Oculus just killed Oculus go to focus on the quest headset

Oculus just killed Oculus go to focus on the quest headset

The Oculus Go will be discontinued by the end of 2020, according to an announcement by the manufacturer, much to the chagrin of entry-level VR users.

As explained in a blog post by Oculus (via TechRadar), sales of this affordable 2018 headset will end this year, and no new features or apps will be added after December 4, 2020. However, existing Go owners can still safely use the headset for some time yet, as they will receive security updates to the headset until 2022. The blog post also announced a new way to share Quest apps, allowing developers to easily publish content without first going through Oculus curation.

The reason for this decision appears to be the success of Oculus Quest, a more fully featured headset that retains Go's all-in-one convenience; Quest offers six degrees of freedom (6DOF) versus Go's three; Oculus' "Insight" tracking system.

The on-board processing makes the task much more convenient for both players and developers, as there is no need to connect the headset to a computer or insert a smartphone.

This is bad news for those who want a VR headset for purposes other than gaming; the $200 Oculus Go was aimed at a more general audience and came with a single controller that could easily control menus and video players.

Now, that same group of people will have to stump up the extra cash to buy the $400 Quest or look for another VR headset. Another affordable option is the PlayStation VR headset, but this hardware requires that you own a PS4. Expect the Oculus Quest to drop in price in the coming months to attract more users.

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