Oculus buys company that designed the Xbox 360 controller
Carbon Design to help design virtual reality.
Oculus has bought the company that designed the Xbox 360 controller, it has announced.
Oculus, maker of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, expects to complete the deal for the Seattle-based Carbon Design by the end of the summer.
Carbon has actually been working with Oculus for nearly a year on multiple unannounced projects.
"A few seconds with the latest Oculus prototypes and you know that virtual reality is for real this time," said Carbon Design creative director Peter Bristol.
"From a design and engineering perspective, building the products that finally deliver consumer virtual reality is one of the most interesting and challenging problem sets ever.
"This is an entirely open product category. With consumer VR at its inception, the physical architectures are still unknown. We're on the cutting edge of defining how virtual reality looks, feels, and functions.
We're incredibly excited to be part of the team and we're looking forward to helping design the future."
Oculus has been on a hiring spree in recent months, and now it's full steam ahead following Facebook's surprise $2 billion purchase of the company.
In March it announced the $350 Oculus Rift development kit 2, which it expects to start shipping in August 2014. A consumer version has yet to be announced.