Oculus' Touch controller for its Rift Virtual Reality (VR) headset will be delayed, and shipped during the second half of this year rather than during Q2. The Facebook-owned company reported in a January 31, Thursday blog post that it is completing several tweaks to make it more comfortable and reliable.
Oculus start taking orders a few months before the controller's official launch. However, the Rift headset's release date is still on schedule and will ship during Q1 of this year. Pre-orders will start "very soon," according to GSMArena.
The Facebook subsidiary first showcased its Oculus Touch controller at a June 2015 media event, according to PC World. However, the Rift headset will be shipped with an Xbox One wireless controller.
This creates a possible issue. Although Oculus Touch will be a better VR device than the Xbox One controller, it might be difficult to convince Rift owners to upgrade to the Touch controller. That could in turn discourage developers from designing Rift games that exploit the full capabilities of the VR controller.
In any case, Oculus is manufacturing many pre-production runs of Touch hardware for developers. VR fans will have to wait for the release date of the Touch controller.
In other Oculus Rift news, the VR headset will run on the Microsoft Windows platform. However, it will not be available for iOS because the company wants to focus first on developing a Windows version.
Oculus Rift is being launched after Google Cardboard and will be less portable than Samsung Gear VR. However, it is clear Facebook is focusing on the Oculus Rift's launch.