Oculus finishes shipping pre-orders, prepares for Touch launch later this year

By Brad Bourque July 12, 2016

fox new technology division foxnet oculus rift on matt back2 1500x1000 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

As the battle between the Rift and HTC Vive rages on, Oculus has announced in a blog post that all pre-orders have now shipped out, and anyone can buy a headset with just a two to four day wait time.

The Oculus Shipping page elaborates on those terms. Orders made from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand will generally ship within two days, while parts of Asia may have to wait as long as four days. The shipping page also mentions that retail partners like Amazon (where the only Rifts are currently sold by third parties for above sticker price) will have different shipping and delivery times.

The Rift’s release earlier this year was marked by delays, a fact Oculus hasn’t been shy about apologizing for. The team took one more opportunity here to thank pre-order customers for their patience and support over the last few months. Now that those orders are fulfilled, Oculus is starting to roll out more headsets to retail and on-line partners, with new demo stations at Microsoft Stores starting in July.

“We’re on track to launch Touch and introduce true hand presence along with an amazing lineup of games and experiences later this year. We’ll have lots more to share about Touch and the 30+ launch titles at OC3.” That statement is, unfortunately, about all the blog post has to share about the upcoming Touch controllers. We reviewed both the Vive and Rift and found the lack of proper motion controllers really sets the two systems apart, so those Touch controllers could be the missing piece of the puzzle.

That’s not all. The post also served as the official announcement for Oculus Connect 3, the company’s annual developer conference. With Touch controllers looming ever closer on the horizon, the term “hand presence” will likely be thrown around quite a bit at this year’s talks.

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Brad Bourque is a native Portlander, devout nerd, and craft beer enthusiast. He studied creative writing at Willamette…

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