In a move entirely in keeping with the Oculus founders attitude to his company’s supporters, he’s travelled from sunny California to beautiful but chilly Alaska to hand deliver the first Oculus Rift pre-order.
If anyone else was confused after spotting this tweet from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey yesterday morning, you weren’t the only one.
There are lots of reasons to go to Alaska of course, it’s a stunning place, but why on the weekend before the launch of Luckey’s brainchild, the Oculus Rift, would its creator jet off to the frozen north? It’s doubtless been a stressful few years for everyone involved, but this seemed a touch early to get away from it all.
Hindsight is 20:20 of course, and when the reason behind Luckey’s journey north was revealed, it was all too obvious. In a gesture of gratitude (and no small amount of good PR of course), Luckey had set off to deliver the first consumer Oculus Rift headset, by hand and in person to the very first pre-orderer – one Ross Martin, a Software Developer who happened to live in Anchorage, Alaska. Despite the destination, it seems Luckey wasn’t prepared to ditch his signature foot-ware.
Later, on arrival at the lucky recipients’ offices, Luckey live streamed the special delivery via Facebook.
To say Martin was grateful to become the first consumer in the world to take delivery of an Oculus Rift, would perhaps be an understatement.
And Luckey’s words, uttered on handing over the box carrying technology practically unimaginable just 10 years ago, were clearly heart felt. “Man this is incredible,” Luckey said, “I’ve been working on this thing for so long, and you’re the first person to actually get one.”
The gesture is in line with the extraordinary (in the truest sense of the word) move by Oculus, just before Pre-orders for the consumer Rift went live in January, announcing that all original Kickstarter DK1 backers, recipients of the DK1, would receive free consumer Oculus Rifts.
Yes, all of this is invaluable publicity, of that there is no doubt. But, having met a few members of the Oculus team over the last few years, Luckey included, the gratitude towards the people who believed in them back then, and now, has always been expressed genuinely. In that context, a trip to Alaska in flipflops to deliver Oculus’ first consumer VR headset by hand, doesn’t seem so outlandish after all.