It seems like everyone is talking about Virtual Reality these days. VR is being heralded as the future of gaming, even though I’m still rather skeptical about it. The Oculus Rift was the first major contender, getting a ton of community backing and appearing to be the name in VR. But have they waited too long? Will their competitors overtake them?
The Oculus Rift was the first in the new generation of VR headsets. However, when Sony announced Morpheus, their approach to VR was trumpeted as being superior to that of the Oculus Rift. Now Valve has announced its headset in partnership with HTC, and all of a sudden the Oculus Rift isn’t looking quite so shiny. While Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stated that someone would have to go terribly wrong for the consumer Rift not to come out by the end of 2015, it now seems he might be backpedaling on that comment. During a panel at SXSW, he qualified that statement:
I did say [the comment about the 2015 release date] before we made a lot of changes to our roadmap. We’ve expanded a lot of the ambition we had around the product and what we wanted to do. Us partnering with Facebook has allowed us to do a lot of things we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise, like hiring 300 people to work on getting the Rift out as quickly as possible to the quality level we wanted to. I can’t comment on the date one way or another, in either direction, but I can say that nothing is going horribly wrong. Everything is going horribly right.
It’s a precarious situation in this market. They need to make sure that their VR is top-notch considering all the competition on the market. However, if they wait too long, they will be left behind as the bigger companies are able to drum up extra support via their established platforms.
I think that Oculus is running out of time to release their Rift. Sure, they have Facebook support and money, but will people really buy a VR headset for their social media? Could we see them refocusing on the social market instead of the gamers? If they don’t launch commercially soon, Sony and Valve will probably become the more popular units for gaming. Are you sold on one VR headset over another, or does the whole technology still feel like a gimmick?
Last Updated: March 17, 2015
Blood Emperor Trevor
March 17, 2015 at 11:39
VR is for winners!
Francois Knoetze
March 17, 2015 at 15:55
oi!! that man is still a legend!! doesn’t matter how much enhancement he used every damn person in that race was doing it. the french just needed a scapegoat so they pinned it on him as the bad sheep.
Skyblue
March 18, 2015 at 10:05
Infamous doesn’t qualify as a legend.
Francois Knoetze
March 18, 2015 at 10:16
Each to their own. I have followed his career as a kid and in my eyes he is still a great cyclist. The Lance bashing has gotten old. If you have never cycled even half the distance these guys do on a professional level then you don’t have the right to call him by any name. I think that none of us has a right to pass judgement of what was right and wrong(at this point I am probably contradicting myself so excuse me) when it comes to the pressures that come with professional sport if we haven’t experienced it ourselves.
Skyblue
March 18, 2015 at 15:27
I never bashed him nor called him any names, I merely mentioned the fact that infamy does not equate to legendary. That said, I have no doubt that Mr Armstrong was indeed an exceptional athlete as illustrated in various documentary’s about his life I have watched but what he achieved and specifically how he achieved it was wrong.
I would not want my children growing up revering a cheat of any sort, my naivety perhaps.
Francois Knoetze
March 18, 2015 at 15:41
No worries. Mistook what you said about the use of the word legend. I use the term legend more loosely as we would in South African slang. For me he was a very entertaining cyclist to watch and outmatched the rest in his determination. Was just a bit tired of people bashing the guy. What’s done is done. Will never follow his example or tell people to follow his example I would however mention certain races where the odds was against him and how he got out of it. Back then it it was some of the most entertaining cycling I have ever watched. the current Tour de France is very boring in comparison to those years
Skyblue
March 18, 2015 at 17:44
No worries and I agree that those races were entertaining.
Pariah
March 17, 2015 at 11:41
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Rz_8ruENshc/VNQGvtxCmJI/AAAAAAAABz0/VU5Jzte1jGQ/w426-h248/Sans%2Btitre.png
UComeneserse
March 17, 2015 at 12:59
open this…
Loftus
March 17, 2015 at 11:44
The VR I’m waiting for : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdbdUt_h9M
Hammersteyn
March 17, 2015 at 11:46
Jude Law! The part where he assembles the gun from bones and teeth was gross.
