Multiple Signs Point To The Oculus Go's Imminent Launch

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Updated, 05/01/2018, 10:40am PT: Mark Zuckerberg announced during the F8 Opening Keynote that the Oculus Go is available today. You can order the headset from Oculus.comin 23 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA and South Korea. The headset is also available from select resellers in The U.S., including Amazon.com and Best Buy’s online and retail stores.

In just a few hours Facebook will kick off its annual F8 developer conference, which should include announcements about the company’s plans for the next year and beyond. We don’t yet know what Facebook has in store for us, but Amazon may have blown the lid on at least one surprise: the company listed the Oculus Go for pre-order.

Amazon subsequently pulled the order button from the product page, but not before the device hit the top of the company’s Best Sellers list in the “PC Gaming Headsets” category. It’s unclear how many orders would have gone through before Amazon pulled the plug, but for it to hit the #1 Best Sellers spot, the company must have moved more than a handful of units.

Amazon isn’t the only retailer with hints that the Oculus Go release is imminent. Reddit user Heaney555 yesterday posted an image of a locked display cabinet filled with white Oculus boxes. Heaney555 said the display is at a Best Buy store, but there’s no way to prove that from the supplied image. We also can’t say for sure that these are Oculus Go boxes because they are turned backwards to hide the box art. We can see an Oculus Rift package next to these boxes, though, and the Rift package is much larger.

Oculus hasn’t announced the shipping date for the Go standalone VR headset. However, when the company revealed the device in October 2017, it said we should expect its release in “early 2018.” The company is a little bit late for “early 2018,” but F8 seems like as good a place as any to launch a product. Not to mention, according to this sign on the F8 registration desk (posted to Reddit by user VirtalRealityOasis), Facebook is giving an Oculus Go headset to everyone who attends the conference. If that’s not a strong indication of a product launch, we’re not sure what is.

The Facebook F8 Keynote starts today at 10am PT. You can watch it live at F8.com.

Kevin Carbotte

 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. 

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gdmaclew
    Standalone VR looks like it just might be the product that kick starts VR into the mainstream if the $200 price point is to be believed.
    All I'm looking for is something I can strap to my face that would replace my monitor and have about 100° FOV. It would allow me to turn my head left and right or up and down and have that motion translate to the game. I'm not interested in having the headset mirror my movements if I turn completely around and I want to be able to use it with my keyboard and mouse.
    I don't need it to be able to allow me to move around the room.
    So basically a replacement for my monitor, as I mentioned before.
    Reply
  • Dosflores
    Amazon subsequently pulled the order button from the product page, but not before the device hit the top of the company’s Best Sellers list in the “PC Gaming Headsets” category.

    A standalone headset hits the top of the PC gaming headsets category. I wonder how many orders were placed by people who wanted to buy a cheap headset for their PCs. :lol:
    Reply
  • Dosflores
    20932601 said:
    All I'm looking for is something I can strap to my face that would replace my monitor and have about 100° FOV. It would allow me to turn my head left and right or up and down and have that motion translate to the game. I'm not interested in having the headset mirror my movements if I turn completely around and I want to be able to use it with my keyboard and mouse.

    Something like the Oculus Go should be enough for that. We just have to wait for wireless connections between PCs and HMDs to standardize.
    Reply