Samsung just kicked off one of the first major press events of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in true futurist fashion, with a virtual reality announcement. The company is expanding its Milk streaming music and video service to the Samsung Gear, the company’s VR headset that leverages the Oculus VR Store, the software ecosystem from the makers of the iconic Oculus Rift VR headset. Samsung’s Milk VR will launch with 30 titles, with plans to add more daily.
Samsung’s new Milk VR content portal will integrate with the existing multimedia streaming service while optimizing that experience for the challenges and unique opportunities of virtual reality. After all, the Oculus Rift itself runs on Samsung hardware under the hood. Samsung’s aggressive approach to hardware spanning nearly every category imaginable isn’t yet matched by its efforts software-side, but that obviously isn’t keeping the company from trying.
Milk VR
Still hovering at the horizon of mainstream awareness, VR headsets like the Samsung Gear and even the Oculus Rift haven’t quite reached a tipping point. Samsung is clearly eager to get ahead of the game, literally and figuratively. The company is eyeing the horizon of consumer interest and preparing a software platform to court the average user looking for entertainment rather than the hardcore gamer/maker types that VR currently targets.
Photos via Taylor Hatmaker