Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has created a new VR headset that is built to explode your brain if you die in the game that you are playing.

In a clear sign that the Oculus founder has too much time on his hands now Meta owns his company, Luckey has created a literal VR headset of death. And he's rather pleased about it.

The idea is surprisingly simple. People put the headset on and when they die in-game, it explodes their brain. "When an appropriate game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user", he said in a blog post. Groovy.

All of this is apparently based on a web comic that followed a similar premise, called Sword Art Online. Headsets were placed on people and they were dropped into a world where they had to fight to the death. Those who died, died. Luckey seems to want to recreate that experience, although we can only assume it will never see the light of day beyond this blog post.

"The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me," Luckey says, adding that "you instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it". That's definitely one way of putting it.

For now, this seems to be something that Luckey is using as a way to spend some of the money that Meta handed over for Oculus. Let's hope that's the way it stays, too. Maybe stick with the Oculus Quest 2 if you're looking for a good VR time for now.