Founder of Oculus VR and creator of the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset Palmer Luckey has stated that he thinks the company will be ‘the best’ in its field ‘for a long time’. Luckey stated as much to VRFocus during an interview at last week’s Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) Conference & Expo in Mountain View, California. He reasoned that the company hopes to be the first ‘prominent’ VR specialist, stating that he thinks Oculus VR will ‘stay in front’ of the competition going forward.

“I don’t know if we’re the first, I think we’re going to be the best for a long time,” Luckey stated in an interview that will be published later this week. “Y’know, it’s really easy to say “First this!” The first that!” or really oddly specific ones too like “The first X to do Y in Z!” so we’re not trying to be first, we’re trying to be– I guess we’re trying to be first. We’re trying to be the first really prominent, well-known VR company and give people a good impression of what virtual reality is.

There are currently a range of companies looking to compete with the Oculus Rift. Devices such as the wireless GameFace headset are differing themselves with new features while others such as Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE) Project Morpheus headset for PlayStation 4 are simply hoping to offer another compelling product albeit on a different platform. Will Oculus VR be able to stay ahead of these companies?

“I think that we’re gonna stay in front,” Luckey continued. “I could be wrong and I think that there’s going to be give and take but very few companies stay ahead the whole time, especially when you work in product generations that are longer than a year or two.”

He referenced the mobile phone industry as an ‘odd’ example where companies are going through upgrade cycles of less than a year. Instead Luckey predicts that VR will go through cycles similar to ‘more reasonable industries’, with the competition perhaps making gradual leaps over longer periods of time.

“But I think that in the long run, if you average it all out, I really hope we can stay in front,” Luckey concluded, “because we have a giant behind us, we have a lot of money behind us, we have, I think, the best people in the virtual reality industry and we’re gonna create a lot more of the best people in the virtual reality industry.”

Oculus VR is currently preparing to ship its second developer kit (DK2) In July 2014. From there the company is likely to focus on the release of its first consumer version, though it’s not yet known when that device will see a release. VRFocus will continue to follow the company’s progress and deliver the full interview with Luckey later in the week.