This decade has brought about a new revival of Virtual Reality (VR), and one of the products that got people more interested in actual virtual reality since the nineties was the invention of the Oculus Rift. This device is really going to kickstart an age of virtual reality, but so far, there hasn't really been any news on when the typical consumer can get their hands on one. However, there has been some recent information by the inventor of the Oculus Rift himself as far as the release date, price, and the inclusion of the EVE: Valkyrie game.
According to Ubergizmo, a consumer version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will be launched in 2016. The only thing that we do not have is the exact date. This information comes from tweets by Palmer Luckey, the young inventor of the VR headset. Who claims that "manufacturing continues to go well, and we are still on-target for an awesome Rift launch in Q1". He also stated that "Preorders are coming soon after [the] new year. Enjoy a stress-free holiday, we won't launch preorders without warning!"
So, this probably means that the Oculus Rift will be available for pickup sometime in the spring. According to PC World, Oculus Rift has been sending VR headset hardware to devs in a final push to consumer launch. The first units are shipping now, and they come packaged with Rift SDK 1.0 developer tools.
Unfortunately, the information about the price still hasn't been made known as yet. It was once suggested that the VR headset and a PC that can even run it might be $1,500, which would be out of the spending range of the typical consumer.
In comparison, the Sony PlayStation VR will be priced at about the same price as the console, which is currently at about $300. Considering that the Oculus Rift can only be used by one user, it does make it quite a costly solitary investment.
As something for gaming, it certainly has a lot of applications. iDigitalTimes reports that some who have managed to get their hands on an Oculus Rift have also got their hands on a demo of the space dogfighting game EVE: Valkyrie. Not only that, it has been reported that a copy of EVE: Valkyrie will be included with every pre-order of the Oculus Rift headset. EVE Online is a space simulation by CCP Games, and EVE: Valkyrie will put the players in a sci-fi adventure piloting a spaceship in search of combat.
So it looks like 2016 will be the year for VR. With the Oculus Rift coming out, as well as PlayStation VR, along with other competitors, there is going to be a lot that consumers can choose to experience an immersive environment.
