So, as I was saying, the hit of the summer is the metaverse from Facebook. Great marketing campaign, as usual.

Let's try a random recap: March 2014: Facebook buys Oculus from Palmer Luckey for a billion and some shares that will bring the total deal to two billion. Htc Vive jumps in 2015, amusing Mark Zuckerberg, who figures he'll get to test the market by watching this HTC release before his Oculus Rift. HTC Vive says it will launch its headset in November 2015. Oculus then announces it's Oculus Rift for February 2016. But HTC understands that it should not launch first. They then announce to release only in April 2016, giving a scare to Mark Zuckerberg who will no longer have his free market research, and who has already announced the release of the Oculus Rift for February 2016... Delay. He decides to make an announcement, everything is ok for february, but just in presale! Users will be delivered in ... April!  So there you go :) 

             The Oculus DK2 kit dev 

In short, nobody dares to be the first to go out.

The Facebook team  has an idea: propose to its distributor Samsung to release a headset where Galaxy phones could be used as VR screens. Stamped Samsung Gear, with Oculus , this allows Samsung to sell more phones, and Facebook to check the market. And so the Vr shot itself in the foot for the first time, because what was supposed to be a test will have a success of almost two years, especially among professionals, and slowed the sale of Rift. The Oculus Rift is finally released, in April 2016. A headset certainly comfortable, but with a big flaw, sitting position because a single camera, unlike HTC  which attacks hard with its two lighthouse (infrared cameras that communicate with the helmet to position it correctly in space) and a 6DOF immersion. HTC puts an unlocked to Oculus which will take time to fix all this. 

Why this reminder?

Because it is precisely a custom at Facebook company, to fall behind!  Whether it's for their avatars (they make a demo of the hyper realism they achieved in the lab, then get beaten to the punch by Unreal and its software Metahuman), its social network Horizon which we're still waiting for the official release, outdistanced since by VR Chat (first VR social platform) , Sansar (team from Second life Company), Rec Room (first VR licorn), Altspace (Microsoft)... And now, the Metaverse! 

 However, for a while now, companies have understood that the immersive race should be slowed down to focus on the missing link: the metaverse crossplatform! It's not the media that will make the metaverse, but the number of users. And for that, you have to accept to rethink your copy, as Wave XR, Second Life, Unreal, Roblox and so many others have already done, focusing on the essential, the user experience and the Metaverse. In its frantic race for immersion, Zuckerberg has forgotten the essential: the "Ready to market" . Hopefully it's not too late, with the big lead of its competitors in Metaverse. Not to mention the advances on the avatars: Ready Player Me, Genius and Taffi.