Most people heard about the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset when the company behind it, Oculus, started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The campaign met its funding goal and work started. Developer kits were shipped out to those who had pledged for them. The company today announced that the final version of Oculus Rift developer kit is shipping now, this is the last kit that will be shipped before a consumer version is launched.
According to the company the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 was pre-ordered by more than 45,000 people at its $350 price point. It expects to ship almost 10,000 units from the factory this month with almost half of these units expected to reach doorsteps after being processed through distribution centers by the end of this month.
Oculus acknowledges that its “slightly behind” in manufacturing and that there’s a possibility that developers who have been given July shipping estimates will not see their Developer Kit 2 unit until August at the very least. The company says it has a team in China that’s working on ramping up production.
The Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 brings an improved display, bumping it up from 1,280×800 to a full HD 1080p OLED panel. There’s a tracking camera which translates real-world head movements into games, it is also said to reduce blurring to mitigate the possibility of motion sickness during long periods of usage.
Back in March Oculus was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. The social network aims to help it grow and even envisions its uses beyond the realm of gaming.
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