The Coronavirus is showing no signs of slowing down, but the hardware production out of China is. Oculus recently saw a stoppage of Oculus Quest headsets, and now you can add the Nreal ‘Light’ to the list of hardware that is seeing some issues thanks to the outbreak in China. The outbreak has infected tens of thousands of people, and killing hundreds in its path.
The seriousness of this matter cannot be understated. Scientists are still looking for a cure that would put a stop to the death toll rising. Until then, companies are putting a stop on production for their hardware that is being produced by the people that could be infected.
Nreal tweeted out that they won’t be making any more ‘Light” headsets right now, and that it would be impacting the latest batch of backers and buyers. They took more initiative than Oculus did, as they simply put an un-clickable button where you would usually buy the Oculus Quest.
Nreal is based out of both San Fransisco and Hangzhou, China. The Chinese wing is taking care of the bulk of production. Even though Hangzhou is one of the cities where some factories have been cleared, Nreal isn’t taking any risks bringing the disease to places it isn’t welcome. We aren’t sure which factories have been cleared for work, but Nreal won’t be producing any Light headsets any time soon.
The company started shipping out pre-orders for its developer kit just a few months ago. It is priced at $1,200 and has some great functionality. Its one of the only AR headsets on the market right now that consumers could justify wearing for more than a few exact activities throughout the day. Its a tethered AR experience running on a mobile chipset of Snapdragon 845.
This hiccup doesn’t mean that the headset will be dead for a while. The company is still going to support the use of them, they just simply won’t be shipping them out anytime soon. If you do get a piece of mail or a package from China, don’t worry too much. Its reported that the virus is going to die off any non-living organism within a few hours. For more VR news and community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
