Oculus’s big event happened yesterday, with Mark Zuckerberg taking to the stage to outline the latest developments that the Facebook-owned company virtual reality has to show. 3,000 attendees and hundreds of thousands more who joined online got to learn about the latest advances Oculus has taken in both VR, software and content.
However, the big show stealer was the announcement of the Oculus Touch, the controllers for the Oculus Rift that weren’t released with the Rift back in March; making many feel that they were only getting half the product. For instance, when the HTC Vive went on sale, it debuted with controllers as part of the package. The Touch comes with a secondary camera sensor bar, a necessary feature to use the controls. Furthermore, two games come shipped with the Touch: VR Sports and The Unspoken. A connector for Rockband VR also comes with the Touch. You can start pre-ordering the Oculus Touch from the 10th of October onwards, with the handheld peripherals shipping on December 6th for $199.
The Touch can work in a room scale environment, similar to the HTC Vive, but that will require buying a separate, third camera sensor for $79. Without the third camera you won’t be able to turn around in virtual reality and so forth.
The company is also committed to spending $250 million more to jumpstart the VR content ecosystem. At the event they revealed we revealed just a few of the new Touch titles coming to Rift next year, including Arktika.1, Lone Echo, Robo Recall.
Sound has always been a key factor when it comes to virtual reality immersion. As a result, Oculus also announced the Oculus Earphones for Rift. According to Oculus, the earphones offer solid bass response while maintaining excellent mid/high levels for a well-balanced sound signature. They also include passive noise isolation to help block out distractions from the outside world. They’ll be available for pre-order October 10 on Oculus.com, cost $49, and start shipping December 6.
To catch the whole keynote, you can watch it on Twitch here.
