Google really likes making things out of cardboard

Google's foray into virtual reality has involved a lot of heavy-duty paper, and even its fancy new hardware for VR is no exception. Google VP of Virtual Reality Clay Bavor tweeted a picture of an early controller prototype for the company's Android-based VR platform, Daydream, and as you can see, it's much more... cardboardy than the sleek controller design it unveiled at I/O 2016.

One of the first Daydream controller prototypes was clad in cardboard. pic.twitter.com/zyeWuQbCm7

— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) June 5, 2016

Google's new reference design for a headset and motion controller looks much more like an Oculus Rift or Gear VR than Google Cardboard, which is literally just a $20 piece of cardboard you fold up and put your phone in. Google will be relying on partners to make its new VR equipment though, so there's nothing stopping a company like, say, HTC, from building the new equipment out of processed wood pulp.

Seriously though, Google really likes cardboard:

Of course we made a Jump camera out of cardboard. pic.twitter.com/Y2wm7wGQ21

— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) July 21, 2015

A Millennium Falcon, made entirely out of cardboard. Respect. http://t.co/5L1xBnG5mA pic.twitter.com/wy03cf0V03

— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) July 27, 2015

I love that Amazon is innovating in cardboard boxes.

— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) September 17, 2011