Loftus
March 17, 2015 at 11:55
mmmm yummy now I am in the mood for slimy frogs
Admiral Chief
March 17, 2015 at 11:46
http://siliconangle.com/files/2013/10/missed_the_boat.jpg
Hammersteyn
March 17, 2015 at 11:46
XD
MAC
March 17, 2015 at 11:47
If Oculus can break into the social market then they’ll be just fine but gaming wise this might be a bit more difficult, there are 20 + million PS4’s out there making the Morpheus 1st choice for myself and alot of other PS4 owners I’m sure. Here’s hoping it lives up to our childhood expectations.
Hammersteyn
March 17, 2015 at 11:48
If and it’s a big IF because it will depend on the games, I’d buy the Morpheus it I had to choose. But it needs proper games.
Hammersteyn
March 17, 2015 at 11:47
Doesn’t help that the damn thing is so expensive either…
geel slang
March 17, 2015 at 12:00
From what I have read it sounds like the Oculus is still the best experience. That and the fact that Im a PC player points me in the direction of the rift. Im willing to wait for the best, but hope it releases in the next 12 months.
SlasherZA
March 17, 2015 at 12:09
Actually, the Vive from Valve/HTC is apparently a much better experience than the rift, even CB prototype.
geel slang
March 17, 2015 at 12:39
Interesting, I will certainly try them before I buy anything.
Steven Bjerke
March 18, 2015 at 00:56
The Vive requires a 15′ x 15′ room to use. I want to sit in a chair. Hence why I want an rift.
BurnZ
March 17, 2015 at 12:02
I don’t know about the VR thing hey. Seems like the whole 3D (TV’s / glasses / 3d home theater) vibe all over again. And that did not work out too well. I’m interested to see what happens in the future, but i am not pre-ordering just yet
geel slang
March 17, 2015 at 12:07
Haha, I hate 3D tv and movies. Im also waiting but I believe its the future of digital entertainment. Lets hope.
Greylingad
March 17, 2015 at 12:07
Aah, good point, but, the 3D TVs etc. failed because of the way it was implemented, and the fact that you were limited to the size of the television, sure you had the option of passive or active stereoscopic 3D, but in essence it was the limitation of having to stare at an object far away from your eyes that made it tremendously stupid, this however is a completely different story….
Greylingad
March 17, 2015 at 12:12
I believe it’s a race around what the guys in their suits want more than the actual devs, having the social platform doesn’t add any benefit to the rift, it is by far the coolest VR headset out there, hampering the bloody thing with social media overlays and stupid little “amazing features” just does damage to it, we don’t want another useless streaming feature on a device that’s meant for the individual experience….
Gardos
March 17, 2015 at 13:02
Let’s be honest, the VR headset that wins will be the one that offers exclusive PornHub support.
Greylingad
March 17, 2015 at 13:13
Bwaaahaaahaaaa!!!
Rage
March 17, 2015 at 14:41
Now I can finally start to see the value, thanks for that!
Can’t wait for the PH-SetXXX to be announced now.
Pornhub Katie
March 18, 2015 at 00:58
Working on it
Deceased
March 17, 2015 at 13:12
If you’ve tried VR, felt the immersion, you can’t say it’s just a gimmick, it IS le future XD
40 Insane Frogs
March 17, 2015 at 14:53
Oculus Rift died the day Mark Zuckerberg cracked open his piggy bank.
Weanerdog
March 17, 2015 at 15:30
4 leaf clover I see you
Francois Knoetze
March 17, 2015 at 15:57
they are lagging behind in the department but project morpheus is only out next year anyway. so not too much contention except for Valve and Samsung with the Gear VR at the moment.
Johnny Virgil
March 17, 2015 at 22:44
The DK2 is awesome, but as soon as I saw the Vive I knew that Oculus would be delaying their product. They can’t release a consumer version that’s not even as good as the Vive’s dev kit, so they need to do a lot more work on it. I have DK2 but I will hold off on buying a consumer version until I see which one is going to win the battle. Right now, it looks like the Vive.