Facebook’s Oculus is returning to San Jose on October 11-12 this year to share some news about the future of VR at the company’s Oculus Connect 4 developers conference.
This past year’s conference was very much focused on showing off the content being made for Oculus’ GearVR and Rift platforms. It was also notable because Facebook’s presence was more heavily emphasized as Zuckerberg delivered much of the keynote, sharing new product news.
Over the past year, Facebook has slowly been bringing the Oculus name and leadership under its own core brand. With the amount of VR news popping up at F8, some wondered whether Oculus Connect’s days were numbered, but ultimately it seems Facebook continues to believe the gaming focus of the conference needs its own stage.
This will be the conference under Facebook VP of VR Hugo Barra, who took over the reigns a few months ago after CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe suddenly stepped down in December. This also will be the first conference since co-founder Palmer Luckey left the company, though he was absent from the convention center last year, as well.
Discussion of new gaming exclusives is often a topic at Oculus Connect. This year will be interesting, especially as Oculus was left out of the loop at E3 as a number of VR titles emerged from games publisher Bethesda, including Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Doom, that will not be coming to the Rift due to the ongoing legal troubles between its parent company, ZeniMax Media, and Oculus.
This year we can probably expect to see a new version of the all-in-one “Santa Cruz” headset prototype, which is hopefully getting closer to becoming a reality. It’s early, so no details on OC4 registration or the talks that will be given, but we’ll keep you updated.