Oculus VR

You can now pre-order Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset for $599, ships in March

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

Facebook on Wednesday confirmed that Oculus, a virtual-reality company it bought in March of 2014 for $2 billion, will be launching its hotly anticipated Rift virtual-reality headset at the end of March 2016.

Priced at $599, the device is now available for pre-order and will initially ship to 20 countries starting March 28, including Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, Oculus said.

The Rift comes bundled with two games—Lucky's Tale and EVE: Valkyrie—with more than a hundred games coming later this year, including Rockband VR by Harmonix, Edge of Nowhere by Insomniac, The Climb by Crytek and Minecraft by Microsoft-owned Mojang.

Oculus Rift’s Mac development ‘paused’ as team focuses on 2016 Windows launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 15, 2015

Both OS X and Linux development of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has been put on hold as the team focuses on a strong launch of the Windows version of the product, the company has confirmed in a blog post today.

While Oculus focuses its energies on a “high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software and content on Windows,” they want to “get back to development for OS X and Linux” but “don't have a timeline” yet, said Atman Binstock, Chief Architect at Oculus and technical director of the Rift.

Facebook is working on virtual reality apps that would allow you to create content

Jake Smith ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox revealed on Tuesday that the company is planning virtual reality apps, following its acquisition of Oculus close to a year ago. The revelation came at the Code/Media conference happening in California this week.

While Cox wouldn't share specifics of the apps Facebook is working on, the product chief told Recode the virtual reality apps' users would be able to make virtual reality content.

Apple granted new patent for virtual reality iPhone headset

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 21, 2018

The United States Patent and Trademark Office published over 40 new patents today that were recently awarded to Apple. These filings offer a glimpse at a variety of interesting inventions, including an Oculus-style Virtual reality headset.

The VR patent covers a headset that features a slot for an iPhone or iPod—similar to Samsung's Gear VR. It takes advantage of the device's display and camera for producing heads-up-display graphics set atop a constant live video feed.

Facebook is buying Rift headset maker Oculus VR for $2 billion

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Facebook on Tuesday issued a press release announcing it is buying Kickstarter-funded startup Oculus VR for approximately $2 billion in cash and stock.

For those who have been sleeping under the rock lately, Oculus VR is the maker of the Rift virtual-reality headset. This major move reveals Facebook's intent to make use of virtual-reality technologies, not long ago the stuff of science fiction.

The announcement comes just days after the Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony announced Project Morpheus, its own head-mounted five-inch full HD display with a 90-degree field of view that could mainstream virtual reality gaming by connecting to the PlayStation console...