GoPro Has Started Selling Odyssey, A 16-camera VR Rig

The crazy 16-camera VR rig which GoPro announced at this year’s Google I/O conference is now available for purchase. Its official name is Odyssey and it costs $15,000.

However, not everyone can buy it.

Not because of its hefty price. You see, GoPro only sells it to a particular clientele. Customers need to submit an application on their website. If you aren’t a professional content creator or a producer, you’re out of luck.

Is Odyssey worth the bulky price tag?

For $15,000 you get a pretty great amount of gear. Buying the Odyssey entails that you own 16 top-shelf GoPro Hero 4 Black, a high-quality microphone, the essential rig with all the cables you need for film-making and a warranty in case something breaks.

You’ll also receive a Pelican case to carry the Odyssey in.

This is a great option for a new VR studio that isn’t looking to build a rig themselves. Yet, the fact that you need to submit an application to buy it seems a little bit annoying.

We’ve witnessed a huge frustration on tech forums regarding the OnePlus 2 and its stupid invite system. We know it’s a marketing stunt, and we know that it keeps the price down, but still – people want to buy it and they can’t.

This frustration may very well be present within the VR enthusiast community.

Odyssey is the first VR rig built for Google’s Jump platform announced at this year’s I/O conference. Jump will be the first VR ecosystem that will make VR development easy and its content consumption within a click away. At least, that’s the plan that Google envisions.

I think they will be a little bit out of luck when Steam catches on with their SteamVR headset and VR store.

Regardless, Jump will eventually lead to its inclusion within YouTube. Considering the addition of 360-degree videos earlier this year, this may very well be what the company is thinking.

Frustration aside, Google’s strategy for Jump is pretty tight. Not everyone is looking for this kind of machine. Only a certain type of company, or individual, is going to want to cough up $15,000. This means that Google and GoPro will not have to wade through countless beginner VR vids before they reach the ones that deserve to be featured on Jump.

This ensure that we won’t witness badly made, or downright boring, VR experiences in the first few months, years, of the Jump.

Both companies want to go further into the VR medium and will do so by outputting exceptional quality.

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Deborah Campbell

Deborah Campbell grew up on a steady diet of fantasy stories, 19th century poetry and Greek mythology. It’s no wonder she turned into such a hopeless romantic. She has always had a knack for writing, but she has yet to publish any best-seller yet. At the beginning of 2013 she decided to try something a little different: she started working for a web design firm, as a creative artist. That’s where she discovered her second calling. Although seemingly opposite, fantasy and technology are Deborah’s two main passions. She is now part of the argyllfreepress.com team, for which she creates detailed tutorials & reviews for some of the world’s most exciting gadgets. She also tries to squeeze a verse or two in her reviews from time to time.