Today has seen Facebook announce the Oculus Quest 2, its new standalone headset with improved internals and a more streamlined feel. In doing so the company has also announced that the end is nigh for tethered PC headset Oculus Rift S, it’ll be discontinued early next year.
2016’s Oculus Rift was one of the headsets to restart interest in consumer virtual reality (VR), followed that same year by HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. Oculus Rift S then arrived alongside Oculus Quest in May 2019 and from the start played second fiddle to its wireless sibling. Whilst Quest saw constant promotion and upgrades, the Rift S barely got a mention. It was only titles like Asgard’s Wrath and Stormland which made the device worth a look but Oculus Link then began eroding that as well.
That pattern continued when hand tracking was introduced to Oculus Quest yet never implemented on a device which had access to PC power and five sensors. Last month saw the biggest update the Oculus Rift S had seen in a while, even then it wasn’t spectacular.
So with Oculus Quest 2 now scheduled to launch in October 2020 in two storage versions, with hand tracking, and Oculus Link and everything else, Facebook will be getting rid of the tethered headset entirely. And with Oculus Go also being discontinued Facebook is entirely focusing its efforts on Quest 2.
As for the original Oculus Quest? It has been in high demand all year, constantly difficult to get hold of and more recently either showing up as discontinued on retailers’ sites or not at all. Facebook has confirmed that all sales of Oculus Quest will cease in October to make way for Quest 2.
As has now been revealed, Oculus Quest 2 will be released on 13th October 2020 for £299 (64GB version) and £399 (256GB version). It’ll feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 platform, 6GB RAM and other improvements. Take a look at VRFocus’ Quest 2 review, picture comparison, new videogames coming and more from Facebook Connect.
via Mint VR