Facebook-owned augmented reality firm Oculus will be bringing an end to sales of the Rift S goggles next spring. Delete a PC-based VR interface to concentrate on the standalone Oculus Quest 2, which can also be linked to a computer through the Oculus Connection feature.
Quest 2 product manager Prabhu Parthasarathy calls the Quest 2 update the best time for us to switch to a single headset. Connect, which uses a USB-C cable to support PC VR games on the Quest, was experimentally released for the original Quest in 2019. The functionality will launch from the beta later this year, formally converting the $299 Quest 2 into a dual-purpose headset.
The Quest 2 can connect to the PCs using the same Oculus app as the Rift. And Parthasarathy says that Oculus will continue to support PC-based VR as a separate platform from the standalone Quest system. This involves helping the Divide in the near future. The old Rift is something people still use and love, says Parthasarathy. The Rift S will also continue to allow logging in to a non-Facebook Oculus account until 2023, unlike the current Quest 2, which includes a Facebook username.
Facebook advertised Quest as the main VR headset last year, leaving Rift S out of updates including controller-free hand monitoring. Oculus has maintained for years that the Rift line is a "gold standard" for high-end PC games. But the Rift S — the sequel to the original 2016 Oculus Rift — has come up with compromises, including non-focused lenses. Facebook has recently retired the Oculus Go headset, and a Rift retirement isn't necessarily shocking.
It is, though, the end of the century. Kickstarter supporters contributed almost $2.5 million for the initial Oculus Rift project in 2012, triggering a market VR boom.
Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014 and converted the Rift into a high-end system that competed with Valve and HTC's Vive headset and Sony's PlayStation VR.
Since 2016, the routes of these businesses have diverged. HTC catered to the niche and industry markets with its Vive Pro system, while it also developed the Cosmos headset for home gaming. Last year, Valve launched its own PC VR Gold Standard, the $999 Index Headset. And Sony's lead to solid early sales of its PSVR, providing no info on a new headset that could fit with the upcoming PlayStation 5.
