Oculus Rift Kickstarter Project Release Date For Development Kits Arrives, Accessory Ships

It's not an April Fool's joke, Oculus Rift development kits are finally starting to ship. The VR headsets previously raised $2.4 million in initial funding through Kickstarter in September of last year.

"We actually started shipping on Wednesday, but we haven't shared tracking information yet because the team is still tied up at GDC in San Francisco," said Oculus VR's Palmer Luckey in an official blog post.

Luckey also revealed that over 10,000 development kits had been pre-ordered, meaning it may take a little while for everyone to receive theirs. "Hold fast - they're coming," he assured buyers.

In conjunction with the shipping, the Oculus Development Center has also been unveiled, providing development resources including the "Oculus SDK, Unity and Unreal Engine integrations, samples, documentation, videos, the developer wiki, and community forums."

The Oculus Rift aims to be the first user friendly virtual reality headset for gaming. It utilizes a 7 inch screen and stereoscopic 3D to simulate natural human vision. The device also features 3-axis gyros, accelerometers, and magnetometers for accurate head orientation tracking, allowing for even further immersion into the experience.

22 titles are currently planned to have Oculus Rift integration at some point, including Doom 4, with an additional five more with official release dates for device support. Last month, Team Fortress 2 became the first game to be playable with the device, and has so far been successfully demoed using developer versions of the Oculus Rift.

So far, response to the Rift's performance in Team Fortress 2 has been very positive, although some reviewers felt it took a significant amount of time to get used to.

The company has still not announced an exact date, or even a general window, for the release of the consumer version of the device. Their online FAQ states that the team is "working tirelessly to make it available as soon as possible." A price point has also not been revealed yet, although the development kits are currently available for $300.