Home > Latest News > Oculus Co-Founder Invests In The Competition

Oculus Co-Founder Invests In The Competition

Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey has put his money behind Revive, a new software kit that will bring software previously exclusive to the Oculus Rift to other VR platforms like the HTC Vive.

Luckey pledged $2000 a month of support to the development of the software via developer CrossVR’s Patreon.

CrossVR’s Jules Blok revealed the news in a post to backers, “as some of you suspected the sudden extreme jump in the pledge amount is indeed by Palmer Luckey. I’d like to thank him for his pledge and everything he has done for the VR community as a whole.”
The move comes at an precarious time for Oculus, where the company’s initial advantage in the VR space is being eroded by a combination of negative publicity, a slowdown in the growth of the platform’s library and increased pressure from competitors.

The loss of the high-quality experiences developed exclusively for the Rift to other platforms would likely see the Rift continue to lose ground against rivals Sony and HTC.

Given the small-scale of the CrossVR project, it’s unknown whether or when Luckey’s investment will pay off. However, if nothing else, it’s a blow to Facebook – who reportedly invested $500 million following their acquisition of Oculus to fund the creation of several of their VR platform’s biggest releases.

Luckey parted ways with Oculus and Facebook earlier this year, following an intensive court battle between the company and video game publisher ZeniMax over alleged theft of trade secrets.