Mark Zuckerberg Shills VR In Court Hearing
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified in court over accusations that Facebook-backed VR player Oculus is built on stolen technology, saying “we are highly confident that Oculus products are built on Oculus technology.”
As reported yesterday – Oculus and Facebook are currently in court over accusations made by video game publisher ZeniMax, who are pursuing US$2 billion in damages and claim that former employee John Carmack stole intellectual property when he left the company to join Oculus in 2013.
During the questioning, lawyers quizzed Zuckerberg on the company’s acquisition of Oculus, arguing that Facebook rushed the process and willingly overlooked details about its dispute with ZeniMax.
Zuckerberg was dismissive of these claims, insisting that “like most people in the court, I’ve never even heard of ZeniMax before”.
“The idea that Oculus products are based on someone else’s technology is just wrong,” Zuckerberg said before going on to talk up the broader potential of VR in words that you’d expect to find in a technology tradeshow like CES over a courtroom.
He asserted that virtual reality would bring Facebook’s social network closer to a “perfect representation” of what is happening in the lives of its users.
However, according to him, “it’s going to take five or 10 more years of development before we get to where we all want to go.”
Zuckerberg also revealed that while the publicised price of Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus was $2 billion, the actual cost was closer to $3 billion.
The trial will continue to unfold over the next few weeks, with Oculus founder Palmer Luckey expected to take the stand himself later this week.