Appearing this week on the stage of Oculus competitor HTC at the Tokyo Game Show, Oculus founder emeritus Palmer Luckey affirmed that he’s continuing to work on projects within the VR industry.

Luckey’s appearance on the HTC Vive stage during TGS 2017 was a panel discussion that touched on a variety of topics surrounding the Japanese VR scene and beyond.

Back in June the New York Times reported that, following his departure from Oculus, Luckey was working on a new business involving border security. But that seems to be only one of a number of initiatives; Luckey affirmed during his TGS appearance that he’s still working within the VR space too.

“I have a new company, I can’t talk about my projects too much yet, but I’m still working in the virtual reality industry on some very exciting things.”

SEE ALSO
Oculus Founder Backs 'Revive'—a Hack for Vive to Play Rift-exclusive Games—With $2K in Monthly Funding
Palmer Luckey | Image courtesy MoguraVR

Back in a May interview Luckey offer a hint into what his next project might entail; he spoke of his interest in the anime Sword Art Online, in which characters become trapped in a VR MMORPG—if they die in the game, they die in real life. Luckey said that he liked the idea of VR having significant consequences.

“This concept of [significant consequences] is part of one of the projects I am working on. But I won’t talk about any details,” he said, and added that it was still “very early” for the project.

Back on the HTC Vive stage at TGS this week, Luckey distanced himself from Oculus, saying that even though he founded the company, he’s interested in all of VR.

“Don’t think of me as an Oculus person. Just think of me as a VR person. Everything. Sony, HTC, other companies. Everything.”

Despite distancing himself from his former company, elements of the discussion regarding his opinions of HTC may also have been aimed at Oculus.

[…] I have a lot of respect for that, I think it means a lot that HTC is looking at all markets, not just Western markets, not just China, not just Taiwan, not just Japan, not just the US, not just Europe… they really are looking at all the difference markets, and actually spending money to put their money where their mouth is… I don’t know if that idiom comes across in Japanese.

[…]

There are a lot of companies that say they care about the whole world and the global market, but just look at where they’d spending the money, look at where they’re actually putting their marketing dollars. You can tell who they actually care about and who they don’t care about that way.

[…]

I’ve always been pretty supportive of all VR companies. [For instance] right when Sony announced PlayStation VR, I did the same thing—I was so excited to see other companies really entering the marketplace and seriously investing in it, and funding developers, funding awareness, getting hardware out there. I think HTC is doing the same thing, so of course I’m going to say good things about HTC. It’s no special preference for HTC, it’s a preference for the way that they’re doing business right now.


For more on what Luckey has been up to following his departure from Oculus, take a look at ‘Palmer’s Post-Oculus Interview’ Series:

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Please let it me Omni-Directional Treadmills! I am so sick of walking to my own walls, caged in by glowing bars… sad reminders of just how small my non-virtual world really is. (lol… cry)

    • Steppingstone VR

      Next-gen ODTs are coming…We are building a compact, active, silent and affordable “holodeck-grade” ODT and hope to showcase the prototype on Kickstarter by the end of 2017 / beginning of 2018

  • JustA Name

    All in one(no cables, no pc needed), wide fov(180+ deg), 2K+ res, inside out positional tracking & under $300.. pls

    • Get Schwifty!

      Yeah dont forget to throw in the Jet-pack and the portal gun too… all for under $300…. *rolls eyes*

  • You should have added his photos in bikini while talking about VR porn… :O

  • Get Schwifty!

    This idea of “consequences” is to me a bit of strange focus really. About the only meaningful “consequences” are either 1) a time-out or 2) a loss of real money for things which pretty much sums up EVE. Within the virtual world persistent consequences make sense, and part of their fun, there is little to lose by doing things there you can’t do elsewhere like blowing the heads off zombies, etc.

    • Firestorm185

      Well, it’s Lucky we’re talking about. He always has been a bit eccentric, especially in his hidden answers. >w<

    • Gus Bisbal

      He could be talking about electric shock feed back. What you described is more just normal consequences in side of gaming and not a VR technology. The word consequences usually means bad consequences so I would say haptics and some degree of discomfort or pain. Heat is a possible even cold peltier devices but if your going to go a consequence that really makes you wish it doesn’t happen then its applying voltage to your body some where.

    • brandon9271

      Maybe just permadeath, no respawn. Not revolutionary but it is a serious consequence to a gamer

      • Get Schwifty!

        Yeah good point about permadeath….

  • WeDoNotForGiveNorForget

    Palmer Luckey: “I’m a racist shit-head. Please support me!”

    Get bent, faggot.

    • sfmike

      Don’t demean the good name of faggots by calling him one.

      • care package

        Degenerates flinging ad homs again.

    • Get Schwifty!

      How is he racist…. and how does using another prejudicial term justify your position in any event?

  • sfmike

    He’s just pissed lying Trump didn’t give him a cabinet appointment.

  • jay hand

    lucky douchebag

  • Lucidfeuer

    He had a brilliant initial idea, and had a drive that Facebook fucked (even though he won’t tell us how), but he’s not a conceptor. However being specialised in VR, having the engineering knowledge, and that wit makes me believe he can bring some more to the table that corporatocrates won’t.

  • Claus Sølvsten

    Smarthome integration would be nice. Let games turn on power sockets for ventilation if in a windy area or adjust aircondition depending on winter or hell game scene.
    Adjust lights down when in vr and turn up when closing vr.

  • chuan_l

    — Such a strange creature :
    Part innovator , part anime otaku , mostly ultra conservative.

    • Get Schwifty!

      He is a thinking man after all….

  • Joe Black

    Not so sure if he ever really worked on anything. Seems more like a self-styled Steve Jobs ideas/marketing guy.