Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is working on a virtual reality (VR) headset that can actually kill its players in real life, if they die in the game.
In a blog post titled, “If you die in the game, you die in real life,” Luckey announced that he’s working on a VR headset prototype inspired by the NerveGear headsets used by players the popular anime Sword Art Online.
“The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me – you instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it,” Luckey said in a blog post.
“Pumped up graphics might make a game look more real, but only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game. This is an area of videogame mechanics that has never been explored, despite the long history of real-world sports revolving around similar stakes.”
According to Luckey, the headset comes equipped with three explosive charge modules positioned above the visor.
Once the game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user.
Considered as the father of modern VR, Luckey was the brain behind Oculus, one of the most successful virtual reality headsets in the market.
In 2014, Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook, now known as Meta, for $2 billion and left the company in 2017. It is currently serving as the foundation for Meta’s metaverse.
As for his deadly VR headset, Luckey said it’s just a piece of office art at the moment.
“It is also, as far as I know, the first non-fiction example of a VR device that can actually kill the user. It won’t be the last,” Luckey wrote.
“See you in the metaverse,” he concluded.
