At a press conference held earlier today, the Facebook-owned Oculus debuted the consumer market model of the company's long-in-development Rift VR device. The company announced that the Rift would be available in the first quarter of 2016, but did not offer a purchase price.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe outlined the many improvements made to the Rift to make it ready for a mass audience. The presentation emphasized the improved comfort and adjustability of the Rift, calling to mind the old aphorism that the best technology "disappears" into the background while it's used, getting out of the way and letting users focus on the content instead of the device. Iribe also explained the technical upgrades over the previously available developer models, including increased resolution, reduced motion blur, integrated audio, and better head tracking that uses a camera packed in with the headset. And in an Apple-style "One more thing..." announcement, Iribe brought company founder Palmer Luckey to the stage to debut the "Oculus Touch," a pair of wireless, motion-tracked controllers.

Iribe also announced another surprising input device that will come packed in with the Rift: A wireless Xbox One Controller. The head of Microsoft's Xbox division, Phil Spencer, took the stage to give an overview of the new partnership between the two companies. On top of the controller pack in, Spencer stressed the Oculus Rift's native, out-of-box compatibility with Windows 10. He also announced that players would be able to utilize the Oculus alongside the Xbox One-Windows 10 game streaming feature that Microsoft first discussed back in January. This sounds cooler than it is, because, okay, here's what that means: You'll be able to stream your Xbox One games from your living room to your Windows 10 PC (presumably not in your living room), and then put on your Oculus headset where you'll be seated in a virtual living room, where you can then play the Xbox One game on a virtual TV screen. There's a use case there, sure, but boy did it look ridiculous.

The event also featured trailers for a few games that are actually built to take advantage of VR, including EVE: Valkyrie (the multiplayer space shooter from EVE Online developer CCP), Chronos (a third-person fantasy game from the Darksiders alumni now at Gunfire Games) and Edge of Nowhere (a third-person, vaguely Lovecraftian adventure built from the ground up for VR by Insomniac Games). The company will show off more games at next week's E3, and hopefully those will also be built specifically with the Rift in mind. For virtual reality to take off, there need to be games that leverage the platform's strengths in a fundamental way, not just as a little tacked on bonus. Which means less virtual living rooms, please.

On the whole, though, today's event should ease fears that Facebook's acquisition of Oculus meant that the company would stop focusing on gaming. It's clear that, at the very least, the folks at Oculus see gaming as the primary vector for getting VR into homes. Who knows what'll come after that.

(It's porn. It's VR Porn. That's what's next.)

Better yet.... VR video game porn!

When anyone talks about VR all I see is that sex scene from demolition man. THATS where this ends up fam.

I'm sure the tech is amazing.

I don't want any of this. Especially if a key feature is that you can play regular games in a VR living room. Barf.

It's 100% gonna be porn

Using the trademark "Will Smith (Not That One) Marketing Strategy", I see.

There we go. Was waiting for MS to either throw in with something existing or announce their own VR thing. That Hololens never seemed like it was going to be close enough to compete with the other devices that were actually VR.

But yeah, I don't really have any interest in any of this stuff either.

This is the part where I could make a "mass market penetration" joke.

I like to think I'm above such things, however.

One step closer to Minority Report, which means one step closer to Tom Cruise!

I hope we get more articles about VR porn that use that picture of Tested's own Will Smith.

I just got done watching The Who's Tommy...

This is weird. Can't wait for Star Citizen on this thing.

Wait? What.

Oh right, why would Microsoft build their own rival to Project Morpheus when they have the billions required to buy off the one that already exists (and is proven to work)? Microsoft: The Pentagon of Video Games!

I am sorry about VR porn will be out before the first game even come out. If I am wrong then I have misjudge humanity as a whole.

@shinjin977: I'm pretty sure it exists already. Which meant that the kickstarter backers were already a big enough audience.

With that comment you have no idea how badly I need this in my life now.

Complex did a couple of reaction videos to VR porn (slightly NSFW):

VR First Timers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLqVxC6JWIM

Old People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVjFOwyy06g

Musicians (Action Bronson, A$AP Ferg, Fetty Wap): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hamyE4xhL64

So yes: VR-Porn is out there.

You'll be able to stream your Xbox One games from your living room to your Windows 10 PC (presumably not in your living room), and then put on your Oculus headset where you'll be seated in a virtual living room, where you can then play the Xbox One game on a virtual TV screen. There's a use case there, sure, but boy did it look ridiculous.

I know it sounds dumb, but this really appeals to me for some reason.

But how much does it weigh? Agh, my neck, just looking at that shit. Hopefully these things get smaller fast.

Smart move by Microsoft. Puts an added pressure on Sony to deliver with the Morpheus. I think VR can absolutely become a popular thing in gaming, it all depends on the price.

I'm wondering how much the full kit is going to cost? I'm especially curious since Microsoft just announced that the Xbox One Controller for Windows with a wireless receiver is going to be $80. Since DK2 is already $350, we might be looking at $399 or even higher for this thing. Anyone have any guesses?

I'm still trying to figure out the use case other than there finally being a method of off-display gaming for the Xbox One.

I'm looking forward to the virtual living room functionality if they can actually make it feel like I'm in an imax theater or a drive in movie theater, something huge even though I'm sitting on my couch playing a game or watching video. I remember seeing a prototype oculus movie theater simulator awhile ago on youtube but haven't kept track of the project. I'm hoping something like that might just get baked into the Oculus tools that you will have to install when you plug the thing in.

I heard all the right things while watching this. It's easy to use and wear. It's easily adjustable. I can wear my glasses with it. As long as the price is reasonable (rumored around $250?) I'll be getting one when they release.

