You might think it’s pretty strange to hear the founders of VR companies and social media platforms complaining publicly that things were better in the dial-up era. Nevertheless, that’s what happened at CES on Wednesday, when Oculus developer Palmer Lackey and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian gave a joint talk on the joys of “technostalgia.”
Luckey and Ohanian, who first made their fortune in VR and now run defense contractor Anduril, both seem to agree that “things were better in the old days.”
The problem, however, is that Lucky and Ohanian weren’t actually criticizing the technology itself (Lucky said in his remarks that he supports AI and feels it’s changing workflows for the better). Instead, they were criticizing the aesthetics of technology. They argued that vintage consumer technology products are better than today’s products, and that it is the styles and form factors of the past that will determine the future of technology.
“It’s not just the nostalgia for the old stuff, but the fact that it’s objectively good that’s important,” Ohanian said of some older products.
After a brief rant about how great the 1999 first-person shooter Quake: Arena is, Luckey similarly praised the old-school medium. “There used to be something about the intention of building a music library, whether it was building an entire album or a mixtape,” Lackey said, adding that in the age of endless downloads, there’s clearly “something missing.”
Lackey also pointed to young people nostalgic for a time they don’t remember or even have a personal connection to. “Why do they think it’s good? It’s not because they’re remembering their childhood. It’s not because they’re remembering something from a while ago. It’s because they realize that some of this old stuff is literally better.”
Certain consumer trends seem to suggest that Lackey and Ohanian are onto something. While it’s clear that nostalgia in general is big these days (just look at all the 1980s stuff coming out of Hollywood), nostalgic technology design is a particularly thriving niche market. Young people are overwhelmed and saturated with the internet. As a result, many people have developed a new interest in physical media, such as collecting cassettes and records. But there’s also a growing interest in new low-tech devices with retro designs (check out the Clicks Communicator phone that debuted at this year’s CES).
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Considering consumer interest is moving in this direction, Luckey and Ohanian’s enthusiasm for vintage technology could end up being just a smart business move. In other words, if Americans are feeling nostalgic, why not monetize it?
In fact, Lucky is already doing this. The 80’s mullet-wearing defense contractor launched a project in 2024 called ModRetro Chromatic. It’s a Game Boy-like device that retails for $199 and offers classic gameplay from old cartridges from the 1990s, and has been called one of the “best ever” of its kind.
On Wednesday, Ohanian brought one of his ModRetro units onto the stage and proudly showed it off to the crowd. Ohanian has spoken publicly about his love for Luckey’s gaming company, and has also said he is interested in creating his own vintage-style games.
Wednesday’s talk was full of colorful moments, most of which were created by Lackey. At one point, he revealed that he had been coming to CES since he was 16 years old. Astute CES fans will be paying attention. You must be 18 years or older to enter. “I used a fake ID,” he told the CES audience Wednesday, drawing loud laughs. “I pretended to work for a company exhibiting here,” the mogul said.
Cute retro games may be the future, but so is war, it seems. Since 2017, Lackey has primarily focused on defense startup Anduril. Earlier this year, the company’s valuation ballooned to $30.5 billion following a Series G funding round. Recently, the company has been working with Meta on headsets for the US military.
Mr. Anduril was largely absent from Wednesday’s meeting, but toward the end of the conversation Mr. Lackey briefly turned the conversation to foreign policy, making some characteristically outlandish claims. “I’ve been part of this problem for a long time because all of my products are manufactured in China,” he said. “Geopolitically, the United States and China are going through a divorce. It’s a messy divorce. And if people think it’s going to end in reconciliation, they’re blind. That’s not the case,” he said.
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