The recent departure of Brendan Irbe’s from Oculus generated a negative buzz about Oculus Rift 2 cancellation. However, the misconception was put to rest by Facebook as they reiterated that there was no truth to the rumors of Rift 2 cancellation:
“While we can’t comment on our product road map specifics, we do have future plans, and can confirm that we are planning for a future version of Rift.”
With Facebook’s statement, it is clear that they are paying great focus on the future of Rift as they’ve proven over the years how heavily invested they are in both VR and AR. Oculus Quest headset is one of the leading evidence of their commitment to immersive technologies.
Greatest takeaway from the entire furor between Irbe and Facebook is that Oculus made a concrete statement that a Rift 2 is already under works. There’s no doubt that hardware takes years to be developed. With Oculus Quest already set to be released in 2019, it’s unsurprising that Mark Zuckerberg announced that the next version of Rift wasn’t going to be launched this year:
“We are planning a future version of Rift, when we release the next version of Rift—which isn’t this year—all of the content that works for Rift will also work on the next version.”
No specifications have been released regarding Rift 2 but it is expected to offer highly improved graphics and integrate cutting-edge technologies. To make graphical processing easier, the new headset will likely feature foveated rendering and eye-tracking, simultaneously improving hand tracking to make VR interactions more realistic and social interactions to make this experience less isolating.
With the confirmation that Oculus is still driving forward with new content, software and hardware on the Rift/ PC problem, it’s been reassured that Facebook hasn’t shifted its entire focus on standalone VR. It would appear that rumors about Rift 2 are not true and it’s still going to be a thing. Although details about Oculus Rift 2 are still a mystery, it’s expected to be released no earlier than 2020.