The fifth Oculus Connect developer conference is underway in San Jose, California this week. Besides being a place for VR developers to meet up and discuss the future of immersive technologies, Facebook — the owner of Oculus — laid out its next steps for where VR (and AR) will head.
And yes, that includes new hardware: the $399 wireless Oculus Quest VR headset.
Here’s what’s coming:
- Oculus Quest standalone VR coming spring 2019 for $399: The new platform slots in between the current $199 Oculus Go and the original Oculus Rift, also currently $399. But, unlike the Rift, the Quest is completely wireless and it’s made for games
- Zuckerberg still wants to get 1 billion people into VR, but it’ll take a while
- Expressive Avatars will be available later this year
- Oculus mobile app now supports Rift
- Oculus Product Manager Sean Liu announced Oculus Go updates to make content look better; allow for casting to mobile devices and eventually TVs; and the launch of YouTube VR support
- Facebook’s Oculus Go is getting YouTube VR
- NBA games are coming this fall to Oculus Venues.
- Vader Immortal, a three-part Star Wars VR experience, will be available in 2019 as a launch title for the Oculus Quest.