NOVEMBER 2020 PCWorld 23Oculus to kill off PC-only VR in 2021
Dead VR walking: Oculus says it will kill off the Oculus Rift S in 2021. BY MARK HACHMAN
A
fter launching its latest
standalone VR headset, the
Oculus Quest 2 (go.pcworld.
com/ocq2), in September,
Facebook quietly dropped a bombshell:
Oculus is moving away from PC-only VR
headsets. The company that introduced the
original Oculus Rift in 2016 (go.pcworld.
com/orft), which relied on the PC’s native
CPU for the rendering, said in a blog post (go.
pcworld.com/ocbp) that it “won’t pursue
PC-only hardware” anymore.”We’re going to focus on standalone VR
headsets moving forward,” the company said.
“We’ll no longer pursue PC-only hardware,
with sales of Rift S ending in 2021. That said,
the Rift Platform isn’t going anywhere. In fact,
we’ve seen significant growth in PC VR via
Oculus Link, and the Rift Platform will continue
to grow while offering high-end PC VR
experiences like Lone Echo II (go.pcworld.
com/lne2) and Medal of Honor: Above and
Beyond (go.pcworld.com/abby) well into the
future.”IMAGE: MICROSOFT