Oculus Link Will Turn Your Quest Into A Rift This November

During Oculus Connect 6 event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Oculus Link, a new feature that'll let Oculus Quest owners connect their headsets to gaming PCs via a USB-C cable. This will basically turn the standalone headset into a fully functional Oculus Rift.

Zuckerberg said the feature will work with most USB-C cables, and it'll be available this November. The idea of being able to use the Quest anyway you want it and being a gateway to VR is a game changer for sure. 

Respawn Entertainment’s VR Will Be Revealed In September

Facebook and Oculus Studios have announced that we'll get our first look at that Respawn Entertainment’s VR game at Oculus Connect in September.

The news comes from Oculus' post announcing the dates for Oculus Connect 6, the annual convention for all things Oculus. It also details a bit about what we can expect from the game, not that any of it is particularly shocking for a virtual reality game made by Respawn.

"OC6 is also an amazing opportunity to see the latest from game developers around the world," the post reads. "Respawn Entertainment (Apex Legends and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order) will join us at this year’s show to reveal a new AAA first-person combat title made in partnership with Oculus Studios, including the first hands-on playable demo." Oculus Connect takes place on September 25 - 26.

Imagine Dragons Songs Are Now Available In Beat Saber

Beat Saber is getting a new music pack, and it features Imagine Dragons. The pack includes the following 10 songs:

• Bad Liar
• Believer
• Digital
• It’s Time
• Machine
• Natural
• Radioactive
• Thunder
• Warriors
• Whatever It Takes

Developer Beat Games are showing off their new 360° level of "Believer" on the show floor at E3, which will launch sometime later this summer. Beat Saber is available on PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest. You can buy each song individually for $1.99, or all 10 for $12.99.

Dance Central Is Coming To Oculus Rift And Oculus Quest

Harmonix has announced Dance Central coming to virtual reality in both Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest. The new virtual reality version of the game has you matching the movements of dancer standing in front of you. According to the website there are 32 custom routines to come along with the game designed specifically for Dance Central. Dance Central for Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest is expected to launch in 2019.

We're proud to announce the next evolution of Dance Central, coming exclusively to the Oculus Quest and Rift platform this Spring! pic.twitter.com/gaWp2FtJbj

— Dance Central (@Dance_Central) March 27, 2019

Oculus Announces The Rift S, Will Release This Spring

Oculus has revealed The Rift S, the new standard model going forward for the company. Priced at $399 and due out this Spring, the S brings plenty of new enhancements over the older models.

Among the enhancements over the original Rift, Oculus says that S was developed in partnership with Lenovo in order to make the headset more comfortable. The resolution for the headset has also been raised to 1280×1440 for each eye, and external sensors have been removed in favor of new tracking technology.

Rock Band Developer Harmonix Announces New VR Rhythm Shooter, Audica

Rock Band and Dance Central developer, Harmonix, have announced a new VR rhythm-shooter called Audica. Audica is described as “a VR rhythm shooter that combines Harmonix's award-winning music gameplay with precision shooting mechanics and a killer soundtrack, all set in a mesmerizing cosmic arena.” Audica will be released through Early Access on Oculus Rift and Steam VR on March 7.

Audica will mainly focus on electronic music, and will include 10 songs upon its Early Access release, including “Destiny" by 1788-L & Blanke, “I Want U” by Alison Wonderland, “I Feel Love (Afrojack Remix)" by Donna Summer, “The Space” by James Egbert and “Splinter” by Savant. Harmonix hopes to have the game fully released by the end of 2019, and wants to expand to other VR platforms like PSVR and Oculus Quest if possible.

Introducing Audica - a VR rhythm shooter that combines Harmonix's award-winning music gameplay with precision shooting mechanics and a killer soundtrack, all set in a mesmerizing cosmic arena. https://t.co/c2385V55IR pic.twitter.com/qmYMOYR9Sa

— Harmonix (@Harmonix) February 13, 2019

Software Glitch Prevents Oculus Rift’s Around The World From Working

Out of nowhere today, Oculus Rift owners around the world found that their virtual reality headset wouldn't work due to a small error. "Can't reach Oculus runtime service" is the message that everyone trying to make use of their headset saw. Oculus' FAQ suggests restarting the software and restarting the hardware, neither of which seemed to do much good. The Oculus forums filled up with people complaining about the issue, with several digging into the Oculus files to see if there was anything indicating why a global glitch would occur. Sure enough, users have found and subsequently hypothesized a security certificate for the software expired today and was seemingly not renewed. Software uses security certificates to validate integrity with websites in order to prevent fraud or malicious use. Oculus has tweeted an acknowledgement of the issue, stating "We’re aware of an issue impacting people’s ability to use Rift’s software, and we’re working to fix the problem. Please visit http://ocul.us/RiftRuntime  for the latest—thanks for your patience!"

