Google have a much bigger play now, they've built VR into Android N along with reference headset/controller design and apps like YouTube specifically optimised.
I didn't follow that piece of news closely but I thought it was just native support to make products like Oculus's GearVR more usable but you will still need something like gear vr to make it work?
You'll still need a headset and they haven't put any details out yet, but I think they're standardising the remote. The main thing though is they're building a full VR experience in Android itself and that seems like a much bigger play than Cardboard ever could have been.
