Oculus: $200-Worth Standalone VR Headsets To Be Released Next Year
Facebook-owned company Oculus is reportedly gearing up to release their first standalone virtual reality headset worth $200 and slated to launch next year.
Recently, sources close to the rumored project, which is internally called "Pacific," talked to Bloomberg and provided several insights on what to expect from the next Oculus product.
The report noted that the cheaper standalone headset was a step made by Facebook and Oculus to bring virtual reality technology closer to the general public. And since many consumers today are into on-the-go type of products, the VR-focused company will reportedly venture into making their next headset capable of supporting an untethered connection to PC and smartphones.
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Oculus is looking into giving the rumored VR headset a more compact body than that of the Oculus Rift's and will weigh much less than Samsung Gear VR. The report even described it as something that can be simply pulled out from the owner's bag. Despite its wireless nature, the upcoming product is expected to support "immersive gaming, watching a video and social networking."
However, Facebook and Oculus have not yet finalized the design, according to the sources. This leaves an opening for changes in the end product, but the main idea is to provide the general public an option to watch movies or play video games in a VR platform everywhere — as easy as it is with a smartphone or a tablet.
It is also expected to make use of a wireless remote controller but will lack the typical positional tracking technology found on most leading VR head gears. But overall, the sources were confident that the standalone headset from Oculus will be more powerful than the Samsung Gear VR.
The same report added that Oculus is planning to power the VR headset with a Qualcomm chip, but the latter reportedly declined to comment on the matter.
On the other hand, an Oculus spokesperson also told Bloomberg: "We don't have a product to unveil at this time, however, we can confirm we're making several significant technology investments in the standalone VR category."
As for the timeline of the product's release, Oculus is expected to introduce the wireless headset to video game developers by October. Meanwhile, an unveiling event is eyed sometime later this year, but it will not be released in the market until 2018.
