The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality - Softcover

Harris, Blake J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062455974 ISBN 13: 9780062455970

Publisher: Dey Street Books, 2020

Synopsis

The dramatic, larger-than-life true story behind the founding of Oculus and its quest for virtual reality, by the bestselling author of Console Wars. Drawing on over a hundred interviews with the key players driving this revolution, The History of the Future weaves together a rich, cinematic narrative that captures the breakthroughs, breakdowns and human drama of trying to change the world. The result is a super accessible and supremely entertaining look at the birth of a game-changing new industry.

From iconic books like Neuromancer to blockbuster films like The Matrix, virtual reality has long been hailed as the ultimate technology. But outside of a few research labs and military training facilities, this tantalizing vision of the future was nothing but science fiction. Until 2012, when Oculus founder Palmer Luckey—then just a rebellious teenage dreamer living alone in a camper trailer—invents a device that has the potential to change everything.

With the help of a videogame legend, a serial entrepreneur and many other colorful characters, Luckey’s scrappy startup kickstarts a revolution and sets out to bring VR to the masses. As with most underdog stories, things don’t quite go according to plan. But what happens next turns out to be the ultimate entrepreneurial journey: a tale of battles won and lost, lessons learned and neverending twists and turns—including an unlikely multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, which shakes up the landscape in Silicon Valley and gives Oculus the chance to forever change our reality.

Drawing on over a hundred interviews with the key players driving this revolution, The History of the Future weaves together a rich, cinematic narrative that captures the breakthroughs, breakdowns and human drama of trying to change the world. The result is a super accessible and supremely entertaining look at the birth of a game-changing new industry.

About this title

About the Author

Blake J. Harris is the bestselling author of History of the Future and Console Wars, which is now a CBS All Access feature film by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. He has written for ESPN, IGN, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, /Film and The AV Club. He is also a regular guest on Paul Scheer’s How Did This Get Made? podcast, where every week he interviews some the biggest names responsible for some of the worst movies ever made. Harris lives in New York with his wife.

From the Back Cover

The dramatic, larger-than-life true story behind the founding of Oculus and its quest for virtual reality, by the bestselling author of Console Wars.

In 2012, nineteen-year-old Palmer Luckey—inventor, gamer, dreamer—lives alone in a trailer in Long Beach, California, that he has transformed into a makeshift laboratory optimized to build virtual reality headsets—a technology most believed died in the nineties. Luckey, however, is adamant about its resurrection; so, too, are other visionaries.

Enter famed coder and video game pioneer John Carmack, who is developing a game that might be the perfect software companion to Luckey’s hardware. Soon enough, the two team up, and with the help of a charismatic serial entrepreneur, a brilliant Russian programmer, and dozens of other colorful characters, Luckey’s scrappy startup—Oculus—kickstarts a virtual reality revolution. What happens next turns out to be the ultimate entrepreneurial journey: a tale of battles won and lost, lessons learned, and never-ending twists and turns—including an unlikely, multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who wants to help bring VR to the masses. The result is a modern-day tale of the American Dream that is a front-row seat to the birth of a game-changing new industry.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dey Street Books
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0062455974
• ISBN 13: 9780062455970
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 592