Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift headset, today announced a new member of their team, Valve virtual reality veteran Atman Binstock to become Chief Architect. Binsock was key in Vavle’s secret VR project, and helped create the company’s ‘VR Room’ demo that Steam Dev Days attendees had the chance to experience in January.
Binstock is credited in helping Valve’s VR team prove that ‘simulator sickness’ could be overcome and users can attain a feeling of ‘presence’ inside VR experiences.
“I’m incredibly excited and humbled by the opportunity,” Binstock said in a statement on the Oculus VR website. “We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible, and I can’t wait to discover what’s next!”
Binstock previously worked at companies such as RAD Game Tools, DICE and Intel, and will now be leading a new Oculus R&D team in Seattle.
Oculus VR also announced today that it soon stop selling the original Oculus Rift development kits because some of the hardware component are no longer being manufactured. In total, Oculus VR sold around 60,000 units to developers.
It is still unknown when the Oculus Rift headsets will be available to consumers or how much we can expect them to cost.