Mark Zuckerberg took the stage in a fashion only he could. He wasn’t dressed in Gucci clothing flaunting the money he has generated for himself. He wasn’t flanked by body guards on either side of him. In fact, it looked like he stumbled onto the stage from walking down the street. It was a perfect setup for everything he was about to announce for his Facebook company and his child Oculus.
Forward Compatibility
This Oculus Connect event was supposed to be the next chapter in AR and VR, and the first keynote lived up to all of the hype. The first thing Mark talked about was enough to leave all VR users happy for years to come. He announced that all content and games that are made for the Quest or Rift platforms will be playable, and even enhanced, and newer hardware and software. That means the shelf life of all VR content is eternal through Oculus.
Mark also noted that the Oculus has obtained over $100 million in content sales from the Oculus Store. This is no small part to the Oculus Quest either, as this headset’s exclusive store is responsible for over 20% of all of their content sales. If 20% of all of their sales from the store have come in the last four months, their business must be booming more than ever.
Oculus Link
Oculus Link may be the biggest announcement to come out of the keynote, depending on who you ask. Oculus Link is a new technology that is turning your Oculus Quest into an Oculus Rift S. By plugging your Quest into your gaming PC through a USB-C connector, you will have a new Rift on top of your head. All games that you love to play on your Rift, you can now play on your Quest.
This makes the Quest the most versatile headset on the market and the most powerful standalone PC in the world. If the Quest wasn’t good enough to spend a simple $399, now it is. VR is becoming more fun and inclusive than ever before, and it doesn’t stop here.
Hand Tracking On Quest
There had been rumors of hand tracking making the debut on Oculus headsets for a few months now, but it isn’t coming to us the way we thought. Just earlier today, we though that CTRL Labs would be playing a role in the finger tracking, but that wasn’t the case. The hand tracking is enabled by the sensors and cameras on the Oculus Quest, and nothing else will be helping it.
Without any external sensors, cameras, or even wearables, you hands will now be tracked inside of virtual reality starting early next year. This is also going be tracking inside of games that are compatible. Hand tracking is the next step inside of virtual reality and Oculus is bringing it to us very quickly.
360° Levels and Panic At The Disco For Beat Saber
Two Beat Saber developers made an appearance to announce two of the biggest updates to Beat Saber. If you thought choosing your saber color was cool, you will love the 360° levels. This will be exclusive to the Quest, as it is the only untethered headset that is powerful enough to run Beat Saber with perfect and smooth gameplay. It will be available in December.
The developers also announced a whole new music pack that is going to have fans at the Oculus Store waiting for the update. Panic At The Disco will have their own music pack that is available next week and will be available on all headsets. This band has been famous for a while, and Imagine Dragons will be happy to share the spotlight with them.
CRTL Labs Brings Neuroscience
CTRL Labs made their appearance in the keynote, but not in the way many thought we would see them. The company is going to be helping with non-invasive bracelets that are going to give users the ability to have input to their headset without even moving their hands. It is important to know the this is a few years out, but it is something to keep an eye on.
Facebook Horizon
As we predicted yesterday, Facebook announced their own virtual reality social interaction home. This is a place where you can build your own worlds, explore the other worlds, meet new people, and it is all a part of the shared server. That means if your friends come and hangout in your world and leave a mess, it is going to be a mess when you come back to your home. This is going to be the next word in social interactions, and it comes early next year.
Building AR Glasses
AR glasses were thought to be the highlight of this event before it kicked off, but it ended up being a slight footnote. AR glasses are in the process of being made and they have “a few working prototypes” that they are working with. They showed the technology they will be working with, and it seems convening of being a good product. Like we said in our predictive article, don’t be expecting these glasses anytime soon.
In the video they showed during the keynote, they gave off the idea that they know how we are going to incorporate these glasses into our lives, and for the most part they were spot on. They showed some teenagers getting more information on a movie they were about to see, a young child seeing a mongoose for the first time, and even adults learning about new medications.
New Games
We finally got ourselves a release date for Stormland and Asgards Wrath. Asgards Wrath will be releasing at the beginning of October and Stormland will launch at the beginning of November. We also finally got our first look at the Respawn x Oculus game that we have been waiting for. This game is named Medal of Honor and will be a WW2 atmosphere. It will be releasing early next year, slightly behind on the promised release date of holiday season 2019. This game seems like it will be the next great VR game, even with Beat Saber having a firm grip on the communities throat.
