Almost three years have passed since the Oculus Rift arrived on Kickstarter to revolutionize the world of virtual reality. The wait has been long, and I would even say tedious. Along the way, high-caliber players and thousands of developers joined in, while competing projects did not take long to appear. Finally, Oculus VR announced the launch window for its virtual reality headset, which will be in the first three months of 2016.
From a technical standpoint, the official announcement left very little. There is no parameter to help determine the performance of the commercial version of the Oculus Rift, but if we follow the text, those details will be revealed in the coming weeks, clearly pointing to the 2015 edition of E3. Even so, Oculus VR's bomb had its effect: the most well-known virtual reality headset of recent times now has an estimated launch date. At the time, company representatives said that “it would be a problem” if the Oculus Rift was not on shelves before the end of the year; however, the discourse was modified last March, and the theory of an Oculus Rift in 2016 gained much more substance.
The images are low resolution and quite dark. Patience is required.
Revealing the first quarter of 2016 as the launch window is very important on its own, but it also sets other details, starting with the fact that the Oculus Rift will not be the first virtual reality headset available in its “final version”. That title will fall, barring something unexpected, to the HTC Vive and its allies at Valve. On the other hand, Sony announced last March that it plans to launch its Morpheus alternative in the first quarter of 2016, and we must not forget that the full version of the Samsung Gear VR will make an appearance at some point this year. In other words, the virtual reality market is heating up slowly but firmly.
Oculus VR also hinted that the news will not be limited to hardware; there will be plenty to share on the software side, including games and experiences specially optimized for the Oculus Rift. There are still many sharp edges to resolve, and if we have learned one thing about virtual reality, it is that everything comes down to quality. After months full of doubts, evasive answers, and radio silence, Oculus VR has given us what we wanted: the Oculus Rift will launch in the first months of 2016. It was about time.
