A co-founder of the video game Call of Duty sets out to make virtual reality a, well, true reality for video conferencing efforts.
A co-founder of one of the biggest video-game franchises of all time is hunkered down in Orlando, working on augmented reality.
Chance Glasco, who along with 21 others created Call of Duty at Infinity Ward, has a business that hopes to take video conferencing into virtual reality.
He was inducted into Full Sail University’s Hall of Fame in 2012, attended Satellite Beach High School and now lives in the Baldwin Park neighborhood.
Glasco was one of the keynote speakers at OrlandoiX, a tech conference that started Thursday and runs though Sunday at Full Sail University.
The Orlando Sentinel spoke with the 36-year-old to talk about his career in video-game development, his appearance at
the OrlandoiX conference and his new simulation company Doghead Simulations’ augmented-reality work. Question: You left the Call of Duty team about three years ago. Why?
Answer: I wasn’t enjoying my job. You start to agree with all of the YouTube complaints about your games. (Note: During his career, Glasco contributed to six games in the Call of Duty series)
Q: Your new company Doghead Simulations is building augmented reality for office meetings. How does your background in games help you there?
A: We have been creating worlds for years. What changes is mostly the design. We are still, however, creating worlds that are immersive. It makes more sense for a game developer to work on virtual reality or teleconference software.
Q: Talk about the state of virtual reality right now. Why is it going to connect?
A: The price point is getting to where it’s easily attainable for the average middle-class person. Ten years ago, if you wanted to use something that made you sick and had one-fifth of the quality of today, you’d be paying $100,000. Things have now changed. We just need a little time for the market to catch up.
Q: What did you do after you left Infinity Ward?
A: I was burned out, so I went to Brazil for about a year and a half. I was still doing media interviews for Call of Duty, contracting for a Los Angeles film school. It was nice to get out of the hectic game-development world. Then I met [Doghead Simulations co-founder] Elbert Perez. [Doghead now has 17 employees, in three locations, including Orlando.]
Q: Tell me about Doghead’s product, Rumii [a video conferencing hardware that brings people together in a virtual conference room for meetings].
A: It came out of us trying to solve our remote-working problem. When you go to investors, you play the angles and say you have this idea that will revolutionize how to work. We needed something people would buy. Something that would justify buying this hardware. Very few people today are justifying buying the Oculus headset.
Q: How has the interest been?
A: We have an early-access program, with signups from companies like Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, Ford, Toyota. We think we have some interest but haven’t started accepting people’s money just yet. We plan on having a minimum viable product ready by early September.