The Oculus Rift is still only available as a prototype for developers, and it’s not known when the device is going to hit the market for consumers. There aren’t that many rumors either, as the developers of the device are controlling the release of information very tightly. With that in mind, what can we expect over the next few months, and are we going to finally see the device on the market?
According to a recent interview with Palmer Luckey, who founded the original company, the device might not actually be ready for a 2015 launch. This is particularly disappointing in the context of a previous statement by Luckey, who went on record claiming that the device will be ready for release in 2015 unless things go “horribly wrong”.
He stated that the development roadmap has changed significantly since he made that statement, and it’s no longer a viable plan for the production of the headset. The team has decided to add a lot more polish and fine-tuning to the device, and they want to bring the overall level of quality up by a large margin before bringing the headset to the market officially.
Luckey did go on to say that, in the end, nothing is going horribly wrong right now, so the company might actually get lucky after all and succeed with their plans for 2015. He actually said that everything is “going horribly right”, so there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. Still, the device’s developers are approaching its design with a very serious touch of perfectionism, as they want it to have a strong market impact and truly empower developers to create the products they have always been dreaming of.
On the other hand, Samsung’s Gera VR is scheduled to come out just in time for the holidays, so we might still see some progress on that front. That device uses a bit of a different approach in its overall design philosophy, so it would be interesting to see which concept performs better on the market.
The Oculus Rift may have been the first, but ever since it was announced, various other devices have come out as well, and it’s starting to become a very competitive, active market. Which is certainly a great thing for its consumers, as they’re going to get multiple high-quality options to choose from. Of course, it’ll still take some time for that to happen, as consumers can’t actually get their hands on any of the most popular devices right now, but in a few months, the situation should be different. Over the next few years, we might even see gaming transformed completely!