spatialcomputing.info

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is announcing something in a few weeks, which he says will prove he isn’t out of the ‘XR game’.

Luckey confirmed back in June he’s building a new XR headset, although the device in question seems to be primarily “driven by military requirements” in addition to “non-military stuff,” he said at its AWE 2024 announcement.

Now, as first reported by MIXED, Luckey says he’s set to announce something in “a few weeks”.

Wait till you see what I am announcing in a few weeks and see if you still think I am out of the game.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 19, 2025

Notably, Luckey’s comment was in response a partially erroneous claim that “Quest app sales are down 27% year over year.” This figure is in reference to the free Meta Horizon smartphone app, which did see a year-over-year decrease by 27% during the Christmas period, but not the XR app ecosystem as a whole.

It’s speculated that Luckey’s headset might be released through his defense company, Anduril, which he founded in 2017. Alternatively, he could launch it as a side project, similar to his Game Boy-style handheld device, ModRetro Chromatic. However, this seems less likely given the headset’s apparent focus on military applications.

That said, it’s unclear whether these XR projects are related at the time of this writing, as Luckey has yet to elaborate.

What is clear: Luckey knows XR. Having founded Oculus in 2012 at the age of 19, his company played a major role in sparking the modern era of VR with the release of the original Oculus Rift DK1. Shortly before releasing its Oculus Rift DK2 follow-up in mid-2014, Oculus was acquired by Meta (then Facebook) for more than $2 billion.

Luckey remained involved in VR at Meta for several years until political controversies led to his departure. After leaving the company, he founded Anduril, which has since achieved a multi-billion-dollar valuation. While Luckey has not been directly involved in XR since leaving Meta, he continues to be a prominent voice in the field.