Update (1/04 12:50pm): Oculus has now announced that pre-orders for the 3D Rift headset will go live on its official site as of January 6th at 11AM EST. No pricing information has been released as of yet. “As a reminder, every Rift comes bundled with Lucky’s Tale by Playful, and we’re also including CCP’s EVE: Valkyrie for free with every pre-order!”
Nearly three years after Oculus introduced us to what a VR headset in the home could look like, it has now finally unveiled the version it will be taking to retail. The consumer version of the Oculus VR headset was shown-off just a short while ago at the company’s pre-E3 2015 event, where we got more information on the hardware itself, how it will be integrated with Xbox One, and what kind of content we can expect on day one.
Along with improvements across the board, the retail version of the Oculus Rift packs dual OLED displays into a much lighter and form-fitting design. It has built-in headphones with 360 audio (removable), and will fit fine on those that wear glasses. It comes with a sensor that can be placed on a flat surface to help track the head set, along with a Xbox One controller. That controller will also be compatible with Windows 10 thanks to an included adapter. But that’s not the only input method the system has:
Oculus also unveiled its wireless Touch controllers. The controllers offer an analog stick, two face buttons and a trigger, split onto each hand. They bring haptic feedback and tracking allowing gamers to manipulate objects in the virtual world in a more immersive way along with the ability to support hand gestures like waiving, thumbs-up and more. The company has a special demo it will be debuting at E3 to show off the abilities of the new Oculus Touch controllers.
As for content, one interesting feature coming to Oculus is the ability to stream Xbox One games to the headset. They will appear in what sounds like a virtual home theater type set up via the Oculus hardware (audio included). Insomniac games, makers of the recently unveiled Ratchet & Clank reboot, are developing a third person adventure game called Edge of Nowhere for the Rift (trailer above), and former Darksiders 2 dev are showing off a very interesting title called Chronos. Beyond that the company also announced that it will putting up $10 million for its indie dev community, in hopes to spur interest in content development for the virtual reality platform.
It is likely we will be hearing more from Oculus as E3 rolls out, along with additional details on Chronos, Edge of Nowhere and other titles. The consumer version of the Oculus Rift is scheduled for a Q1 2016 release date.
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