The Oculus Touch controllers for the Oculus Rift VR headset will not launch until the second half of 2016, the Facebook-owned company announced on Thursday.
Oculus VR says it needs more tome to ‘perfect’ the handheld Touch controller, which will allow Rift owners to navigate around their virtual reality experiences.
While we already knew it wouldn't be ready for the release of the VR headset, the firm says Touch pre-orders will still re-open ‘a few months’ before launch.
In a post on the company’s official blog, Oculus says the latest prototypes have significantly advanced ergonomics.
However, in the comping months, more developments are in motion, which will make Oculus Touch more reliable, comfortable and natural. The company says it is also stepping up pre-production hardware units in order to help developers become acquainted with the controller
Oculus wrote: “On Touch hardware, we’ve made significant advances in ergonomics, and we’re implementing many changes that make Touch even more comfortable, reliable, and natural. We’re also implementing changes that improve hand pose recognition.
“We’re also outputting larger numbers of pre-production runs, which means we can get a lot more Touch hardware in the hands of developers who need it.”
The Oculus Rift headset itself is still on track for release in Q1 of 2016. There is no word yet on the official price and release date.
The company says pre-orders for the Rift are launching “very soon.” Will we be hearing more at CES 2016? We should know shortly after the weekend.
