Brendan Iribe of Oculus VR opened the event with a talk on how virtual reality will go mobile and create its own content ecosystem.
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The superfast rise of Oculus VR: How it went from startup to $2B acquisition in 21 months (interview)

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 8 min

The most amazing thing about the short life of virtual-reality gaming startup Oculus VR is just how short it has been.

It’s been just 21 months from the first public showing of the Oculus Rift virtual-reality goggles to this Tuesday, when Facebook announced it was buying the Irvine, Calif.-based company for $2 billion.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.