The History of the Future

 The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality, Blake J Harris, Dey St. Books, 2019

Over the past twenty or thirty years, virtual reality has become something of a joke. Many companies promised that they would be the one to make it a reality; all have failed. A California teenager named Palmer Luckey was determined to do something about it.

In 2012, he turned the trailer he was living in, sitting in his parents' driveway, into a VR workshop. Teaming up with legendary game designer John Carmack, early demos of the headset were very favorable. Gathering a colorful group of fellow employees, they decided on Oculus as a company name. Thus began the usual entrepreneurial journey of ups and downs. Reactions to the Oculus headset from those who tried it, continued to remain very favorable (the phrase "game changer" was a common reaction. Their Kickstarter campaign was very successful.

The company was eventually sold to Facebook for more than two billion dollars. The reaction of many in the hardcore gamer community was outright hostility. In 2016, Luckey did something very normal and reasonable (and very legal), but which created a public relations firestorm. Luckey became the most hated man in America. Things did not end well for him.

This is a wonderful book. For anyone who has ever dreamed of virtual reality, this is a must read. It also works very well as a purely business book. Maybe virtual reality's time has (finally) come. This is very highly recommended.