Back in January we reported that Oculus was starting up a new initiative to help smaller, independent VR developers find their feet in the industry. The program was simply called Oculus Start. This week, developers accepted into the program are going to be getting a surprise.
Oculus’ official developer Twitter account yesterday posted a message teasing a mysterious package that’s being sent to Start teams “very soon”. The tweet shows a package wrapped in brown paper with an Oculus Start sticker attached to it. Oculus is encouraging developers to share their reactions when they open the box.
Hey #OculusStart devs! A surprise shipment is headed your way very soon & we can’t wait to see your reactions! Share your unboxing pics and videos using the hashtags #OculusStart #Sponsored pic.twitter.com/hcZutR62UK
— Oculus Developers (@Oculus_Dev) June 6, 2018
Not to get all Brad Pitt about this, but we want to know what’s in the bahx. If Start is aimed at giving developers a leg up then the most likely answer is new hardware, perhaps a free Oculus Rift or Oculus Go headset. We’d love to say it’s Santa Cruz but that’s probably too generous.
That said, to be a Start dev you have to have already published an app and taken no more than $100,000 in funding from others (the limit was originally set at $10,000 but eventually adjusted to widen the group of eligible developers). Instead of a headset, then, could it perhaps be a new PC to develop with?
Either that or we’re getting far too ahead of ourselves and it’s Oculus-branded toilet paper. We’re really sorry if that’s the case.
We’ll no doubt start seeing some very excited tweets in the coming days as packages start arriving at developer’s door stops.
Clarification: Additional context added for how much money a developer could have raised from other sources before applying for Oculus Start.
