Dive Brief:

• Social media giant Facebook Tuesday plunked down $2 billion on Oculus VR, a virtual-reality developer that has a 3-D gaming headset in the works called the Oculus Rift.

• Most agree that the headsets could revolutionize gaming, but, if it’s true that, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, the VR technology is tomorrow’s mobile, that could have implications for retailers and others in many fields.

• Early Kickstarter backers of Oculus VR are miffed at the sale and some say they want their money back, happy to return their Kickstarter gifts if need be. 

Dive Insight:

Mark Zuckerberg has made an investment in a virtual reality company that he says will go far beyond gaming, taking us past even what mobile can do today. But invasive technologies like Google Glass are finding wide acceptance difficult, and even the huge technological advances of today’s 3-D movies are getting a “meh” response from consumers. While the Oculus headset may be just fine for gamers or even students in a classroom, it’s far from clear how acceptable such advertising would be. Facebook itself has suffered backlash from time to time from users who mind intrusions into their space very much — on a medium that is free to them and barely interrupts their use of it. Retailers can watch from afar where this goes, but time and resources are better spent on how to harness today’s mobile technology without bumming out customers.