Last month Oculus confirmed that its regular fall event Oculus Connect would be returning for 2019 in September, saying on the website that: “we hope you’ll join us to begin a new chapter of virtual and augmented reality.” Today, registrations have now opened for Oculus Connect 6 (OC6) alongside some brief information regarding what sessions to expect.
With the launch of Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S and a couple of months ago, expectations are high regarding lots of new content. The first teasing information doesn’t disappoint, Respawn Entertainment will be unveiling its first-person shooter (FPS) created in partnership with Oculus Studios, with attendees being able to go hands-on with the first playable demo.
Having previously created titles such as Titanfall, Call of Duty, Apex Legends and currently developing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, details regarding Respawn Entertainment’s step into virtual reality (VR) first surfaced last summer. Nothing has been mentioned since then, so the announcement is going to be big.
Plenty of other videogames are expected but another piece of information revealed today is that John Carmack’s App Reviews (a fan favourite) will be returning, offering his own unique brand of commentary.
There are going to be a wide range of talks and Oculus has released some details on the first few via its blog:
- Long Live 360 (and 180)!
- Eric Cheng, Immersive Media Lead, Facebook; Asad Sheth, Product Manager, Facebook; Abesh Thakur, Product Manager, Facebook – You spoke, we listened. Workflows, ingestion, and distribution for immersive-media creators have been riddled with friction over the past several years. Join the Facebook AR/VR Media Team to learn about new opportunities and approaches for creation, ingestion, and distribution of your content with the latest products made especially to reduce friction and support VR-first media. We’ll also share ways that you, as a creator, can build a presence and grow your audience.
- Oculus for Business: Scalable, Professional, Secure
- Matt Terrell, Product Manager, Facebook; Isabel Tewes, Product Manager, Facebook – Enterprise VR continues to make waves and prove results as innovate companies leverage the technology for training, collaboration, design, and much more. The logistics of scaling this powerful tech, however, can be daunting. Join the Enterprise product team as they give you a first look at Oculus for Business solution, which will help companies deploy VR in a new professional, secure, and scalable way.
- Safety By Design: How to Bake Safety and People into Product Development
- Sarah Ryan, Policy Associate, Facebook; Lindsay Young, Product Manager, Facebook – Online abuse—like bullying and harassment— isn’t new, but VR brings a whole new set of immersive and visceral abuse vectors that require bespoke responses from platforms and developers. Protecting people from abuse is especially important for vulnerable groups, including women and people of colour. This session will explore how various VR developers are thinking about and tackling user safety—both proactively and reactively—to help build safer experiences. You’ll hear from product and community managers on how they bake safety by design into their products and work with their communities to create safe and welcoming cultures.
- Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Success on the Oculus Store
- Panelists TBA – Oculus has three flagship VR headsets: Oculus Go, Rift S, and Quest. Each platform differs not only in terms of technical capability, but also the type of content players engage with as well as player expectations for quality. This session aims to shine more light on store curation decisions made by Oculus, where your title may fit best, and what to do if your app doesn’t make the cut on the first try.
- Technological Tethers: How AR + VR Connect Us to the World
- Lisa Brown Jaloza, Technology Communications Manager, Facebook (Moderator) – From dystopian futures to escapist fantasies, the possibilities of virtual and augmented reality are often misrepresented or misunderstood. In this session, we’ll explore how these technologies actually deepen our connection to the world around us.
OC6 sounds like it’s shaping up to be an exciting event, with Oculus expected to be sharing more information between now and September. The conference will be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center from 25th – 26th September 2019. As further details are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.
