Are big publishers interested in virtual reality? "Probably," says Oculus CEO

Brendan Iribe believes triple-a publishers are playing the waiting game with VR to see which technology wins out.

Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR, has said that big games publishers are interested in virtual reality, but are still waiting and watching before they get heavily involved in development.

While independent developers have embraced the new technology, Iribe believes it's just a waiting game with the bigger publishers as they keep an eye on technology developments before they place their bets.

"For the most part, developers are serious enthusiasts, some companies are startups or independent and are willing to take a leap of faith on VR," Iribe told Gamasutra.

"But a lot of the bigger companies are looking at [Rift] saying, 'probably VR is going to work, probably it's going to be a good thing. Maybe it's going to be Oculus, maybe it's going to be one of the established guys.'"

Regardless of the speed of uptake, Iribe is confident virtual reality has the power to disrupt the entertainment and technology markets, and that we'll look back on this year as the time when the VR dream finally became reality.

"One day, when you have VR sunglasses, do you really want to play a monitor anymore? If so, why? This won't transform video games today - when computers came around, board games lived on - they still live on. There will be a lot of non-VR gaming in the future, but VR will disrupt games. Not overnight, but over the next 10-20 years."

"…This might be bold to say, but I really do believe people will look back at 2013 and 2014 as a moment when virtual reality first worked -- when we realized that we had a version of VR good enough to go mass market, and kick off a whole space."