Oculus Rift release date

As we travel inexorably into the future, we'll all soon be faced with an important question: just which vision of a face-mounted VR future do we want to imbue with the salty fluids of our hot, fleshy meat pores? If Oculus is your futuristic sweat receptacle of choice, its makers have announced roughly when you'll be able to strap-in to a consumer model.

Naturally Oculus is touting the consumer model's improvements over the existing Cresent Bay prototype. "The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as a highly refined industrial design, and updated ergonomics for a more natural fit," explains the Oculus VR team in their release window announcement post.

Given that EVE: Valkyrie is pegged as an Oculus launch title, that rather suggests we'll get our hands (and faces) on CCP's dogfighter in early-2016 as well.

The release window puts the Oculus slightly behind what is arguably its biggest competitor: Valve and HTC's Vive headset. The SteamVR device is expected to ship this Christmas.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.