Facebook’s Oculus Begins Shipping Rift Virtual Reality Headsets

Virtual reality (VR) company Oculus began shipping its highly anticipated Rift headsets Monday, about two years after the firm was acquired by social media giant Facebook. The earliest investors in Oculus’ fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2012 should be receiving their Rift headsets soon. And the first of the preorders will start shipping midweek, Oculus said.

Founded in 2012, Oculus launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise $250,000. A couple of years later, Facebook bought Oculus for about $2 billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he saw VR as the next major computing platform.

This year, HTC and Sony are also set to launch their VR devices as the companies look to offer enhanced gaming and entertainment experiences to customers.

“The headset you can buy today is not Oculus’ most ambitious vision for VR — but it’s a vision that Oculus has successfully delivered on,” Adi Robertson at the Verge technology website said in a review Monday.

Priced at $599, the black headgear comes with a remote, an audio system, a sensor and an Xbox One wireless controller.

Oculus said there were more than 30 games available at the Oculus Store and that it would soon add feature-length films and more content.