Oculus Rift may be available to pre-order from January 6, but early adopters won’t be able to reserve the Oculus Touch controller, after the company confirmed today that the peripheral’s release date has been pushed past launch.
Originally intended to be bundled in with the head-mounted VR device, Oculus took to its official blog to explain that the Touch controller needs more time in testing before its released into the wild – specifically in the hands of developers creating games for the new-fangled platform.
That pushes the motion controller into Q2 2016, and the company revealed that improvements to comfort and responsiveness forced Touch out of Oculus Rift’s launch window.
“On Touch hardware, we’ve made significant advances in ergonomics, and we’re implementing many changes that make Touch even more comfortable, reliable, and natural. We’re also implementing changes that improve hand pose recognition. We’re also outputting larger numbers of pre-production runs, which means we can get a lot more Touch hardware in the hands of developers who need it.”
In related news, from 8am PT on January 6 onwards, Oculus Rift will be available to pre-order via the company’s digital storefront, though there’s nary a mention of price, which continues to be the deciding factor for many before committing to the new virtual reality platform.
Early reports put the hardware somewhere in the region of a new console, at around $300-$400, though we await Oculus’ official confirmation on that front. What’s exciting, though, is that every reservation comes with a free copy of Lucky’s Tale and the acclaimed EVE: Valkyrie.
Stay tuned to We Got This Covered over the coming days as Oculus Rift creeps closer and closer to its consumer launch.