Facebook has just purchased VR audio company Two Big Ears (TBE), and they’re putting the technology up for takes.

Yesterday, Oculus’ parent, the social media giant, Facebook, announced it has bought the Edinburgh-based company Two Big Ears and will be letting everybody use it for free as part of the new Facebook 360 Spatial Workshop. They’ve just “Googled” TBE. No, not in the traditional sense.

It looks like someone’s been reading “What would Google do” because it sure seems like a move only Google would do and has done numerous times, the latest being their open source learning machine technology. Recently, “to Google something” has taken the meaning of sharing or making open source and it looks like Facebook is stepping on the giant tech’s steps big time.

The terms of this newest transaction were not disclosed. Two Big Ears, who has been around since 2013 creates spatial three-dimension audio in gaming and cinematic experiences.

In a blog post, TBE details the acquisition and its bigger picture vision stating they’ve worked hard at creating the tools and technology needed for how the immersive audio is experienced in virtual reality and audio reality. Their mission is to make “VR audio succeed across all devices and platforms” and “serve billions of people across the world.”

The company focuses especially on how the sound is played in three-dimension spaces or how the sound interacts with the surfaces in the space in which the user is immersed. This progress in building ultra-realistic three-dimension audio is a major steppingstone for Facebook, its video, and the Oculus platform.

Both Oculus Rift and Gear VR support the immersive audio performance, but to make Two Big Ears’ 3Dception technology available for developers, it’s a smart move that will make Facebook grow even bigger.

Previously, the company has had two audio products solutions for both cinematic and gaming VR; while the cinematic one is integrated into the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation, the two teams will now work to integrate the immersive audio in the gaming software.

Giving the compatibility issues with only Oculus Rift and Gear VR, TBE has said it will “continue to be platform and device agnostic,” so developers, worry not.

With this new Two Big Ears acquisition, the social media mogul is helping a lot of developers and also making sure Facebook will be the default hub for VR content. Well played, Facebook, well played.

Image source: Lloyd Digital