Report: Google’s Oculus Rift rival is no more

At Google’s big developer conference, I/O 2016, the firm introduced its VR platform, Daydream, laying out its ambitions for mobile VR.

But prior to the big unveiling there had been rumours circulating that the company was also working on a separate standalone headset to rival the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Now a report from Recode seems to confirm Google was indeed working on such a project, but it seems the company has recently shut down development on it.

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Citing ‘sources familiar with the plans’, the report claims Google is throwing all its weight behind mobile VR while ‘streamlining’ some of its large-scale projects.

Google’s Daydream platform includes a software hub designed to run on the upcoming Android Nougat OS and also consists of a set of hardware specifications for third-party manufacturers to work to when designing smartphones and headsets.

Daydream-ready headsets will use smartphones to form the display in much the same way as the Samsung Gear VR.

Google is reportedly also working on its own version of a Daydream headset, which will be released alongside hardware from other manufacturers.

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According to Recode’s report, 50 employees within the firm’s X research lab, now a separate Alphabet company, were also working on the standalone headset project.

The research was reportedly also aimed at developing a separate OS from Android on which to run the now-scrapped headset.

It seems for now that Google is focusing its efforts on mobile VR, but there will no doubt be more virtual reality developments to come from the firm in the coming months.

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Would you liked to have seen a standalone VR headset from Google? Let us know in the comments.