Oculus Wants to Be the Netflix of VR Gaming

Taking a page from Netflix, Facebook is eyeing exclusive deals with popular video game franchises to boost its Oculus virtual reality (VR) business, The Information reported Wednesday. Zuck himself is overseeing a $1 billion investment to bring popular titles to the Quest headset and VR platform, which many established studios have ignored.

The backstory: Since FB acquired it in 2014, Oculus hasn't reached the monumental aspirations of Zuckerberg or founder Palmer Luckey. With more premium titles, FB wants the all-in-one Quest gaming system to be its first breakout hardware play (its competition internally is Portal). The question now: Can Assassin's Creed carry Oculus to success?

Zoom out: Video games are so popular that even Netflix is feeling threatened by Fortnite. Esports is turning into a billion-dollar industry, and tens of millions tune into streaming platforms like Twitch to watch the big names in gaming play. Big Tech doesn't want to miss out, whether it's VR or cloud-based gaming.