Facebook Inc\u2019s virtual reality content production unit, Oculus\u2019 Story Studio, is shuttering its doors to shift focus on supporting external content makers, the company said on Thursday, two years after the in-house studio launched.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oculus, which makes virtual reality headsets Rift and Gear VR, will allocate $50 million to directly fund creators of non-gaming VR content, Jason Rubin, the company\u2019s vice president of content, said in a blog post.<\/p>\n
Rubin added that Oculus is \u201cstill absolutely committed to growing the VR film and creative content ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facebook paid $3 billion to acquire Oculus and retain its employees in 2014. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said he believed the medium that offers a 360-degree panoramic view using headsets \u201cwill become a part of daily life for billions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oculus tapped talent from both Oscar-winning animation company Pixar and the video gaming world to head up Story Studio, which it launched in January 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n
Facebook\u2019s VR ambitions have been threatened somewhat by a lawsuit from video game publisher ZeniMax Media Inc accusing Facebook and Oculus of infringing ZeniMax\u2019s copyrighted software code.<\/p>\n
A jury found in ZeniMax\u2019s favor in February, awarding it $500 million. Oculus has asked for a new trial.<\/p>\n
Vive, a unit of HTC Corp, and Sony Corp are also racing to bring virtual reality products to a mass audience.<\/p>\n
Oculus debuted its first short film called \u201cLost\u201d at Sundance two years ago, a story of an animated mechanical creature in a forest.<\/p>\n
Last year, Story Studio won an Emmy for original interactive program for its short VR film \u201cHenry,\u201d and at Sundance this year, it premiered \u201cDear Angelica,\u201d an illustrated film of a mother and daughter.<\/p>\n
But internally, Oculus has undergone some changes in its management in the past year.<\/p>\n
Brendan Iribe stepped down as CEO in December, saying he was going to head up the PC division of the VR company. In March, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who created the prototype Oculus headset, parted ways with Facebook.\u2014Reuters<\/p>\n
Image: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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