The company's first purchase was made on June 24 when it bought the Seattle-based Carbon Design Group. It was the company responsible in designing the controller and the Kinect motion-sensing camera of Microsoft's Xbox 360. The RakNet-focused acquisition of Oculus VR is part of its plan to design and enhance its Rift headset product in preparation for an upcoming consumer launch. Currently, the unit sells at $350 as a developer kit and will eventually have a consumer version either in the latter part of the year or at the beginning of next year.
The two acquisitions were made possible through Facebook's own acquisition of Oculus in March which involved a whopping $2 billion in the deal. With this amount of money, Oculus chief executive Brendan Iribe and co-founder Palmer Luckey are more than ready to conquer the world of virtual-reality headsets.
RakNet's C++ system has been designed to give access to software builders of a number of platforms that include Mac, iOS, Android, and Xbox 360. It had previously worked under license and allowed free usage to smaller gaming companies with sub $100,000 revenue. The scheme attracted several indie developers and even mainstream companies such as Sony Online Entertainment and Mojang. Now that it's open-sourced, developers can modify and work on its code even without license.
RakNet's open source technology is available through an altered BSD license which is identical to the license being used by Facebook. While the latter is an online-network company, RakNet's technology is focused more on data-intensive games. Oculus and Facebook share the same vision of bringing gamers together in the virtual gaming reality. With RakNet's new open-source technology, developers have the tools to create a new breed of gaming that promises to deliver an ultimate gaming experience.
Oculus' acquisition of RakNet is part of its aim to function as a gaming platform as opposed to being the sole provider of Virtual Reality games. It believes in the key role brought by online multiplayer gaming in spearheading a new networking solution that is free and lightweight to gaming enthusiasts.
As a way to highlight the news of the acquisition, Oculus is holding a developer conference on September 19 and 20 in Hollywood, California. Dubbed as "The Oculus Connect" conference, it will feature prominent speakers and guests such as Brendan Iribe (CEO), Palmer Luckey (co-founder), John Carmack, and Michael Abrash. The developer-celebrating event provides only limited space to eager attendees. Lucky event goers will have hands-on design access of upcoming Oculus apps and receive engineering feedback as well.
