A New Era Begins As Oculus Rift DK2 Sales Halted

It's been a long time coming, and the journey is nearly complete. Virtual reality has been creeping its way towards mainstream adoption ever since Palmer Luckey launched the now infamous Oculus Rift developer kit Kickstarter campaign in August 2012. In three (short?) years, we've seen massive progression in this new medium, and as we approach the retail release of the Oculus Rift and other VR HMDs, it's time to say goodbye to an old friend -- the DK2.

First launched in March of 2014, the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2, or "DK2," has been the standby for virtual reality development for new and upcoming developers looking to break into this exciting new platform. It's also been the only available option for early adopters too eager to wait for retail products. We're still waiting for a proper release date, pricing and pre-order announcement for the retail version of the rift, but it's now too late to buy a dev kit. If you don't already have one, then you'll have to wait for the retail Oculus Rift CV1, because the DK2 is sold out completely.

The consumer Rift headset will be available in the first quarter of next year, with pre-orders coming sometime this year, according to Oculus. In the meantime, Razer is now shipping OSVR headsets to the general public, so there's still an alternative if you just can't wait for Q1 2016.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.