Respawn Entertainment Is Working On Oculus Rift VR Game

Titanfall developers Respawn Entertainment is promising a VR shooter for Oculus Rift in 2019. The announcement was made during the Oculus Connect event, and a blog post on the studio's website specifically mentions that it's not related to 2 of the properties the developer is working on: Titanfall and Star Wars. Thoughts ?

Oculus Announces Oculus GO For $199 + Rift Price Drop

During the Oculus Connect event, Oculus VR announced a new price drop for the Rift VR headset as well as another, cheaper way to get into VR. The Rift headset is now available for $399, that includes the headset, 2o sensors and Touch controllers, and a handful of games. If you're looking for a less-expensive VR option, the company also announced Oculus Go for $199. Oculus Go is a standalone VR headset that doesn't need a  PC to run and which comes with a single palm controller that's different than the Touch controller. More details on Oculus GO coming soon as the headset is releasing in 2018.

Play As Your Favorite Marvel Hero In Marvel Powers United VR

During the D23 Expo, Marvel announced Marvel Powers United VR for Oculus Rift. The co-op action game allows you to step inside the Marvel Universe with 3 of your friends making you feel just like one of your favorite heroes. Marvel Powers United will have over a dozen characters, and Hulk, Rocket Raccoon and Captain Marvel have been revealed so far.  The game is set to come out in 2018.

Oculus Rift And Touch Bundle Permanently Discounted To $499

The Oculus Rift and Touch bundle is permanently dropping to $499 once the sale ends in around 6 weeks. A bundle would’ve cost you almost $800 when the VR headset first became available in March. The Rift + Touch bundle includes the headset, 2 sensors, a pair of Touch controllers, cables and 6 free VR games/experiences -- Lucky's Tale, Medium, Toybox, Quill, Dead and Buried and Robo Recall. You can get the package from Oculus' official website or from retailers where the device is sold.

Oculus Rift Bundle Goes On Sale For $399

If you’ve been holding off on getting a VR headset, then now may be the time. Oculus has put a Rift bundle on sale, featuring the unit, Touch controls, several games, and more, for about $200 off the regular price. The bundle is available for $399, both on its official store and via participating retailers. The promotion is part of Oculus' Summer of Rift, which will feature daily deals on games for Rift and Gear VR.

Final Batch Of Rock Band VR + More Revealed

Harmoinx has announced the last 19 tracks for  the Rock Band VR track list. It looks like we will be rocking out to a mix both old and new tracks, including:

• Band of Horses – “Casual Party”
• The Black Cheers – “(You’re) Breakin’ Up”
• blink-182 – “Bored to Death”
• Blondfire – “True Confessions”
• Disturbed – “Down With The Sickness”
• Dream Theater – “Pull Me Under”
• Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
• Go-Go’s – “We Got the Beat”
• The Hunna – “You & Me”
• Kaleo – “Glass House”
• Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”
• Pierce the Veil – “Circles”
• Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated”
• Rage Against the Machine – “Testify”
• Rush – “Freewill (Vault Edition)”
• Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger”
• Tracy Bonham – “Mother Mother”
• Weezer – “Say It Ain’t So”
• The Who – “Won’t Get Fooled Again”

These tracks will be joining the previously announced songs, bringing the final on-disc total for Rock Band VR up to 60 tracks. In addition, new tracks will be arriving in the Oculus store, starting with a group of Aerosmith hits:

Aerosmith tracks:

• “Angel”
• “Crazy”
• “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”
• “Janie’s Got a Gun”
• “Livin’ on the Edge”
• “Rag Doll”

These songs will be listed individually at $2.99 per track.

20 New Songs Announced For Rock Band VR

Rock Band VR releases in less than a month now and  20 new songs have been revealed for the game. This brings the total number up to 41 which leaves us with just 19 songs left to be announced. 

Here’s the full list of songs:

• Blondie – “One Way or Another”
• Carrie Underwood – “Church Bells”
• Catfish and the Bottlemen – “Postpone”
• Coldplay – “Birds”
• David Bowie – “Suffragette City”
• Europe – “The Final Countdown”
• Green Day – “Holiday”
• Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle”
• Maroon 5 – “Maps”
• Mumford & Sons – “I Will Wait”
• Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Parks – “Sweater Weather”
• Pearl Jam – “Alive”
• The Pretty Reckless – “Heaven Knows”
• The Starting Line – “Quitter”
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush”
• Switchfoot – “Float”
• The Temper Trap – “Alive”
• Twin Atlantic – “I Am Alive”
• The Wind and the Wave – “Grand Canyon”

Rock Band VR on March 23 For Oculus Rift.

