In his first court appearance to testify, Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, revealed that it will take ten years and some $3 billion investment to propel VR headsets such as Oculus in providing excellent virtual reality experience to hundreds of millions of people. Although the giant tech company's commitment to VR has not changed, Zuckerberg said it ended up being more complex than he thought up front. Oculus and Facebook are facing a lawsuit over the former taking a technology it did not own.
The potential payout for this lawsuit will cost Facebook $2 billion. If the plaintiff, who is an unheard of company ZeniMax, wins the lawsuit and seeks injunction to bar Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR headsets, it will deliver a devastating blow to the emerging VR industry, Polygon reported. Already the lawsuit shakes the future of the VR industry.
The dispute started two years ago when Facebook announced it's acquiring the company Oculus. ZeniMax accuses Oculus of stealing important elements of the Rift technology. It eventually included Facebook in the parties ZeniMax is suing, The New York Times reported.
Mark Zuckerberg was called to court to testify and his testimony offers a glimpse of the future of the VR technology that he was so keen on promoting. VR sales did not meet expectations what with its expensive price and limited content. The CEO said he doesn't think that good VR is here yet and that its development will take a decade or more before it gets to where he wants it to go.
He also denied the allegations that Oculus took a technology it did not own. According to Zuckerberg, before they make acquisitions, Facebook as a company takes weeks, months, or even years before they acquire a company. Moreover, they use a fear tactic to convince people to join them and make them understand the pain they will go through once they join Facebook.
Zuckerberg revealed that Brendan Iribe, Oculus co-founder, originally asked $4 billion for their VR headset but settled to half than that. However, Zuckerberg disclosed that they paid $700 million more for certain people from the original company to join them and another $300 million for every milestone it makes.
The CEO said he has not heard of ZeniMax before and it's pretty common for some people to just jump out of nowhere and claim ownership of a certain portion of a deal once announcement of a big deal is made.
