Elite Dangerous will be an Oculus Rift launch title

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Space jockeys rejoice! Oculus VR announced today that the space combat-slash-trucking sim Elite Dangerous will offer native support for the Oculus Rift VR headset. Even better, it's only a few weeks away: The Oculus version of Elite will be released as a Rift launch title on March 28.

Elite Dangerous has actually been playable on previous iterations of the Oculus Rift. But compatibility issues arose as the Oculus SDK continued to evolve, and then in January, Frontier indicated that it had shifted its efforts to focus on SteamVR. The studio later clarified that it was still working with Oculus, and that “SteamVR is just the focus,” but today's announcement, as far as I know, is the first indication since then that its plan to support the Oculus Rift hadn't been placed firmly on the back burner. But this has clearly been locked down for awhile, as Braben told Ars Technica that he's “been itching to announce it.”

Oculus VR also confirmed that all current owners of Elite Dangerous will be given access to the Oculus Rift version at no extra charge.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.