This can't end well.

surprised they aren't downplaying how dumb it looks to wear a rift. their photos, if anything, seem to be playing up that aspect

also, i've said for a while that the oculus reminds me of the Novint Falcon, and with this new controller, it reminds me more of that than ever

I'm skeptical about the VR game store they announced, which will ostensibly compete with SteamVR. Hardware fragmentation is inevitable with control schemes & whatnot, but the last thing I want to see is an ecosystem battle on PC, resulting in people buying multiple HMDs for the exclusives.

If Microsoft creates a VR mode for the Windows 10 shell (not that far-fetched considering their Hololens project), the need for a VR-specific game launcher/ecosystem thing will be reduced.

Unless something changes at e3, it looks like games will only be exclusive to either Morpheus or Oculus, in turn splitting the audience. Though I could be wrong and there are 3rd party devs who are developing games for both.

@austin_walker Really getting get sick of all these writers like you passing off "opinion" as fact.

Michael Ian Black is at least a C-list celebrity. ;)

@conmulligan said:

*Makes witty original Xzibit joke about playing on a screen within a screen*

This is totally excitng, but i still don't see how it's 2 billion dollars exciting. Facebook must definitely see something there. I mean, this basically has to be a guaranteed household sensation to make back on the investment. still hyped and will most likely get one down the road regardless.

I have no idea why or how this happened but I somehow ended up less excited for Oculus after this conference.

Maybe just a case of dreams meeting reality. Now that the future is here, it suddenly feels a little meh.

Exclusives for an accessory huh? Wonder how easy that'll be to crack.

Have had dk2 since the 1st week and played most demos and some full games (elite and technolust). I would say Jeff is right about most people not taking this VR movement serious. I personally had my issues with any VR because of my multiple eye surgeries on my right eye last December. But b4 that I would say it was awesome for games that you sit in a cockpit or 1st person games made just for VR. Games that just throw VR in them are bad experiences that will not work and will kill VRs potential. I imagine a future of just throwing on a pair of sunglasses looking device that then wirelessly stream the VR experience.

That look... really dumb indeed. When they first announced it, I thought they meant XBox 1 games would support Oculus, not this...

Its like playing a game where I am someone playing a game.

@m1k3: EVE: Valkyrie is coming to both Rift and Morpheus. And we don't know how many others wll be cross-platform as well (I'm assuming most if they want to make their dev money back).

That xbox one stuff seems like the absolutely least interesting way they could integrate that stuff. Fantastic.

Looking forward to see what kind of software gets made, I want to mess around with those touch controllers, and every time I read one of these stories I'm more and more worried I'm going to end up with both the Oculus and the HTC Vive. And the Morpheus.

@deckard: Well good thing it isn't really a key feature. However the idea of having a VR cinema has always been nice, it works pretty well in GearVR.

However the presentation overall was pretty boring. Nothing really that new or interesting came out of it except Oculus Touch. However it would have been more shocking if they didn't announce a input solution...which almost happened with that Xbox Controller announcement.

The real use case for this is clearly watching VR porn in a virtual room that is somehow even lonelier than your actual room

This conference sounded like a nightmare.

You don't need to stream from the xbox for that though. Most of the xbox "exclusives" are on PC anyways, and if you have a PC capable of making use of the rift you can just play them there in actual VR, or some kind of local VR theater mode. Someone's bound to make that before long. Really, the whole game streaming thing for windows 10/xbox really suffers from being in reverse. Streaming from the PC to the xbox would be valuable, going the other way is about as useful as a chocolate kettle.

I remain interested in the tech, but the launch window games might actually be less compelling than even the WiiU.

It's almost as if Jason Rubin has spent the last 12 months with his thumb up his ass.

I really like seeing the games exist for this thing and Microsoft backing is a smart move from both parties.

That said I feel like they missed heavily with those Oculus Touch controllers. Specifically separating the buttons. Like what? That only makes sense in the mind of an engineer removed from reality, it is not at all how you use a traditional controller. No one is going back and forth from controlling the character movement with the stick to stopping taking their thumb off and using the same thumb for half the frigging buttons. Four buttons together on one side together, stick for character movement on the other side, how hard was that?

One might say that:

Those Oculus Touch controllers,

...

are out of touch.

I don't really think they designed it for the kind of games designed around the 360/ds3 layout. Plus, you have a lot of other axis to control things like the camera, like turning your head. They're weird though, so it's hard to imagine how well they'll work until I have it in my hands.

30 Helens Agree

porn's next

@tennmuerti: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Those controllers look like something from a South Park episode.

Yeah xbox games can't support the oculus natively simply because the console hardware isn't up to snuff. I also expect any game on Morpheus to rely much more on "art style" than a massive polycount. Hell, I have a pretty kickass gaming PC and I still need to upgrade my video card to run VR.

@amafi: The left stick is traditionally used to control character movement, not the camera, while the right hand thumb is constantly using the 4 buttons for actions (and occasionally the camera with the right stick). You are not taking off your left thumb off the stick to press buttons on the other side of the controller while also loosing character movement.

Oculus Touch is specifically designed as an evolution of the controller re purposed for the VR, split up and with added finger sensors. It's how it was presented on stream, why it's form is so similar to an Xone controller, it's why it has triggers, buttons and sticks.

Except for the part where they decided to split up the 4 buttons, in a bout of insanity. :?

If VR in fact turns out to be the medium of the future, Oculus will probably be worth that amount 10 times over because of the patents they hold. Just licencing it out to VR manufacturers will be a golden goose for decades.

If VR games still require me to use a camera stick, they are doing it wrong.