At the Oculus Connect developers conference on Thursday, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announced that Oculus had begun developing a new headset that would hit the “sweet spot” between the Oculus Rift and Samsung’s Gear VR.
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As Zuckerberg explained during the Connect keynote, virtual reality currently exists in two separate planes. There is mobile VR, which includes products such as the Gear VR or Google’s newly announced Daydream View, and then there’s PC VR, which is a space that the Rift and Vive currently occupy.
Mobile VR headsets are incredibly convenient and affordable, allowing users to bring VR on the go with them. PC VR is far more powerful and expensive, but offers an unrivaled experience, giving users the opportunity to move around in the virtual world. In the near future, Oculus wants to bridge the gap between mobile and PC VR with a powerful standalone headset that can track your movement in the world.
Zuckerberg couldn’t share any potential pricing or release date details for the future device, but assured the audience that the standalone device will be cheaper than the $600 Oculus Rift. Oculus prepared a short video demonstrating an early version of the device (which looked almost identical to the Rift, just without all the wires).
As the Facebook CEO had claimed, the headset allows users to move around a virtual space without a single wire. If Oculus can launch this device before any other VR headset makers release their own, it could turn the tide in the company’s favor.
