It was a good ride, but the Oculus Rift S is no longer available on the Oculus website

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It took a while, but the Rift S is no longer available on the Oculus website, having vanished without a direct successor to a dedicated PC VR headset. These tasks have been carried over to the Quest 2, a standalone headset (hardware is integrated) that can also be connected to a PC.

It was only a matter of time, really. Facebook announced in April of this year that it would no longer ship Rift S units to retailers once they sold out, this was for Rift S.

“Rift S is still available for sale currently in some channels around the world, but as we announced last year, we plan to stop selling Rift S in 2021,” Facebook told UploadVR at the time. “In general, as the channels run out of stock, they will not be restocked.”

A visit to the Wayback Machine indicates that the Rift S is no longer available on the Oculus website in May. Oculus still maintains a Rift S product page, but when you visit the “compare” section, only the Quest 2 has a “Buy Now” button.

We have mixed feelings about this. In fact, the Quest 2 is the best VR headset for most people, and compared to the Rift S, it offers a higher resolution display, faster refresh rate, and greater flexibility. However, Quest 2 requires a Facebook login.

This is a killer for some people, and it didn’t help that Facebook recently started testing ads in Oculus games. This was not well received by publicResolution Games, the developer behind the first game (Blaston) to incorporate ads, withdrew from the program following a review bombing campaign resulting from the in-game ads.

Interestingly, the Quest 2 surpassed the Rift S in March as the most popular headset on Steam. A look at the stats now, however, shows that the Rift S is back on top, albeit by less than a full percentage point. However, as of this moment, the Rift S is the most used headset for PC VR gaming on Steam.

If you were hoping for a direct successor to the Rift S, unfortunately it doesn’t look like there will be one. In reaction to news that Facebook was moving from the Rift S, Palmer Luckey, who left Facebook in 2017, said on Twitter that a Rift 2 project was “canceled shortly before it went into production and then canceled again in favor of. a much lower project “. Lenovo rebadge specifications. “

It’s the end of an era, in a way. The Rift S replaced the original Rift, which played a major role in popularizing virtual reality following a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarterit that attracted nearly $ 2.5 million in pledges in 2012, making it the project. most funded at the time. Then, a couple of years later, Facebook bought Oculus for $ 2 billion.

What does the future of virtual reality hold? This is a good question. Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook Reality Labs, said a few months ago that Quest 3 is not currently in development. It might materialize at some point, but not before a Quest Pro, which itself is “still a bit far away”.

“For those who are curious, Quest 2 will be on the market for some time, and it will be, you know, I think the best bet for the most accessible way to get into VR and have a great experience,” Bosworth said.

So there you have it, Rift S is retired and Quest 2 will bring the VR headset flashlight to Oculus for the foreseeable future.

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