Today at the F8 2019 developers conference, Facebook have announced that both the standalone Oculus Quest VR headset and the new Oculus Rift S VR headset are releasing on May 21, 2019 and are available for pre-orders starting today. You can pre-order the Quest directly from Oculus here or pre-order the Rift S directly from Oculus here. Both headsets will cost $399, but the Rift S also requires a VR-capable PC to power it.
You can read our full, detailed reviews of both headsets on the site now — Facebook sent us review units of both headsets. Our Oculus Rift S review is here and our Oculus Quest review is here. We’ve also got technical breakdowns of the Rift S here and Quest here.
Every Oculus Quest retail unit (both the 64GB and 128GB models) will come pre-loaded with five VR game demos, in addition to the standard offering of things like TV apps and Oculus Videos. The five VR game demos are Beat Saber, Creed, Journey of the Gods, Space Pirate Trainer, and Sports Scramble. It does not sound like Quest will come bundled with any full games at launch other than free experiences like Rec Room that will be available for download. You can see the full list of all 50+ planned day one launch titles for Quest right here.
There will also be a $40 travel case custom-made to fit your Oculus Quest, two Touch controllers, and charging cables.
Both of these VR headsets are powered by Facebook’s new Insight tracking system which uses cameras on the headsets themselves to track the room and your movement through it. They also both use the exact same Touch controllers to let you operate your hands inside the virtual space.
The biggest difference here is that the Oculus Quest is a totally self-contained device that functions in a standalone capacity. That means you don’t need a phone, game console, or PC to power it at all. However, you’re sacrificing power and fidelity for that freedom. So even though you can set it up easily and quickly in any room at your home or take it to another location by just stuffing it in a bag, it will never equal the power of a PC-powered device.
Then the Rift S is Oculus’ successor to their flagship Rift headset. They’re discontinuing the original Rift and replacing it with the Rift S so you no longer need to setup cameras and you get a decent bump in resolution as well, but the tracking suffers a tiny bit since the cameras on the headset have limited range when it comes to reaching your hands out wide, behind your back, or behind your head.
Stay tuned at UploadVR for more coverage of the Rift S and Oculus Quest in the weeks leading up to launch and keep an eye on our list of cross-buy titles if you’re interested in both platforms. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
