We may learn a little bit more about the Oculus Rift later this week.
Oculus VR is going to make a “special announcement” this Thursday during The Game Awards, which is an annual livestreaming show that attempts to recognize excellence in game development. Imaging the MTV Video Music Awards but with more polygons and digital punching. In addition to highlighting some of the best games from 2015, The Game Awards will also have musical performances from Chvrches and promos for next year’s big games. But, at some point between all that, the company that is ushering in our virtual future will take the stage to talk about … something. The Rift virtual-reality head-mounted display, which makes you feel like you’re really in a video game world, is coming in the first quarter of next year. Fans are expecting to hear specific details about price and a release date for that device soon. But we’ll have to tune into the show to see if that’s what Oculus is going to reveal.
The Game Awards goes live on Twitch and YouTube this Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific. Gaming personality Geoff Keighley hosts the event, and he has lined up some new “World Exclusives” for your thirsty eyeballs.
Check out the trailer for the trailers (and awards):
We don’t really know what to expect from Oculus. The company has enough money — thanks to its parent company Facebook — to throw its own event to announce a date and price. But it could still talk about those details on Thursday. The Game Awards will reach a specific audience of early adopters in the gaming space that could represent the first wave of customers to embrace the Rift headset.
If Oculus does announce a pricing and a release date, that’ll make it the first of the big three VR companies to do so. HTC and Valve have their Vive headset that is still supposed to come out in some way before the end of the year — although, as we wrote recently, that is looking less and less likely. And Sony is making the PlayStation VR. That PS4 peripheral is due out in the “first half” of 2016, and we will probably learn a little bit more about it during the PlayStation Experience this Saturday.
Of course, the Oculus announcement could have nothing to do with any of this. Maybe company founder Palmer Luckey will take the stage to reveal he has seen a future where virtual reality has destroyed civilization so he is retiring early to raise goats on a farm in the countryside. It could happen!