Oculus Is Giving The Rift/Touch Bundle A Price Cut

Oculus has announced that they are slashing the price of the Rift/Touch bundle by $200. Now you can get the head mounted display and motion controllers for $598. To drive adoption rates of the Touch controllers for current Rift owners,  Oculus is also slashing that cost in half. The $199 controller set now costs $99. "The reason it's so important for us to drop the price of the Touch so much is that we've had rapid adoption of Touch by Rift users, but not 100-percent adoption," said Oculus VP of content Jason Rubin. "We don't want to leave stragglers." Additional Oculus Sensors now cost $59.What do you think of this price cut ? I’m not sure if this will help sell the rift, but only time will tell.

Rock Band VR Coming In March + My Thoughts

We finally have a release date for Rock Band VR, and it’s March 23rd for the Oculus Rift. The majority of the game is the “Performance Gameplay” mode, which allows you to strum notes and chords over songs, similar to freestyle guitar solos in Rock Band 4. If you’re not into that “Classic Mode” is also available which features the note highways that you’re familiar with. Leaderboards will also be featured, which seems to indicate that there will be some sort of scoring in the performance mode meaning it’s a bit more in-depth than just noodling over selected songs from Rock Band. A bit of the setlist has been unveiled with the following three songs:

• Aerosmith – “Walk This Way”
• The Killers – “When You Were Young”
• Paramore – “Ain’t It Fun

It seems like more song announcements will be coming soon, given that the soundtrack “over 60 songs”. What’s really interesting is that Paramore’s Ain’t It Fun isn’t currently available for Rock Band meaning it’s likely going to show up as DLC in the future for the main game. It is also worth noting that Rock Band VR will have its own unique DLC down the line as well. Pre-orders are currently available on Amazon with a guitar bundle available for $69.99. It will also require an Oculus Rift and an Oculus Touch controller, which are sold separately.

I kinda don’t see the point of the game being on PC. I know it’s an Oculus Rift exclusive and Oculus invested money into Harmoinx from that to make it, but I can’t see this game being on a platform where the main Rock Band game isn’t. If Harmoinx’s Fig campaign to bring Rock Band 4 to PC actually worked then this would be awesome and makes sense. But because this will be a separate game I kinda feel like Harmoinx many alienate some of there fans with this. The argument could also be made that this game is similar to Rock Band Unplugged, in the sense that it’s its own experience on a different platform. But I digress, it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out for Harmonix and what this’ll mean for Rock Band in the future. Thoughts ?

Ubisoft To Have Cross-Platform Games With There VR Titles

Ubisoft has confirmed that it will support cross-platform play across the three main VR hardware devices: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. According to Eurogamer, Ubisoft will support cross-platform play across Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. Players on Eagle Flight, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and Werewolves Within to be able to play together, regardless of what VR hardware they have. "Our games feature a strong multiplayer experiences, so letting friends play together regardless of which headset they own will enhance the social nature of our games and let them be played the way we envisioned," said David Votypka, Red Storm's senior creative director. Thoughts ?

You’ll Be Able To Stream Your Xbox One Game To Oculus Rift Next Month

Xbox has announced a new app that will allow Xbox One users to stream there games to an Oculus Rift via their home network and Windows 10 PC. The app will be available for free on the Oculus Store on December 12. This won’t turn your Xbox One games into virtual reality experiences, all the app does is stream your Xbox games onto a large, virtual screen within a small selection of VR environments. Think of it as your own private theatre screen.  

Ubisoft Announces Release Dates For 3 VR Games

Ubisoft has revealed the release dates for 3 of its VR titles. First up Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Star Trek: Bridge Crew lets players take the role of the Star Trek crew and take on several missions. Weather it’s the captain, a member of the tactical, engineering, or navigation stations, the choice is up to you. It's set to release on Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and HTC Vive on November 29. Next is Eagle Flight which takes you to the skies and landmarks around Paris as an eagle in multiplayer matches. It's coming to Oculus Rift on October 18, PlayStation VR on November 8 and HTC Vive on December 20. Last but not least, Werewolves Within is a card game Werewolf were 1 player secretly takes on the role of a bloodthirsty creature and relies on deception to fool the rest of the players. It's coming to Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and HTV Vive on December 6. 

Minecraft Now Has Oculus Rift Support On Windows 10

Minecraft is now be playable on an Oculus Rift at no extra cost. For those that already purchased Minecraft on Windows 10, a free update will enable VR features. Minecraft in Windows 10 is still in open beta and is receiving updates regularly. What do you think of the idea of Minecraft in VR ?