There were a ton of great interviews and talks during day one of TechCrunch Disrupt New York. However, our favorite was, easily, the chat that TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino had with Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR. The talk covered many topics, including the acquisition by Facebook, the future of Oculus and virtual reality as a whole.

Facebook Acquisition

There have been hundreds of thousands of words written about the Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus. However, Iribe shed a great deal of light on the entire process. Throughout the vetting process, Iribe noted that one of the main goals for Oculus was to maintain its independence, a goal that they were very open about with Zuckerberg. According to Iribe, Zuckerberg was 100% on board with this, saying something along the lines of, “Stay independent. Use any part of Facebook, or not.” Irbie pointed out that Oculus is the same thing as before, now they just have a massive network infrastructure and much more resources behind them.

Iribe argued that VR has the potential to become the most social platform of all time. Therefore, it made sense that the company join Facebook. Should Oculus have stayed an independent, gaming-focused platform, they could have reached 10, 20, maybe 50 million users. However, by joining Facebook, Oculus can now potentially reach billions.

The Future of Virtual Reality Gaming

Iribe pointed out that when you look back at each platform, the PC, the web, mobile and so forth, each platform builds on the previous ones; all of the advances are only incremental. The graphics get better, or it becomes easier to control, or a few new features pop up. Nothing really causes people to say “Oh my God!” This is where VR comes in. The Oculus Rift, and VR in general, are completely, 100% novel. VR is not just an advancement of the PC or mobile, but it is a completely new platform.

When playing games on the PC or mobile or console, you are trying to make your brain take a leap of faith. However, the exact opposite is true of the Oculus; you have to convince your brain that what you are seeing is not real. By replacing your vision, VR, argued Iribe, represents the final platform.

VR Beyond Gaming

This was the most exciting topic of the talk. There are countless possible applications for VR beyond gaming. From virtual meetings, to medical applications, to virtual vacations, to helping disabled people in one way or another. In pursuit of these non-gaming applications, Oculus has set out on a mission to engage universities. In-fact the company recently started a research group, tasked with engaging universities, sponsoring hackathons, speaking at conferences and meetups, among other tasks. The goal being that VR becomes, according to Iribe, “One of the most researched areas over the next decade or so.”