Oculus has found that most Oculus Rift users only use the platform for gaming purposes rather than its Oculus Video and video-on-demand (VOD) services. As such, the company has now ceased operations for movie rental and purchases.
This week Oculus Rift users received an email detailing the news, confirming that the movie services would no longer function from Monday onwards. If you’ve purchased or rented movies in the past you’ll still be able to access them until 20th November, “After this date, you will no longer be able to access any purchased or rented movies through Oculus Video, but you can continue to watch video and streams from other sources, such as Facebook 360,” states the company. Customers will be reimbursed for those videos they’ve purchased.
While the Oculus Rift won’t support VOD, mobile headsets Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Go will still be able to use the movie options, this is mainly due to Oculus seeing the devices as media consumption headsets rather than gaming. “Over the years, we’ve seen how people use VR for everything from gaming to movies, and it’s become clear that while people love to stream immersive media on other devices, Rift is used primarily for gaming. These insights inform how we support new and existing features and apps across the platform,” Oculus goes on to explain.
There’s still plenty of content to watch on Oculus Rift via other video services, you’ll now just miss out on the big blockbusters in the virtual cinema.
Alongside the Oculus Video news this week has been dominated by the news of Brendan Iribe, Oculus founder and head of PC VR leaving the company after so many years at its helm. Rumours are swirling that his decision had to do with Oculus Rift 2 being abandoned, but that’s yet to be confirmed. As Oculus continues to update and improve its platform, VRFocus will let you know.