Update 12/14/20: Facebook responded with a statement explaining that online shipping estimate dates are “dynamic” and change often, so make sure and check back in frequently since Oculus continues to ship new batches to retail outlets and for Oculus.com. Additionally, brick & mortar locations may still have stock this holiday season.
Original 12/12/20: If you’re in the United States and you’ve been trying to get your hands on Oculus Quest 2, you’ll probably have to wait until 2021.
The standalone headset won’t arrive until January if you buy it from Amazon or Facebook’s own Oculus website. The $299 device is sold out at Best Buy as well. As of Saturday night, you could still order the device from Walmart’s app for delivery before Christmas but it would be coming from a third-party charging $160 above Facebook’s asking price.
While it is possible the headset can be found elsewhere, Facebook’s own website is usually a pretty good indication of the overall supply and demand for the device. As of this writing, Facebook warns on its website that new orders for either the 64 GB ($299) or 256 GB ($399) version of Quest 2 are estimated for delivery on January 11, 2021.
Last year the original Quest sold out in a similar manner.
Some new-to-VR buyers looking for Quest 2 might be confused by the final days of Rift S. The latter PC-only headset recently saw a price drop to $299 because Facebook is clearing out stock before pulling it from store shelves entirely. While both headsets are “Oculus” VR devices, Oculus Quest 2 represents the future of Facebook’s VR efforts and works wirelessly as a completely all-in-one experience. To be perfectly clear to any confused people out there, we cannot recommend anyone buy an Oculus Rift S for a number of reasons. We can, however, say that Quest 2 is the new king of VR, as long as you don’t mind Facebook.
For those of you still looking for Quest 2, there is a Chrome extension you can install that can help you find when the device is back in stock at its suggested retail price.
Facebook acquired Sanzaru Games, the developer behind a slate of Oculus-funded VR titles including our selection as best VR game of 2019 Asgard’s Wrath.
The development group will join Oculus Studios as an “independently operated studio” out of their current offices in the United States and Canada. They’re the most recent acquisition following Prague-based Beat Games, the studio behind VR’s most popular title Beat Saber, which was acquired by Facebook late last year.
Facebook says it is not disclosing terms of the deal.
We’d speculated such a purchase was likely as Facebook made no secret that it is on a bit of a shopping spree for VR development talent in the build-up against existing gaming giants like Microsoft and Sony. Sanzaru made a lot of sense as a potential acquisition target since they’ve been a long-time partner of Oculus Studios and have released four titles for the Oculus Rift PC platform since 2016 with Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge, MARVEL Powers United VR and, finally, Asgard’s Wrath, which we rated 5/5 stars and called “VR’s best and most ambitious game yet.”
Facebook guards its sales numbers for consumer VR hardware but since the release of Oculus Quest in May 2019 they’ve had trouble keeping the $400 standalone VR headset in stock while adding surprising features to it like the Oculus Link wired PC VR connection and experimental hand tracking.
Facebook also makes the Oculus Rift S PC VR headset priced at $400 which came bundled for a period last year with Asgard’s Wrath — a deep and sprawling role-playing game rooted in Norse mythology.
“We can confirm the vast majority of Sanzaru will be joining the Oculus Studios team,” a statement from Facebook explains. “We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and 2020 is going to be an incredible year for VR game launches and announcements…This is just one of the many amazing VR announcements we have in store this year.”
Those are bold words but Facebook has a lot planned in VR and AR and is spending billions annually on research and development. Developers are building out controller-free hand-tracking support into Oculus Quest apps and Facebook also plans to launch a VR-based social networking service it calls Horizon. The company pulled out of a physical appearance at the Game Developers Conference in March due to Coronavirus concerns but may make announcements in connection with the event. The company also has its F8 developers conference slated for May and for the last six years hosted a VR developer conference called Oculus Connect late in the year.
What do you think of the acquisition? Which studio do you think Facebook might target for acquisition next?
A bombshell announcement from Facebook today reveals the company is acquiring Prague-based Beat Games, the studio behind popular VR rhythm slasher Beat Saber.
Terms of the acquisition “will not” be disclosed, according to Facebook, though it is possible details might leak. A blog post by Mike Verdu, Director of AR/VR Content at Facebook, says Beat Games is joining Oculus as “an independently operated studio in Prague” with the promise that “what the community has come to love about Beat Saber will remain intact.”
“Beat Games will continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber across all currently supported platforms, now with even more support from Facebook,” the post reads.
Over the years Facebook acquired a number of VR and AR-focused technologies and the teams that built them, first with Oculus VR in 2014 for roughly $3 billion and most recently with the acquisition of CTRL Labs. Buying a game studio like Beat Games, though, may mark a new phase in the company’s efforts to realize a consumer-oriented hardware platfrom that doesn’t rely on others like Apple or Google.
Experienced VR Developers Getting Acquired
Sony recently acquired Insomniac — the maker of several quality Oculus Rift exclusives including the impressive shooter Stormland — while in 2018 Microsoft acquired VR-experienced studios like inXile and Ninja Theory. The acquisitions come in the build up toward the next generation of game consoles, with Sony’s PS5 slated for release in late 2020, and as Facebook’s Oculus Quest cements its place as the only (relatively) affordable VR headset in 2019 we can recommend to many first-time VR buyers.
