AfterDawn: Tech news

Oculus Rift could go on sale for consumers next year

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 May 2014 9:12 User comments (7)

Oculus Rift could go on sale for consumers next year Facebook has confirmed that the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset could go on sale for consumers next year.
The social networking giant purchased Oculus earlier this year for $2 billion, and the team says they will be greatly "disappointed" if there is not a consumer headset available before 2016.

Currently, there is no word on eventual pricing, and there are not enough games to justify a full launch, but developers are actively working on support for games.

While the company has two versions available for demo (Crystal Cove and DK2), supposedly the company has a secret room in their offices in LA that houses a better device, one that in "user testing it gets to a level of realism where almost all people feel that it's realistic.. Imagine everything you can see now, but it's a little bit pixelated. Eventually that [pixelation] will go away," says Andreeseen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon. Horowitz, the noted VC firm, is an investor in the company.

Dixon said that Facebook bought the company after CEO Mark Zuckerberg went into that room and tested the headset.



Source:
Business Insider

Tags: Oculus Rift
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7 user comments

11.5.2014 22:39

virtual reality sex

22.5.2014 03:53

Originally posted by pollution:
virtual reality sex
Lmao

32.5.2014 09:12

Will this shall be interesting to see happen should Zenimax take them to court for stolen technology and applications. Facebook should learn to deal with that prior to potential release.

42.5.2014 13:11

Between Google Glass and this, I can't wait for this stuff!

53.5.2014 06:22

I wonder how much that thing weighs...all the pictures I've seen of the oculus look like it would be really uncomfortable to wear for extended periods.

63.5.2014 12:35

Think how great this could be in the medical and science fields.

77.5.2014 18:47

I dont know how to make a blog or anything like that so I will just write this on every article that says that the Oculus Rift is coming out in 2015. In case you think I am wrong here is some proof: sorry can't post links but just take my word for it. :D

The reason the Oculus Rift is not announcing a release date yet is because they dont have a Consumer Rift that they can just say is coming in 2015. The Oculus Rift is not a "Consumer Ready" product it still looks ugly and it doesnt have key components that they need to mimic reality it still looks like looking at a cartoon it immerses you but not "enough" for what they are looking for. What the Oculus Team is looking for is to get as close to reality as possible and they want to make it affordable and easy for people that arent nerds to plug and play.they are not at that stage yet. They still have steps to go to achieve that for example better screens, camera on the front, wireless, elimination of screen door effect and just some software tweaks like response time and things like that.

The 2 billion dollars that people are whining about is probably the best thing that could happen to Oculus. This will let them make it cheaper, faster and let them add things they couldnt add before without making it too expensive for an average consumer. This puts the company at a stable position so that they arent either going to be big or they will fail. With 2 billion dollars at their side they are guaranteed to succeed and to bring consumers a product that will make nerds drool on their keyboards when they see it and it will make people throw money at their computer screens because they will be able to hire a design team to make it look really good.

Right now they are at a stage where their money can make a really powerful VR headset but needs to be powered by many servers and this is not something that everyone can have in their homes let alone afford. So they need to make it condensed into a consumer ready product that everyone can walk into a store and purchase rather than need a credit card or PayPal account to buy.

Even if they did have a consumer version ready they still need developers to create games with positional tracking and it also has to be HD for the new Consumer product. Its like shipping out an Xbox One or Ps4 and having no games for them so they need to give Developers time to create quality "Consumer Ready" content for this new "Consumer Version"

We can all hope for this thing to come out a year from now but we will never know and we all just have to be patient and hope for the best.

(side note: Morpheus will end up being a sitting down headset for safety reasons because being tethered, blindfolded and feeling like your in another world is definitely going to have someone fall and break their PlayStations.

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