FB: Oculus is in development, too early for volume shipments

A high-ranking executive from Facebook, the owner of Oculus VR, implied last week that the highly-anticipated virtual reality headset from the company may not see the light of day this year. He indicated that Oculus VR was still working on its hardware and that it was too early to talk about high-volume manufacturing of the product.

“We have not announced any specific plans for shipment volumes in 2015 related to Oculus,” said David M. Wehner, chief financial officer of Facebook, during the company’s conference call with investors and financial analysts. “I just know that Oculus is very much in the development stage so it is early to talk about large shipment volumes, and our expense guidance reflects any volumes that we might do in 2015.”

This is not the first time when Oculus VR and Facebook employees decline to make any solid promises regarding volume shipments of consumer version of Oculus Rift this year. Earlier this year the virtual reality company clearly indicated that it wanted to release a product when it is ready, not to rush it to the market. For Oculus VR it is vitally important to ensure that virtual reality experience is good.

“With the Rift, our team wants to launch this as soon as we possibly can, but with no compromises,” said Nate Mitchell, vice president of products at Oculus VR.

Sony Corp. intends to launch its highly anticipated project Morpheus virtual reality headset in the first half of next year. Therefore, it is unlikely that a potential delay of consumer-oriented Oculus Rift will significantly affect Oculus VR’s positions on the market.

There is a perfect rationale behind making the best possible first-generation virtual reality hardware. Both Oculus VR and Sony need to make sure that their VR headsets provide the best possible experience so to attract maximum amount of gamers to their virtual reality platforms. More gamers mean higher revenue for game developers. Successful sales of VR games will bring additional investments, which will result in better virtual reality games eventually.

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KitGuru Says: While many people will likely get disappointed, it looks like Oculus VR will not release its first consumer version of Oculus Rift this year. If you really want to dive into virtual reality worlds, you will have to get a version for software developers.

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