Facebook's Oculus Go is getting YouTube VR
And NBA games are coming to Oculus Venues, its concert and sports events app.
Oculus is bringing YouTube VR to its entry-level Oculus Go VR headset and adding NBA basketball games to its Oculus Venues app, Facebook's virtual reality unit said Wednesday, additions that mark an expansion of the type of video available for the company's virtual reality devices.
The additions constitute baby steps toward addressing one of VR's underlying weaknesses: The scarcity of killer content that will win people over to the unfamiliar computing format. Widespread adoption of VR has been elusive, even as it remains one of technology's most-hyped trends. Without a gotta-see-it experience, consumers have resisted pouring hundreds of dollars into headsets like those from Oculus.
The announcements, made during the annual Oculus Connect developer conference, are designed to address that issue. YouTube VR, owned by search giant Google, already has 800,000 videos in VR, giving users access to more material. Adding NBA pro basketball games to the Oculus Venue, the company's concert and sports event app, will bring one of the world's most popular sports to the platform. NBA games will be available in the fall.
Earlier in the conference, Oculus unveiled its next-generation standalone VR headset, Oculus Quest, which will be available in the spring for $399. That model bridges the gap between the high-end, PC-connected Oculus Rift and the entry-level $199 Oculus Go, which was introduced earlier this year.
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