Google looks serious about taking on Oculus with new VR division

With all the new activity around virtual reality, it now appears that one of Silicon Valley’s giants, Google, has chose to double down on the rapidly expanding platform.

Google is tackling virtual reality this year.

The recently concluded CES in Las Vegas certainly showed that virtual reality (VR) is an area in the tech industry that is definitely growing from strength to strength, and hence it would be wise to focus on it if a particular company has the resources to do so.

Cardboard has been doing better than previous *cough*glass*cough* VR efforts from Google, with GoPro integration and distribution in schools being key. Presumably this isn’t just for Google Cardboard – so what is on the way?

Google is turning up its focus on virtual reality, creating a new division led by former Google Apps VP Clay Bavor which will be dedicated to developing VR products like Google Cardboard, Re/code’s Mark Bergen reports.

Keeping up with the Facebooks (Oculus) of the world in VR will be essential if Google wants to be thought of when it comes to the immersive technology. Re/code said a Google spokesperson confirmed the changes but didn’t comment further.

Now, it appears Google is making a long-term bet on the success of virtual reality and its own investment, the currently productless but buzzworthy Magic Leap, an augmented reality firm that’s raised almost $600 million in equity funding.

What the future holds, as Google plays catch up with the likes of Samsung, Oculus, Facebook, HTC, Sony and Microsoft, remains to be seen.