Facebook owned Oculus VR will finally open its doors to the consumers as it has announced the release of the consumer version of its flagship virtual reality hardware, the Oculus Rift will start shipping early next year. The company revealed today that the Oculus Rift will ship to consumers in the first quarter of 2016, with pre-orders to be taken later this year.
The consumer model of the Oculus Rift will be based on the Crescent Bay prototype that was revealed in September last year. The Crescent Bay prototype included an integrated audio and 360 degree motion tracking that the consumer Rift will feature.
Oculus is not the only one releasing VR headset next year as Sony’s PlayStation 4 headset, Project Morpheus, will also be launched for consumers in the first half of 2016. Also jumping in the fray is Microsoft’s HoloLens, but it has no release date yet. Just like Oculus VR, HTC’s Vive also will target PC Gaming with its StreamVR technology and will be a direct competition.
Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey said the company was aiming for it to be as cheap as possible but nothing on the pricing front has been revealed. More details on the technical front like the hardware, software, input, and games for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift will be revealed in the next few weeks.
