Facebook says Oculus Rift S headphones will generally not be refilled as they disappear from store shelves, indicating the end of the lifespan of the virtual reality system. As UploadVR reported yesterday, Facebook confirmed that “in general, if channels are sold out, they will not be replenished going forward.” The PC-enabled headset is not available through Oculus’ store and is not in stock on retail platforms such as Amazon and Walmart in the US, except through third-party vendors.
Facebook announced last year that it would discontinue the Oculus Rift S in 2021. Although the headset was a successor to the Oculus Rift landmark, it compromised features such as screen resolution and refresh rate, especially compared to high-end PC competitors such as the Valve Index. Meanwhile, Facebook has shifted its focus to the standalone Oculus Quest, a mobile headset that can also be placed on a computer, making it functionally a replacement for the Rift S.
According to some reports, the strategy was a clear departure from Oculus’ earlier plans. Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, left the company in 2018, allegedly after Facebook canceled a higher Rift 2 headset. Also the late Oculus founder Palmer Luckey refer to the rumor today on Twitter and said he “imagines a world where Rift 2 will not be canceled shortly before it goes into production and then cancels again in favor of a much lower specification Lenovo rebadge.” (The Oculus Rift S was manufactured in partnership with Lenovo.)
However, switching to standalone designs has apparently worked well for Facebook so far. Facebook says last year’s Oculus Quest 2 sold out all previous Oculus headsets collectively. The device has established Facebook as the dominant VR headphone company at the cost of ceasing high-end PC-based VR to competitors including Valve, HTC and HP. And Facebook has indicated it will continue the Quest line for the foreseeable future – with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying he is already imagining ‘Quest 3 and 4’.