Oculus Quest and Rift S set for May release

Oculus has announced its next two VR headsets, the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, will both begin shipping on May 21.

Significantly, the $399 / £399 Oculus Quest headset doesn’t require PC hardware to use — it’s entirely self-contained and will be compatible with more than 50 games at launch.

The more powerful Oculus Rift S, meanwhile, is described as the company’s “most-advanced, PC-powered gaming headset” yet.

Oculus Rift S features an upgraded 2560×1440 display and the same ‘inside out’ tracking system featured in the Quest, which eliminates the need for base sensors.

Oculus Rift S will also retail for $399 / £399, but requires a PC with 8GB or RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti/AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater, and Intel i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX4350 or greater.

The Oculus devices’ May 21 release dates put them ahead of their just-announced “high-end” rival, Valve’s Index, which will ship “by July 1”.

The Valve Index features a 120 Hz / 144 Hz refresh rate – higher than its rivals – and dual 1440 x 1600 LCD panels, 0.330ms of persistence, and a 50% visual fill factor.

Valve will support the Index at launch with Portal spin-off Aperture Hand Labs, a demo of the headset’s finger and hand tracking technology. Another unannounced VR title – compatible with all PC VR headsets – is also in development.