Oculus Shipping Early Builds Of Final Rift Hardware To Developers

If you’re developing a launch title for the upcoming Oculus Rift, you may have gotten a little good news in your inbox this evening.

The company says that it’s still shipping Rift hardware out to developers in the run up to launch, with the final hardware making its way into developer’s hands now, albeit still in an early build state. It’s tied to the Rift SDK 1.0. The consumer version of the Oculus Rift is still scheduled for Q1 of next year.

Here’s the email (and the blog post):

If you’re shipping a Rift title in Q1, you’ll need early access to Rift hardware and new platform features to finalize your game or application. The Rift SDK 1.0 and runtime include features tied to the consumer product, so we’ve currently limited the release to developers putting final touches on launch titles.

If you’re planning a launch title and don’t yet have hardware, you can now upload a preview of your app through the Oculus submission tool, and we’ll be in touch with next steps.

We’re shipping more Rift hardware out to developers every week in the run up to launch. In the meantime, DK2 and SDK 0.8 continue to be the right platform for early Rift development — you only need SDK 1.0 if you’re imminently shipping.

We’re looking forward to seeing your VR experiences on Rift when it launches in Q1!

— The Oculus Team

The submission tool that the email mentions is live and ready for app previews.