Founder of Oculus might be returning to consumer VR with something “really cool”

And it’s not like Luckey is completely transitioning away from the defense sector. He said that his new headset would be “driven” by defense requirements but also be used for other purposes. Luckey also described the upcoming XR device as “really cool”.

What could Palmer Luckey be working on?

As someone who practically kickstarted the modern consumer VR industry, Palmer Luckey could be bringing a myriad of ideas to the table. One possible use case his XR headset might have is starting a platform for other XR manufacturers to use.

When Meta made Quest OS open-source, Luckey said he hoped it wasn’t too late. Apparently, this was something he had always told Meta to do but the company never listened. Luckey is still a big name in the XR industry — even featured in this year’s AWE Hall of Fame — so he shouldn’t have any trouble rallying support for a new platform he founded, in my opinion.

Another field Luckey might tackle, but most likely won’t, is adult entertainment. Luckey talked about how this category in the XR industry was a “wasteland”, while other fields like gaming were over-saturated. Though he said this wasn’t necessarily what he was aiming for, he claimed it would be a much easier industry to capitalize on.

Luckey also mentioned how such entertainment didn’t necessarily have to be the first thing that jumps to mind. He talked about the breadth of human emotions and how there is so much more XR companies can offer consumers.

If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say Luckey might be focusing on creating something that transcends traditional VR. Current VR experiences rely almost entirely on just visual presentation. But if science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that full-body Virtual Reality hardware will sell insanely well.

With Luckey’s time working with the defense sector, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he’s working on realistic haptic feedback. It isn’t completely in the realm of science fiction either. Recently, researchers at the University of Chicago created a device that stimulated the brain for haptic feedback in VR experiences.

Whatever it is that Luckey is cooking up, he seems to think it’s pretty great. The lack of any real information also suggests he might have been trying to get people hyped and score some backing for his project. Whatever it was, it worked on me. I can’t wait to see what he announces a few years down the line.

Until then, however, we still have other XR devices to look forward to. Meta seems to be readying itself to push the envelope with AI-powered AR smart glasses. And there’s also other cool innovations taking place: like Sightful’s Spacetop G1 which I love the sound of.