“Oculus: How to Build the World's Greatest VR Company and Lose It All” by Blake J. Harris
Blake J. Harris is a writer, author of the bestselling Console Wars and director of the eponymous documentary about the rivalry between Nintendo and Sega in the 90s. Today we offer you to read his book about the self-taught genius Palmer Luckey, the invention of the Oculus Rift, fateful acquaintances and why everything can change quickly in business. We will briefly explain what is going on here and tell you why this recommendation may be interesting.
The story of Palmer Luckey is about a great love for VR, modding and revolutionary solutions. When he was very young, Luckey moved from his parents' house to a trailer parked nearby, remodeled it to suit his needs, removing the kitchen and toilet, as they took up a lot of space, and set up his den in it. Having an interest in the once forgotten technology of VR helmets, he began his experiments. And despite the dubious reputation of the entire technology (after research in the 80s and 90s, virtual reality did not become widespread, and helmet models were too bulky and had a viewing angle of no more than 40 degrees), one day the trailer genius received a letter from his childhood idol, John Carmack, offering to lend or sell one of the prototypes. And then everything spun so much that the Oculus VR company was born – in collaboration with Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov and Nate Mitchell, who became like-minded people for Palmer Luckey. By the way, we use the word “cooperation” here for a reason. Look for a fragment on the pages of the book about what it means. Hint: it will be Iriba's remark.
The culmination of this whole story was the episode with the acquisition of Oculus VR by Mark Zuckerberg's corporation (you know which one). The deal was so profitable that it made no sense to refuse it. After it, Palmer Luckey even landed on the cover of Forbes magazine. However, the success did not last long, and the media fame turned into a scandal associated with a one-time donation to the Nimble America organization and political nuances. Later, Luckey had to leave the company – the reasons are not officially disclosed. There are many articles about this on the Internet, but in many ways they are full of generalizations, which can be misleading. Blake J. Harris in his book presents the author's version of events with a lot of facts, so it will be interesting to read in order to understand in more detail and look at the storyline of Palmer Luckey impartially. Although it will probably be difficult to remain cool-headed to the revolution in the world of VR helmets and glasses and the business tragedy of one of the founders.
Between the trailer and the office at Zuckerberg's company and after Palmer Luckey's “expulsion,” there were many events. Blake J. Harris tells about them. The offer to work at Sony at the start, exhibitions and the grand success of the technology, the Kickstarter fundraiser, negotiations here and there (it turned out nicely with Valve, when a visit to demonstrate the helmet ended with an awkward photo as a souvenir), litigation, which the author of the book wrapped up in a chapter called “Comedy Series (ZeniMax vs. Oculus)” and a fragment of the court protocol. Like a cherry on the cake, the final chapter about Palmer Luckey's return to the space of colleagues, enthusiastic followers and not always conscientious journalists.
The book's strengths lie in its structure. The pages contain email texts with “From” and “To” columns, which adds a bit of immersion, as if you find yourself in the same trailer with the main character and are reading a letter from, no way, Carmack, and so on. And there are more than enough dialogues and quotes to capture the moods and intentions of all the characters.
There are also explanations of what is happening within the scandal and screenshots of Palmer Luckey's recordings. In such stories, it is especially great to read the original source, and not the distortions of journalists from Fox News.
We recommend the book to gamers, developers and anyone who is not indifferent to virtual reality. You can also watch the episode of South Park dedicated specifically to the Oculus Rift VR glasses – season 18, episode 7 (at the end they show non-cartoon Eric, Kyle, Stan, Kenny and… Butters). And one more cinematic moment: almost at the very beginning of the book there is a reference to the series Breaking Bad. Look for it in the chapter describing Palmer Luckey's work environment in the trailer.
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