Following today’s announcement of the Oculus Rift S, Oculus stated that support for the original Rift isn’t going anywhere. At least for a while.
Speaking to UploadVR, VP of Product Nate Mitchell states that “[Oculus] are planning to support Rift for the foreseeable future. All our new content is coming out on Rift. Rift S is just gonna be its replacement.”
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Rift S may be replacing the original Oculus Rift but not everyone will make the jump. Some VR fans will likely want to stick with the outside-in tracking system seen in the first Rift. With three sensors, it offers a full 360 degrees of tracking. Rift S, meanwhile, uses a sensor-free inside-out system. There are five cameras mounted to the kit for extensive tracking.
Oculus says that this will allow the Rift S to play any Rift game, but we won’t know how more demanding titles like Echo VR hold up until we’ve tried them for ourselves. For what it’s worth, Rift S performed very well when we tried it on games like Asgard’s Wrath at GDC this week.
Presumably, there will come a day when Oculus stops supporting the external sensor setup. We doubt that will happen any time soon, though. No doubt Oculus will be watching its stats very closely over the coming months and years to decipher when it will push that button.
Rift S is launching this spring for $399. Will you be making the upgrade or do you want to stick to the original Oculus Rift for now?
