Oculus VR has confirmed that the first consumer edition of its Rift virtual reality headset will be available for shipping in the first quarter of 2016.
The Facebook-owned company made the announcement on the Oculus blog and said that pre-orders will be available later this year.
The headset will be based on the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences.
Oculus said that it will be revealing more details around hardware, software, input and games available in the coming weeks. More technical specifications will be announced next week.
“The Rift delivers on the dream of consumer VR with compelling content, a full ecosystem, and a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality. Its a system designed by a team of extremely passionate gamers, developers, and engineers to reimagine what gaming can be,” the company said in a statement.
The company was launched on Kickstarter in 2012 and later acquired by Facebook for $2bn early last year.
No price for the headset has been announced but the second-generation Rift development kit went on sale for $350 last year.
Were incredibly excited to announce that the Rift will be shipping to consumers in Q1 2016! http://t.co/XEZ04ZP6UT pic.twitter.com/kpcK5zhpZt
Oculus (@oculus) May 6, 2015
