{"id":9067,"date":"2020-09-16T22:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T22:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/oculus-plans-to-kill-off-pc-only-vr-in-2021\/"},"modified":"2020-09-16T22:38:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T22:38:00","slug":"oculus-plans-to-kill-off-pc-only-vr-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/oculus-plans-to-kill-off-pc-only-vr-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Oculus plans to kill off PC-only VR in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Oculus plans to kill off PC-only VR in 2021<\/h2>\n

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After launching its latest standalone VR headset, the Oculus Quest 2, on Wednesday, Facebook quietly dropped a bombshell: Oculus is moving away from PC-only VR headsets.<\/p>\n

The company that introduced the original Oculus Rift in 2016, which relied on the PC\u2019s native CPU for the rendering, said in a blog post<\/a> that it \u201cwon\u2019t pursue PC-only hardware\u201d any more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201dWe\u2019re going to focus on standalone VR headsets moving forward,\u201d the company said. \u201cWe\u2019ll no longer pursue PC-only hardware, with sales of Rift S ending in 2021. That said, the Rift Platform isn\u2019t going anywhere. In fact, we\u2019ve seen significant growth in PC VR via Oculus Link, and the Rift Platform will continue to grow while offering high-end PC VR experiences like\u00a0Lone Echo II<\/u><\/i><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond<\/u><\/i><\/a>\u00a0well into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oculus said that it will phase out the original Oculus Quest, the standalone headset that Facebook began selling in 2019. \u201cOur goal with the original Quest was to bring standalone VR to as many people as possible,\u201d Oculus said. \u201cWe\u2019re doubling down on that goal with Quest 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what Facebook and Oculus plan with the \u201cRift platform,\u201d though it appears that the company sees the Oculus Link Cable<\/a> as the bridge between PC-powered VR and the standalone world\u00a0 The company\u2019s webpage says the cable offers the opportunity to play \u201cthe best of both worlds,\u201d and that the cable “unlocks the power of your PC to add stunning graphics and heart-pounding gameplay to your VR experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

In any event, we called the Oculus Rift S \u201can incremental update\u201d in our Oculus Rift S review, noting that of the Quest and the Rift S, the Quest was the more interesting device. The Rift S also shipped to PCWorld in a rather buggy state, though a replacement solved those issues,\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear, though, what this announcement will mean for developers who had designed games that were optimized for the Oculus Rift platform, powered by the PC. Oculus announced several games that were coming to the Quest 2 platform, including multiplayer versions of\u00a0Beat Saber; Population One<\/em>, a VR battle-royale game, and\u00a0Jurassic World: Aftermath<\/em>, plus VR-specific versions of\u00a0Assassins\u2019 Creed\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Splinter Cell.<\/em><\/p>\n

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