The world’s gone neon. You look up: a mint green sky. You look left: piles of orange boxes. Dead ahead: a giant red robot. This is Wayward Sky, one of the many newly released games that are taking full advantage of a little something called virtual reality (VR). Expect your kids to fall in love.
Virtual reality isn’t exactly new, but it’s become a lot more mainstream since 2014, when Facebook bought VR gaming startup Oculus for a cool $2 billion. In the years since, Facebook has been doing cool things with Oculus (and committing ever increasing sums of money to the venture).
Most recently, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg strapped on a headset at the annual Oculus Connect conference to give a live demo of Facebook, the VR version. (Imagine instant messaging with talking, full-body avatars of your Facebook friends, complete with facial expressions.)
Should you be concerned about just how immersive VR is? Yes, perhaps, but let’s, for a moment, put our (very valid) concerns about screen time on hold and consider the possibilities. Thanks to VR, you can “see” and “feel” in a totally new way while plugged in. It is an immersive experience that is equal parts terrifying and breathtaking, with the potential to change everything. We might as well face reality.
The 3 hottest tech items
From quadcopters to virtual reality (VR) systems, here's how you can get your hands on the latest kid-approved and family tech.
