By Derrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Palmer Luckey doesn't just want to sell a bunch of virtual reality headsets. He wants buyers to use them every day.
The founder of Oculus told a group of developers working on VR content Wednesday that the immersive medium's success should be measured by time- not necessarily money – spent on it.
"We can sell a bunch of things that will sit on a desk and stay dusty," he said on stage at the Vision Summit. "I wouldn't consider that successful. If we can make things that people use every day, that's a good sign for the future of virtual reality as an ecosystem."
Oculus' technology surrounds wearers' eyes with 360-degree views of virtual worlds that are either created inside a computer or captured with several cameras. The headset tracks a users' movement and can be used with Oculus' wand-like Touch controllers to create an interactive experience.
The Facebook-owned company is scheduled to launch the Rift headset March 28. Oculus incited sticker shock in January when it announced the consumer edition would cost $599 – or $1,499 when bundled with a high-powered PC required to use it.
"We shipped a couple hundred thousand developments kits, but that's nothing on what we plan on doing this year," teased Luckey.
The first-ever Vision Summit was organized by game engine purveyor Unity, which unveiled a tool Wednesday that allows VR designers to create and manipulate virtual worlds while wearing headsets.
Luckey announced that the Rift would come with a four-month trial of a professional edition of the Unity engine, so that all Rift buyers "could be a creator, not just a consumer."
Unity CEO John Riccitiello cautioned the 1,400 attendees at the Hollywood & Highland Center that 2016 will not be the year that VR sees mainstream adoption and that the technology has been "overhyped" by the media.
"It's going to be bigger in the long run," said Riccitiello, who previously served as president and COO of video game publisher Electronic Arts.
Riccitiello projected 1 billion consumers will own VR technology in 5 to 10 years, pointing to the similar growth of such technologies as smartphones.
While VR on smartphones is now available with headsets like Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear, higher fidelity experiences won't be available until the launch of the Oculus Rift, Sony's PlayStation VR and Vive from HTC and Valve.
PlayStation VR and Vive will be available later this year for yet-to-be-announced prices.
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell sent the Vision Summit audience into an Oprah Winfrey-like frenzy when he announced that all the developers in attendance would receive a free Vive system.
"You get a Vive, and you get a Vive, and you get a Vive," the veteran game designer joked.
The conference continues through Thursday with such talks as "Emotional Presence in Virtual Reality" and "VR in the Classroom."
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More