For those just joining the VR journey with this news, Facebook’s Oculus Quest is an all-in-one VR headset that started shipping in May this year with a console-like curation strategy that limited apps available through the Oculus store to only the most polished products, including Beat Saber, Superhot, Red Matter and many more. Everything needed to have a compelling experience with intuitive hand controls is included in the box with Quest for $400, and it features cameras, processors and battery built into the headset itself — so there are no cords or external hardware needed to visit virtual worlds. That said, Facebook just launched the Oculus Link Beta for Quest that essentially adds a second mode to the device over a USB 3 wired connection to a compatible PC. The Oculus Link mode essentially turns Quest into an Oculus Rift capable of playing high-end PC-powered games like No Man’s Sky VR, Skyrim VR, Asgard’s Wrath, and Stormland.
Changes To Beat Saber?
Beat Saber first released in 2018 and since launched on practically all VR headsets with 6DoF hand controllers — most recently this year on Oculus Quest — with a string of updates adding new features and artists, like Imagine Dragons. Last we heard, Beat Games planned to release some 360-degree levels for Beat Saber in December this year — an update which might be best suited only for the Quest wireless system — and they are separately working on multiplayer support as well. Verdu’s post says “Beat Games will continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber at the same time across all currently supported platforms.”
Early next year Facebook is planning to unleash hand tracking for Oculus Quest so the headset’s menus and playback functions on traditional media content like movies can be operated in mid-air without the controllers. They are also launching a unified social networking effort for VR called Facebook Horizon that allows headset owners to quickly visit multiple simulated spaces and even build them while wearing a headset. I asked Facebook specifically the following questions: Is there a timeline for multiplayer Beat Saber from Beat Games and will it be tied to Facebook Horizon? While Facebook confirmed multiplayer is still in the works, a representative did not provide any other details.
A Q&A section of Facebook’s announcement post (you can read the full post here) also addresses modding Beat Saber. For those unfamiliar, Beat Saber gained early recognition from a mode of play in which players modified the game to add levels and songs that aren’t officially licensed:
“We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies,” the post from Verdu reads. “We’re going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base. As a reminder, our most recent policy updates give more clarity to how developer mode is intended to be used, such as helping developers build their apps or for enthusiasts to explore new concepts. It is not intended for engaging in piracy or illicit modding, including mods that infringe on third-party IP rights or contain malicious code.”
We are reprinting the rest of the Q&A section of their post below:
What about 360° Levels mode? And more music? And all the other stuff you’ve talked about doing?
Beat Games is still shipping 360° Levels mode in December, and more music is coming this year, too!
Do you plan to acquire other studios? What else are you doing to accelerate VR?
We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and we think next year is going to be an incredible one of VR game launches and announcements. We are thrilled to have Beat Games join our team. This is just the beginning.
Why Beat Games?
Beat Games is a strong team with proven potential across VR, games, and music. With the resources and know-how that we can offer, Beat Games will be able to accelerate, adding more music and more exciting features to Beat Saber as well as bringing the game to more people.
There’s a long history of indie studios joining larger companies and being ruined. How are you going to avoid that?
I’ve been in the industry for a while and have seen that firsthand. However, I’ve also seen and been a part of some incredible success stories. The story we aim to prove over time is this: An indie studio joins forces with some like-minded allies, and together they find a way to push VR to new heights.
Are you going to be slowing down updates for non-Oculus platforms and prioritizing development for Oculus?
No, Beat Games will continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber at the same time across all currently supported platforms.
Does this mean Beat Games will no longer be independent?
The Beat Games team will operate the same way they have to date as an independent studio, and they’ll continue to work on Beat Saber across all currently supported platforms.
Don't just play games on Twitch. Buy them, too. On Monday, the Amazon-owned live streaming video platform announced its entrance into the computer video game market. You can buy games or in-game content via a new "Buy" button.
HTC has been heavily promoting its virtual reality (VR) headset across numerous disciplines including neuroimaging solutions and shopping. With the latter, HTC recently demonstrated in conjunction with Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, a new Buy+ mobile VR channel on the latest HTC-powered VR-ready smartphones.
The app allows the completion of actual retail transactions whilst fully immersed in VR, so that customers easily switch between entertainment and shopping without removing a headset.
“We are glad to cooperate with Alibaba to enable the first mass-demonstration of a complete VR shopping experience and are honoured that they have chosen Viveport M as the preferred download partner for the Buy+ mobile application,” said Alvin W. Graylin, China Regional President of Vive, HTC.
HTC has been concentrating on the Chinese market due to its huge growth potential, recently partnering with InterContinental Hotels to allow guests to enjoy VR within specific areas or even in their own hotel room.
Mobile VR is expected to be a dominant part of that market due to the cheaper headsets and easier access to smart devices. Which is why HTC recently launched Viveport M in the country, so that users can find and use mobile VR applications and 360-degree videos in both touch screen and VR modes.
Zhuoran Zhuang, Head of VR programs at Alibaba, said: “It’s been a pleasure working with the VR market leader, HTC Vive on multiple VR related projects. We are continuously exploring on the next generation of shopping experiences via innovative technology, and looking forward to deeper collaboration with our partners to deliver even more immersive commerce experiences!”
Today also sees the biggest shopping event in the Chinese calendar and HTC Vive has prepared a number of seasonal promotion deals for VR fans at this year’s “11/11” shopping festival. Deals include Vive plus VR-ready PC sets, complimentary accessories and VR content, interest-free instalments, and an upgraded Vive referral program.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of HTC Vive, bringing you the latest news from around the world.
