Consumer Oculus Rift Not Due Until 2016

Oculus has today announced that their long-awaited virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift, will not be made available to consumers until at least 2016. Reports over the last year have suggested the device would hit store shelves in 2015 but this new information confirms that isn’t the case. The company also declined to give a firm release date other than the first quarter of 2016, what specifications the consumer version will have or exactly how much it will cost.

It’s been a busy 12 months for Oculus. In July of 2014 Facebook acquired the company for $2 billion in a move that was widely criticized by backers and fans who felt that the purchase could mean that the Oculus Rift headset might only be used exclusively on Facebook products. Executives from both companies went on record to confirm this would not be the case.

In the same month, the second devkit of the product was shipped to developers who had backed the project. Known as the DK2, it featured a number of improvements over the earlier model. This included higher resolution, a better refresh rate, better motion tracking as well as other technical enhancements.

The Oculus Rift is not the only virtual reality device currently in development however. Other electronics manufacturers are working on their own versions that they will hope will become the standard over the next few years. Both Samsung and Sony have been working for several years on VR headsets, though Sony’s Project Morpheus has received more publicity. Featuring an OLED display, a framerate of up to 120 fps, a 100 degree field of view and a 5.7-inch screen, the device is set to launch at some point in mid-2016.

Microsoft has also revealed its own take on the technology. Their product though is not a headset in the same sense as the others but rather a set of glasses that displays the virtual world on the environment that you are located in.