Book Review: The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality

The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution that Swept Virtual Reality

by Blake J. Harris

Dey Street Books, 2019  (ISBN: 9780062455963)

Review by paulml

Over the past 20 or 30 years, virtual reality has become something of a joke.  Many companies promised that they would be the one to make it a reality.  All have failed.  A California teenager named Palmer Luckey was determined to do something about it.

In 2012, he turned the trailer he was living in, sitting in his parents' driveway, into a VR workshop.  Teaming up with legendary game designer John Carmack, early demos of the headset were very favorable.  Gathering a colorful group of fellow employees, they decided on Oculus as a company name, and thus began the usual entrepreneurial journey of ups-and-downs.  Reactions to the Oculus headset from those who tried it continued to be very favorable (the phrase "game changer" was a common reaction).  Their Kickstarter campaign was very popular.

The company was eventually sold to Facebook for more than two billion dollars.  The reaction among many in the hardcore gamer world was outright hostility.  In 2016, Luckey did something very normal and reasonable (and very legal) that created a public relations firestorm.  Luckey became the most hated man in America.  Things did not end well for him.

This is a wonderful book.  For anyone who has ever dreamed of virtual reality, this is a must read.  It also works really well as a purely business book.  Maybe virtual reality's time has (finally) come.  This is very highly recommended.