14 DAY TRIAL // The team working on the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset announces that it has managed to deliver 85,000 developer kits to a variety of studios and teams that are interested in working with the new technology and are testing their games with it.
The company, which has recently been acquired by Facebook, says that 25,000 units of the new upgraded kit have been shipped out so far, which is impressive given the fact that it was only revealed during the Game Developers Conference that took place in March.
60,000 of the initial Oculus Rift development kits were also delivered to developers interested in virtual reality on the PC, says Gamasutra.
The company has probably made the announcement in order to show that work on its new device and on the tech associated with it was proceeding normally despite the fact that Facebook has paid 2 billion dollars (1.55 billion Euro) for it.
Oculus Rift is also set to get access to a full consumer version, which is expected to arrive before the end of the year, but which currently does not have a clear date or an associated price.
It’s unclear how many of the 85,000 development kits are used to actually create video games that use virtual reality and how many have been picked up by individuals or by firms that are just interested in seeing how the tech works at the moment.
Facebook has said that for the foreseeable future, it plans to allow Oculus Rift to focus on video games and similar experiences, although it sees the long-term future of the tech as being linked to allowing users to connect socially in new and innovative ways.
There are currently no plans to offer the headset on other platforms than on the PC.
At the Game Developers Conference, Sony also announced that it was working on its own virtual reality solution called Project Morpheus, which was set to be exclusively linked to the PlayStation 4 next-gen console.
The company has not said when it plans to officially launch the device, but it says that there are some technical issues that still need to be ironed out before it can reveal a final design and announce an official price for it.
Rumors are also saying that Microsoft is at the moment exploring the possibility of introducing a virtual reality solution for the Xbox One and has recently acquired a company that specializes in augmented reality experiences.