Facebook's virtual reality video game headset firm Oculus VR announced that it has bought Carbon Design, the company behind the design of the Xbox 360 controller.
The product engineering company is also responsible for designing the original Microsoft Kinect, as well as a racing wheel controller, according to Forbes. After the purchase is finalized, the Carbon Design team will continue to operate from its headquarters in Seattle and will work closely with Oculus's R&D team in Redmond, Wash.
The terms of the deal were not revealed. However, Oculus said it expects the agreement to be finalized by the end of the summer, PC Magazine reported.
"The Carbon team brings their expertise around building great feeling, great looking consumer products like the Xbox 260 Controller," the company said in a blog post.
Oculus VR has been working with Carbon for over a year on a variety of projects that have yet to be announced. Peter Bristol, creative director of Carbon, believes virtual reality provides a chance for innovative products to be made, Forbes reported.
"This is an entirely open product category," Bristol said in a blog post. "With consumer VR at its inception, the physical architectures are still unknown- We're on the cutting edge of defining how virtual reality looks, feels, and functions. We're incredibly excited to be part of the team and we're looking forward to helping design the future."
Carbon was founded 20 years ago, and has received more than fifty awards for its projects in the past decade.
Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion earlier this year, and the merger was completed in May after receiving approval from the Federal Trade Commission. The virtual reality company is looking to use its deal with the social network to create the biggest Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game in history.
"A few seconds with the latest Oculus prototypes and you know that virtual reality is for real this time," Bristol said. "From a design and engineering perspective, building the products that finally deliver consumer virtual reality is one of the most interesting and challenging problem sets over."
