Facebook’s (FB) virtual reality arm Oculus, announced its new Oculus Go at its Oculus Connect 4 conference on Wednesday. The headset, which will ship next year for $199 is aimed squarely at taking virtual reality more mainstream.
“It’s hands-down the easiest way to get into VR,” Facebook vice president of VR Hugo Barra told the audience during the conference.
The Oculus Go is an all-in-one, standalone headset that, unlike, previous headsets from Oculus, doesn’t need to be hooked up to a PC. The Go also includes new optical lenses which enable the same field of view offered by previous Oculus headsets, but with reduced glare.
For Oculus, the Go is an incredibly important new piece of hardware as it competes in an increasingly crowded market. The Oculus Go hits a sweet spot Mark Zuckerberg emphasized was necessary: it’s a relatively affordable piece of hardware meant to offer up competitive features.
The Go will also play a pivotal role in Zuckerberg’s new goal of getting 1 billion people in virtual reality.
