Oculus Rift VR Headset (Photo : Facebook)
Oculus has scheduled its Connect 3 annual developer conference for October 2016 in San Jose, California, which will feature new hardware and content from the Rift VR headset manufacturer. The virtual reality company also announced that it has shipped all pre-orders, and new orders are now shipping within four business days. Meanwhile, Microsoft Stores will start selling Rift units this month, and Best Buys will offer VR demos.
The Connect 3 dev conference will start on October 5. Keynote speakers will include Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe, and Chief Technology Officer John Carmack who helped develop popular games including Quake and Doom, according to CNET.
Keynotes from last year's Oculus conference included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who announced that virtual reality is the "next platform." The social network spent $2 billion to buy Oculus in 2014.
Oculus' second Connect event also showcased the consumer version of Oculus Rift. In addition, the company announced that Oculus Touch controllers would ship sometime in 2015, but they are not available yet.
Michael Abrash is Chief Scientist at Oculus. At the launch of the consumer version of Rift he argued that the biggest challenge in VR could be representing unique real people as virtual people. That will make VR the most virtual experience of all-time and allow people to share almost all experiences.
Oculus also reports that it is boosting its retail inventory. New online orders it gets are now shipping in two to four business days.
Connect 3 will take place from October 5 to October 7. Tickets for the developer conference will go on sale at the Connect website at 9 a.m. PT on August 2.
In related news, Oculus' last launch delay of its Touch controller was the second half of 2016, according to Tech Crunch. However, Oculus fans have been waiting a long time for the Rift accessory.
Oculus Rift headsets are now shipped with Microsoft's Xbox One controller. While Touch's delayed launch seems to be due to manufacturing issues, it will result in unhappy customers and developers in Q4.
Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey tweeted that sometimes people have to make tough decisions and do the right thing.
Here's a review of Oculus Rift Touch controllers:
