At Facebook’s yearly event for its Oculus VR division yesterday, the company announced all sorts of new, consumer-friendlier products, like a $199 Oculus Go VR headset system that doesn’t need an expensive PC or smartphone to work. And unsurprisingly, it showed off plenty of–pew! pew!–video games, too. But its biggest announcement was quietly squeezed in between, aimed right at anyone who slaves the day away at a desk, working for the man. It’s new software called Oculus Dash. And it essentially turns your typical desktop experience into a full virtual reality dashboard that you can touch.
“As hardware improves, we’re on the path to replace traditional monitors entirely,” said Nate Mitchell, head of Rift, on stage. In other words, Oculus doesn’t just want you to socialize in VR, and it doesn’t just want you to play in VR. It wants you to work in VR, too. It’s a revelation that comes in tandem with the company’s new, enterprise-facing program called Oculus for Biz, which bills itself to be “an all-in-one solution for businesses looking to integrate VR for workplace training, collaboration, retail sales, and much more.” But will we really want to work in VR? If the experience can improve upon the desktop, maybe.