Valve veteran joins Oculus Rift company, brings expertise in eliminating "simulator sickness"

Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift headset, today announced that it has hired Valve virtual reality veteran Atman Binstock to become its new Chief Architect. Binstock was a key player behind Valve's secret VR project, and helped create the company's "VR Room" demo that Steam Dev Days attendees got a chance to try out in January.

He is also credited with helping Valve's VR team prove that "simulator sickness" could be overcome and that users could attain a feeling of "presence" inside VR experiences.

Prior to joining Valve, Binstock worked at companies like RAD Game Tools, DICE, and Intel.

"I'm incredibly excited and humbled by the opportunity," Binstock said in a statement on the Oculus VR website. "We're just scratching the surface of what's possible, and I can't wait to discover what's next!"

Binstock will lead a new Oculus R&D team based in Seattle.

Finally, Oculus VR announced today that it will soon stop selling the original Oculus Rift development kits because some of the hardware components are no longer being manufactured. In total, Oculus VR has sold some 60,000 units at $300 each to developers.

There's no word yet on when Oculus Rift headsets will be available to consumers or how much they will sell for at launch. However, creator Palmer Luckey said this month that his aim for the final consumer version is to make it "affordable."