Facebook's Oculus adds new social features and multiplayer games to Samsung Gear VR

Oculus has released a slew of dedicated social features for the Samsung Gear VR, bringing a new level of interaction for virtual reality enthusiasts in the space. The company has added Facebook sharing features, social games and other add-ons to make the immersive VR experience "even more compelling with friends".

Starting 10 March, users with a Samsung Gear VR will be able to create their own user profiles and search for friends on the platform to interact with in the virtual space. Users will also be able to create "rooms" in Oculus Social to watch Twitch and Vimeo streams with people they know in virtual reality.

Oculus has added two new social games including knowledge game Social Trivia and Herobound: Gladiators, which allows users to "band together with up to four people to conquer goblins and demons in arena battlefields". Players can also use integrated voice chat to make strategies in real time.

Next week, the company will allow users to connect Facebook accounts with Oculus Video to experience 360-degree videos that are personalised based on the friends and pages followed. It also plans to add the ability to like and share 360-degree videos in virtual reality within the next few weeks.

Moreover, users can now leave reviews for all apps on the Oculus Store as well. The new push for social comes just weeks after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's surprise appearance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where he called virtual reality one of the most social platforms of the future.

"Pretty soon we're going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you're just there, right there in person," Zuckerberg said.

The company also plans to release new developer tools that will make it much easier to create social VR games and apps later in March.