Oculus Rift official release window and details announced

Oculus Rift has just announced details for the consumer launch of their virtual reality headset. This is poised to become a benchmark product by which others are measured, and with Facebook’s backing we’re sure to see very interesting and significant developments down the line.

So when’s it coming? For how much? Will it help me survive the apocalypse? Fret not, because the answers are in. Here’s what we know so far:

• There will be a simple, sleek desktop sensor that doesn’t require anything but a USB connection to a PC.


• The release date for the Oculus Rift is scheduled to happen in Q1 2016.


• The integrated headphones are user removable.


• Oculus Rift will have a dial for adjusting lens focal distance.


• The headset’s design has been updated to better accommodate glasses.


• Oculus Rift will come pre-packaged with a wireless Xbox One controller.


• You will be able to stream Xbox One games to your Windows PC to play in Oculus Rift.


• Oculus is pledging million to help independent developers create games for Oculus Rift.


• Oculus Home will be a fully 3D VR-enabled user interface to buy and play all your games.


• Oculus Touch is a new input option that’ll allow you to control your games with your hands instead of a traditional controller. It supports gestures, hand presence and object manipulation in the game world.

We also get a first look at some of the launch games that will natively support Oculus Rift. One was an insane space combat action title called EVE Valkyrie (which, for what it’s worth, is also headed for the PlayStation 4 and Sony’s Project Morpheus headset). You can check out a quick trailer of it in action right here:

Other games announced for Oculus Rift include an exclusive third-party Insomniac title named Edge of Nowhere, as well as an interesting action RPG titled Chronos.

Damaged Core, VR Sports Challenge, Esper, AirMech VR and Lucky’s Tale are all slated to be on Oculus Rift in 2016, and available to try out for anyone attending E3 as soon as next week..

Unfortunately the details stop there, which means we still don’t have an exact release date, nor do we know how much it’ll hit our wallets for once it arrives. E3 is next week so we’ll be on the lookout for more details then. Otherwise, it looks like we’ll have to wait until we’re closer to that Q1 2016 launch window to be let in on more.

According to Google’s Smart Lock page, the Nexus 6 also runs Window Phone

Smart Lock was one of the more noteworthy new features that debuted in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Adopting an idea we only saw in Motorola devices prior to Lollipop, Smart Lock is simply a convenient way to keep your Android device unlocked when it’s safe, and locked when it’s not. The feature is so important, Google even created a dedicated landing page to talk all about it. What they didn’t notice, however, is one of the featured images created for the page is actually a Nexus 6 running Windows Phone. Oops.

Now, we’re not going to run with some sort of conspiracy theory that Google will introduce a dual-boot option for the Nexus 6 in the near future. This is simply a designer faux pas in which he used the wrong Netflix screen shot when putting together the image. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a slip up, with the world going nuts over a Nexus Tablet once believed to be the Nexus 8 (the image was later tweaked to reflect the Nexus 7 2013).

Nothing too big, just kind of funny that you can find Nexus 6 running Windows Phone on one of Google’s official web pages. Ha.

[Smart Lock | via Reddit]