The Oculus Rift S is lifeless, lengthy stay the Oculus Quest 2

It’s time to say goodbye to the Oculus Rift S – it’s now officially off the shelves after it was discontinued earlier this year.

A statement posted on the Oculus website reads “Oculus Rift is no longer available” marking the end of a two-year life for the VR headset, which was launched in May 2019 as the successor to the original Oculus Rift model.

The Rift S is survived by the Oculus Quest 2, which is now the brand’s flagship VR entry-level VR headset and the best VR headset for most gamers for our money.

This is not surprising news, of course. Facebook, the parent company of Oculus, announced earlier this year that after the launch of Quest 2 in October 2019, it would stop shipping more Rift S units to retail headsets in the future and forego developing pure PC systems like the one Rift S.

Additionally, the company will end support for Oculus accounts in 2023, which means users will be forced to link a Facebook account to their chosen Oculus device in order to access the system.

However, this news won’t go down well with gamers who are unwilling to submit to Facebook’s data monitoring practices or who have been unsettled by the company’s recent ad testing on its Quest systems.

Facebook says ads will “open up new avenues for developers to generate revenue” with the aim of “creating a self-sustaining platform,” although the decision to place ads in the virtual world of a video game certainly frustrates VR enthusiasts will – and gamers in general.

What’s next?

It’s rare for a large tech company to ax a product without announcing an immediate successor, but that’s now the case with the Oculus Rift S. It’s clear that Facebook wants to go full throttle with the Quest 2, so it’s not as if VR fans are lacking for a capable mixed reality headset

But what about the Oculus Quest 3? Well, in a recent Twitter Q&A, Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook Reality Labs, said that a Quest 3 headset is “a little way off” right now.

However, a new Oculus-related project is currently under development, which was confirmed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a call for profits for the company in January. Details of the device have not yet been officially confirmed as plans for a third generation Quest device, but Zuckerberg told investors, “We are still working on new hardware [which] will fit on the same platform, so the content that works on Quest 2 should be forward compatible. “

This could refer to an Oculus Quest Pro that is also rumored to be launched in the coming years.

Today’s best deals on Oculus Quest 2

Via Rockpapershotgun

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