If you’ve been following the ever-churning VR rumor mill of late, you’ll have probably heard of reports that HTC is planning to release a refined version of the Vive later this year. We don’t know for sure if that’s true or not, but it does present an interesting question: could Oculus do the same?
That’s something I put to VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, in an interview during Gamescom 2016 this week. Given that Gear VR, a product that Oculus partnered with Samsung to create, has already seen four iterations in its short life, it struck me that the Rift could follow a similar path. While Mitchell agreed that there are some revisions that could be made, he told me any such changes would likely be included with the next full version of the headset, CV2.
“So through the product development cycle since we’ve launched there have been things that we’re looking at improving,” Mitchell told me, stating that he wasn’t ready to specify exactly what these areas were.
“We’re just looking at pieces of the Rift and where we can make some simple improvements for the benefit of our customers,” he later added. “I think you won’t see a material feeling redesign until we basically come out with the next version of Rift and definitely nothing to share on that. But our team is constantly looking at how we push the boundaries of comfort and ergonomics with this totally new category. ”
He continued, noting that he thought the current version of the Rift was “the most comfortable device out there by a long shot,” and making an oh-so-Oculus tease that the company “have a lot going on” for future products right now.
We’d certainly welcome a refreshed Rift, even if the first generation of the device is so impressive. Comfort is an incredibly important factor in the VR race and there’s a long way to go until we get a headset that really helps to make the virtual world indistinguishable from the real one.
So no, it doesn’t look like there is a Rift 1.1, then.
