at AWE!
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) June 3, 2024
For those who’re in some way unaware, Luckey based Oculus VR in 2012 to launch the Kickstarter marketing campaign that may finally result in the buyer Oculus Rift in 2016, basically reviving VR from the lifeless. Luckey was the general public face of Oculus till 2017 when he was fired by Fb, the corporate he offered Oculus to for over $2 billion in 2014. Luckey went on to co-found protection firm Anduril Industries, lately valued at $12.5 billion.
In his weblog put up asserting the Chromatic handheld, Luckey claims he would have open-sourced the buyer Oculus Rift had he not been fired earlier than he may. Oculus beforehand open-sourced the 2 Rift improvement kits.
In 2018 Luckey modified an Oculus Go headset to make it all-black, which is necessary on the worn aspect to cut back inside reflections that may be seen as “god rays” within the lenses. He additionally eliminated the battery from the entrance to as an alternative mount it externally on high of the top strap, and changed the cooling system with a lighter various of aluminum fins and a small micro-blower.
In 2022 Luckey modified a Meta Quest Professional to construct a one-off headset he mentioned kills the wearer for actual in the event that they die in a VR sport, impressed by the anime sequence Sword Artwork On-line. Luckey described the system as a “piece of workplace artwork” and “a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in sport design”.
Palmer Luckey Gave His Take On Quest Professional And Imaginative and prescient Professional
Palmer Luckey gave his tackle Meta Quest Professional and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and defined what he would do otherwise if nonetheless at Oculus:
In a podcast look final yr Luckey praised Apple’s technique with Imaginative and prescient Professional as “going after the precise proper phase of the market that Apple must be going after”, and mentioned he thought Meta deserted the high-end of the market too shortly, not giving the expertise sufficient time to progress by way of the same old adoption cycle.
“There’s been this constant push at Fb to make VR one thing that everyone is excited by utilizing, however I feel it is come considerably prematurely. I wrote a weblog put up years in the past referred to as Free Is not Low cost Sufficient and in it I lay out an argument in opposition to the concept the factor holding VR again is value.”
“There was a factor that I mentioned proper earlier than I left. I identified within the advertising and marketing and focusing on discussions, there was an excessive amount of Starbucks and never sufficient Mountain Dew.
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He additionally described Quest Professional as a directionally good step poorly executed, declaring that Meta fully didn’t capitalize on transport the primary shopper standalone with eye monitoring built-in.
We have reached out to Luckey for any particular particulars or teases concerning the headset he plans to announce at AWE. Given the unconventional nature of Luckey’s current {hardware} efforts, from the Oculus Rift to handheld retro consoles and autonomous weapons techniques, there’s loads of house for hypothesis about what route this headset would possibly take. We’ll replace this text if we hear again from Luckey.
