YouTube VR will be on Oculus Quest at launch, boosting its content

[The AchieVer]

YouTube VR will be on Oculus Quest at launch, boosting its content

For a world still largely unfamiliar with virtual reality, YouTube is one of the most recognizable names available on the Quest headset landing Tuesday.

 

The YouTube logo on display in the lobby of YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, Calif.

Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

YouTube will amp up the content available on Facebook's Oculus Quest virtual-reality headset, with Google's massive video company saying its VR app will be among the launch titles for the closely watched device being released Tuesday. 

 

That'll make YouTube one of the most widely recognizable names for people wondering what you can actually watch on an Oculus Quest. 

 

The $399 Quest headset is aiming to bridge the gap between mobile and PC VR, bringing a higher-end experience to a fully wireless headset, at a slightly less eye-popping price. The hope of Facebook's Oculus -- and many others in the VR industry -- is that Quest will help make virtual reality more appealing and accessible for mainstream consumers. 

 

Having YouTube, a video site visited by more than 2 billion people every month, on Quest lends a familiar, popular name to the product. And YouTube's VR app will immediately unlock a large library of VR and 360-video content on the Quest. The app has more than a million VR videos and experiences. 

 

YouTube also announced a program to make VR creation more accessible, according to a post by YouTube's head of VR/AR content and partnerships Julia Hamiton Trost and VR product lead Kurt Wilms. YouTube is widening its YouTube VR Creator Lab to Europe and is currently accepting applications. 

 

The company also touted projects distributed by YouTube VR that have scored awards in the last six months, including multiple Emmy awards animated VR Crow: The Legend, an animated experience voiced by stars like John Legend and Oprah Winfrey. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory also won an Emmy for their Cassini's Grand Finale 360° videos and NASA's first 360° livestream, and Isle of Dogs: Behind the Scenes (in Virtual Reality) won two Webby Awards and the Clio Entertainment Gold award. 

 

 

 

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