Oculus Begins Shipping Final Rift Hardware to Developers
Are you looking to get your hands on the finished version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset before it officially hits the market? Well, if you’re a developer you may be in luck! Oculus has announced it will be giving chosen developers early access to the final version of the Oculus Rift hardware, along with the Rift SDK 1.0.
According to the company’s blog, developers will begin receiving “early builds of the final Rift hardware” and the new platform this week. This will allow devs a chance to make sure their game or application is finalized and ready to go, as Oculus leads up to its much-anticipated consumer release early next year.
“If you’re shipping a Rift title in Q1, you’ll need early access to Rift hardware and new platform features to finalize your game or application,” the post reads. “The Rift SDK 1.0 and runtime include features tied to the consumer product, so we’ve currently limited the release to developers putting final touches on launch titles.”
Oculus also notes, that if you’re working on a launch title for the Rift and do not yet have the hardware, you can upload a preview of your app through the Oculus submission tool, and the team will be in touch with the next steps necessary. Any developers that are not expected to release a launch title for the Rift can continue using the DK2 and Rift SDK 0.8 for early Rift development.
As for the exact launch date, the consumer release of the Oculus Rift still remains on track for Q1 2016, at a price expected to be over $350. With the optional Oculus Touch controller set to ship later next year.