Got your Oculus Touch pre-order prepped and ready for launch? If you’re a VR developer, you might not need it.
Yesterday Oculus posted a quick developer update, announcing that it was sending out yet more complimentary developer kits ahead of launch of the consumer product on December 6th. Kits will be sent out throughout the remainder of the year until supplies have been exhausted. Devs can request a pair of controllers through an application process, though Oculus has not revealed the exact number of units it plans to send out.
Touch is Oculus’ position-tracked input solution, eagerly anticipated since its reveal last week. The pair of controllers are similar to the wands that come with the HTC Vive or the PlayStation Move controllers for PlayStation VR.
Once Touch itself is out, you’ll be able to use the consumer product as a developer kit too, just as you would an Oculus Rift itself. Oculus has promised that Touch will ship “in volume”, suggesting that it won’t be repeating the troubled launch of the Rift and will have plenty of stock, so hopefully everyone that wants Touch, developer or customer, will get them.
Clearly a lot of developers already have Touch in their hands; Oculus is planning to ship the controllers with well over 30 launch titles and plenty more are coming both from its studios partners and others. The company is also bundling a lot of content with the $199 controllers, including the recently announced First Contact, The Unspoken, VR Sports Challenge, and Dead and Buried.
They also come with a second tracking sensor, and customers can buy a third sensor still to enable roomscale tracking, potentially bringing the Rift up to speed with its main rival, the Vive. We’re yet to go hands-on with roomscale to test that tracking for ourselves, though.
There’s just under a month to go now; Oculus Touch is nearly here.
