At Oculus Connect today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company's next headset: The Oculus Quest. The big selling point is that it's a completely wireless, 6DOF all-in-one system—it doesn't even have external sensors—but still offers "Rift-quality experiences," according to Zuckerberg. So it's a much-improved Oculus Go, basically.
The "Insight" tracking system, which allows it to operate without external sensors, is powered by a gyroscope, accelerometer, and four on-headset sensors which build a 3D map of the room.
"With Oculus Quest, we will finish our first generation of Oculus products," said Zuckerberg. "From here we're going to make some big leaps in tech and content for future generations of each of these products."
He also noted that backward compatibility is a major priority for Oculus products. Games and software designed for Quest, and future Oculus headsets, will still work on the original Rift. And presumably we'll see an upgraded Rift at some point after the Quest launches. That could be a while if the next Rift is to be part of the second generation of headsets, but it would make sense to launch that new generation with another high-end, PC-connected headset, and then work toward all-in-ones in the same order.
The Oculus Quest will release in the spring for $399.
