As social media giant Facebook begins its push into 2020, buoyed by the success of Oculus Quest and with social virtual reality (VR) world Horizon in the works, the company has announced a new hire, event management and ticketing platform Eventbrite’s chief marketing officer (CMO) Brian Irving.
Irving will be joining Facebook in March as the global head of marketing for augmented reality (AR) and VR products report Adweek. Reporting to chief marketing officer for AR/VR projects Rebecca Van Dyck, supposedly he won’t be replacing anyone even though the role hasn’t been newly created.
He’ll be tasked with promoting a range of products and initiatives as Facebook looks to dominate the VR market. With no hardware currently expected, this will likely focus on software, namely Facebook Horizon. As Facebook Spaces and Oculus Rooms have now ceased functioning the Oculus platform is now in need of a 1st party app dedicated to bringing users together. Set to offer expansive VR worlds which users can create with a World Builder, they’ll be able to create personalised avatars and play games.
March is also an interesting month as Oculus tends to have a significant presence at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. The show is used to reveal new videogames whilst allowing guests to demo upcoming titles set to arrive by the end of the year.
It’s not all VR related though, as hopefully this year will the one Facebook details an official AR product. The company has made no secret about working in the space but this has only gone as far as AR camera effects on platforms like Messenger. Facebook’s chief scientist Michael Abrash has spoken about AR at Oculus Connect shows in previous years, with many expecting a device similar to Microsoft’s HoloLens to be in the works. A rumour surfaced last year pertaining to a collaboration with Ray-Ban’s parent company Luxottica to help with the design process.
As further details are released about Irving’s role and Facebook’s plan for 2020, VRFocus will keep you updated.