Oculus Rift release date looking very unlikely for 2015

Facebook has confirmed that a consumer Oculus Rift release date is probably not happening in 2015.

During Facebook’s Q1 earnings call, the social media giant revealed Oculus Rift won’t have “large shipment volumes” this year.

That means you probably shouldn’t expect to see a consumer release of the virtual reality headset anytime before Christmas.

Here’s what Facebook actually had to say on the matter:

“We have not announced any specific plans for shipment volumes for 2015 related to Oculus… Oculus is very much in the development stage and it’s too early to be talking about large shipment volumes.”

Related: Project Morpheus vs Oculus Rift –  Battle of the VR headsets

As sad as we may be, this echoes what was said by Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer during the Facebook developer conference in March.

He initially said that the VR headset would launch this year, but then corrected himself in a follow-up tweet to clarify that he was merely talking about the capability of PC hardware for VR rather than a release date for the headset itself.

It’s a shame that consumers won’t be able to get their hands on the Oculus Rift this year, especially as Valve and HTC have confirmed the SteamVR powered HTC Vive headset will be available for general purchase before Christmas 2015.

You should also see the Samsung Gear VR for S6 released before the end of this year too.

Plus, Sony has set the Project Morpheus release date for the first half of 2016 too. Oculus Rift may actually be the last on the market, despite being the first to the virtual reality party.

Oculus and Facebook have said previously that they aren’t that bothered if the Oculus Rift isn’t the first to market in terms of gaming. Probably because the two companies are aiming their sights on uses outside of the gaming industry.