Facebook's Oculus starts shipping Rift virtual reality headset

[BENGALURU] Virtual reality company Oculus started shipping its highly awaited Rift headsets from Monday, about two years after the company was acquired by social media giant Facebook Inc.

The earliest investors in Oculus's fundraising campaign on crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2012 started receiving their Rift headsets from Monday.

The first of the pre-orders will start shipping from mid-week, Oculus said. The company, founded in 2012, launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise US$250,000. A couple of years later, Facebook bought Oculus for about US$2 billion.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that he saw virtual reality as the next major computing platform.

This year, HTC Corp and Sony Corp are also set to launch their virtual reality devices as companies look to offer enhanced gaming and entertainment experiences to customers.

"The headset you can buy today is not Oculus's most ambitious vision for virtual reality - but it's a vision that Oculus has successfully delivered on," Adi Robertson of technology website the Verge said in a review on Monday.

The black headgear, priced at US$599, comes with a remote, an audio system, a sensor and an Xbox One wireless controller.

Oculus said there were more than 30 games available on the Oculus Store and it would soon add feature-length movies and more content.

REUTERS