Some of the biggest names in tech are starting to make virtual reality legit

Tech companies have been trying to make virtual reality happen for decades, but it's never appealed to the mainstream.

VR hardware was clunky, expensive, and, in general, a bad experience.

But that may be about to change: 2015 may be looked back on as the year that virtual reality finally started taking root in mainstream culture.

On Thursday, a group of internet and media stalwarts - companies like Netflix, 20th Century Fox, and Twitch - announced they were working with Oculus, the Facebook-owned virtual reality company, to develop applications for VR headsets.

Facebook, for its part, also said that 360-degree videos, which started showing up in News Feeds on Wednesday, will be viewable in Oculus.

"Minecraft," one of the most popular video games in the world - Microsoft snapped it up last year for $2.5 billion - is heading to VR headsets as well.

And in addition to 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate also said it would make some of its movies available through Oculus Video, the company's virtual reality cinema application.

In short: Thursday was a big day for pushing mainstream interests into virtual reality.

Oculus announced the new partnerships at Oculus Connect in Los Angeles, a now annual conference for developers.

Media and tech companies throwing their support behind Oculus is a watershed moment for virtual reality. It shows that the technology and entertainment community is taking the emerging platform seriously, and believes that there are applications for it that will appeal to the regular person.

Oculus' first consumer product, the Rift virtual reality headset, is set to come out in the first part of next year. Samsung's Gear VR, a VR headset that uses Samsung flagship phones, is powered by Oculus software and has been available since last year.

At the conference Thursday, Samsung said it would sell the next version of the Gear VR for $99 this November.

Up until now, the appeal of virtual reality was largely limited to gamers who wanted a more immersive experience. Gaming will certainly still be a huge part of virtual reality, but the addition of entertainment, streaming, and social networking widens the appeal of VR.

More than 1.4 billion people login to Facebook each month, and Netflix has more than 60 million members around the world.

Netflix and Hulu aren't streaming virtual reality versions of their movies and TV shows. Instead, the apps put people in virtual environments to watch 2D programming.

It's still the very early days of virtual reality. These companies, along with others that we haven't yet heard of, will no doubt test the boundaries of what's possible with VR. Which will likely make it appeal to even more people!

Who knows? Perhaps someday soon you'll be able to sit on your couch in New York and stream a movie with a friend on the other side of the country. Or maybe you'll watch a movie in a virtual theater in space or underwater. Or you'll be able "tour" the apartment of a friend who's just moved overseas.

We can't wait to find out.

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