Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate.
Death to the Project Santa Cruz, long live the Oculus Quest. Now that Oculus Connect 5 is officially in the books, we know the real, consumer-facing name of Facebook’s upcoming standalone VR headset and we actually had the chance to go hands-on with the device from the show floor in San Jose.
We got to play Superhot VR, Tennis Scramble, Dead and Buried Arena, and Face Your Fears 2 on the device and overall came away extremely impressed. The Oculus Quest will ship in Spring 2019 for $399 and includes two 6DOF Touch controllers as well as the headset itself, which is entirely standalone, 6DOF, and wireless. It represents a middle ground between the Go and Rift.
We still don’t know the full launch lineup, but we do know at least 50 games will be ready by the release date including Moss, Robo Recall, and more. All of technology is really, really impressive — but is it enough?
At the OC5 keynote Mark Zuckerberg said that in order for a VR ecosystem to be self-sustaining and successful, it needs about 10 million users. There are only 3 million PSVR headsets out there and we still don’t know a number for Rift, but it’s fair to assume less than 1 million since that hasn’t been announced yet. In our hands-on I stated that this could be the VR headset for everybody, but what do you think?
So, if the Quest is going to be the breakout success that Facebook hopes, it needs to do really, really well. Which brings us to the following question: Do you think the Quest will outsell the Rift? Will it do so well that the Oculus Quest becomes Facebook’s primary device going forward? Will this become the best-selling headset ever? Why or why not?
Let us know what you think down in the comments below and make sure to watch our live Q&A show from last week for more details.
