Steam Hardware Survey - July 2025 results included (see latest post in this thread)

Well thanks for being open to that possibility at least. 

Well here is one from 1993:



EDIT - oh and someone just PM'ed me another example:



Wow, another wall of text - thanks @snowdog - will pass on further taking this post in a "interesting" direction, and focus on the OP. But always appreciate your passionate point of view. 

This news will impact the CV1 numbers, and could prove confusing.

This also kind of makes it a bit weird for where the Lenovo Rift-S first into the mix, as it was meant to be the replacement to the CV1 with production ending. This news may confirm rumors that the Lenovo/Oculus relationship has hit a hard patch, with Lenovo now supporting Varjo's high-end VRPC system, (fall out from the Quest Link situation). 

But at least shows that OculusVR are still considering in supporting the CV1 platform:

Of course a $300 paper weight if the cable of this
refurbished unit goes belly up within that 12 month warrenty, but a even bigger question is how would they deal with a faulty cable in warrenty now they no longer have or make them?

I think with the last executive supporters of PCVR leaving last year for the Facebook AR project, the remaining teams at OculusVR focused on Quest with the sales explosion, and abandoned any additional investment @OmegaM4N - this would have explained the slow support for Rift-S issues that many complained about, and also why Lenovo went so quiet. Quest Link seems to have been a painful surprise for Lenovo, the same way that Samsung was "surprised" during their partnership.

Would not be surprised to see a Quest2 in six-months that has a dedicated PCVR support (dedicated Link), and that would be the end of any possibility of a CV2 - though would still keep the PCVR scene alive, though placing the Rift-S on the shelf. I wonder how much this will be blamed retroactively on the Global Heath crisis?

RuneSR2 said:
...

I would be surprised to see any high-end PCVR move from Oculus in the near-future too. Horizon is probably taking up a lot of Oculus' time.
Seems that Valve/Steam is taking over high-end PCVR, also with the Reverb G2 coming up - which I would not be surprised to see with full support for Knuckes and Base Stations 2.0. Especially as the major problems of the Reverb are the controllers and the tracking. 
.....

Totally agree - and to be frank, have been saying this since 2017, after the first round of Half-Dome departures to Microsoft. I think the loyal supporters were hanging on for a CV2 that never appeared, and was superseded by the Rift-S compromise. Holding out hope for the Half-Dome3 may pay out in the long run, but we are talking the current generation rather than wild speculation on 2022 possibilities!

It seems the PCVR community (which is now more filled with Enterprise developers) is split between HP (as a replacement to their CV1's and Vives), the Cosmos Elite (for those looking at replacing their Vive Pros) and the remainder working with Varjo and Index (I will leave Pimax out at this point). There is a lot of interest in HP's Reverb G2 with its Valve and WinMR support - this could really impact Cosmos Elite, and even be a cost-effective Index solution for the consumer base (especially if bundled with HL:A).

Plainly, Oculus putting all its eggs in the Rift-S department to stay relevant in the PCVR scene has not really paid off as hoped, though those Steam numbers are not as bad as CV1 or Oculus Go take up for the same period. Its just that focusing on Standalone is the order of the day, while they work on the secret MR headset hybrid - hoping to supersede Quest and Rift-S, and embrace the parent companies AR investment.   

The Rift S is still selling a shitload, and the Quest 2 won't be able to hold the tech inside the Half Dome prototypes unless things change regarding cooling and mobile hardware during the next few years. Why on earth would Oculus stop work on PCVR when it's still selling well and when putting the Half Dome tech into a standalone headset would be a pipe dream?

As for the AR/MR plans from Facebook and Oculus we're years away from seeing that happening because, as I've already mentioned, the hardware isn't there yet to do it at an affordable price. In terms of tech we're not even at the stage that VR was at with the DK1. We won't see Facebook/Oculus releasing an AR or MR headset for another 5 years at least.

We'll see the Rift 2 being released with the Half Dome features in two years time and won't see the Quest line of products having Half Dome features for AT LEAST three years after that, if at all.

You don't have a brand as strong as the Rift and stop development of it. Same goes for the Quest too. They'll continue to release both headsets going forward, with the Rift line using new technology which will filter down eventually to the Quest line once it becomes cheap enough to include in the headsets.

LOL, maybe they are waiting for Half Dome 4 or even 5. 
RIP Rift, it will all be Quest based going forward in my opinion.
If they continue building upon what they have already accomplished with Quest Link, may not necessarily be a bad thing as it would still have very good PC-VR capabilities.

Just take a good look at the release notes in these later versions of the Oculus software, most all focus is on Quest.

snowdog said:

.......
You don't have a brand as strong as the Rift and stop development of it. Same goes for the Quest too. They'll continue to release both headsets going forward, with the Rift line using new technology which will filter down eventually to the Quest line once it becomes cheap enough to include in the headsets.

As always some interesting and colorful points.

But, regarding that last point - I remember some posters saying exactly the same thing when we discussed if Samsung and Oculus had stopped working on the GearVR... and look what happened there!

I think Valve and Steam plays at least some part in Oculus'/Facebook's decision making process on how much resource to spend on PCVR or stand-alone development.

Valve wants to absorb as many headset owners into their software platform as they possibly can. If they could sell software to xbox and PlayStation owners too, they would (that seems to be possible now at some level).

Now, say for example some upstart company appears and starts selling VR headsets that have their own software vending platform, and in addition, VR looks to have a potential of rivalling the PC pancake gaming establishment, big-time, in the future.

That's a threat to Valve and the answer is for Valve to get a VR headset out there that rivals Oculus' hardware and get software on Steam that not only competes with Oculus' platform but can be used by Oculus users as well as its own headset and anyone else's.... and attract Oculus users and minimise the potential threat of a rival software platform.

From Oculus point of view, or the point of view of any other company with aspirations of building a hardware/software ecosystem to rival Steam.... what do you do? 

They could continue to sell PCVR headsets at (or near) cost, in order to build a software/hardware ecosystem further. If so, they'd have to continue to invest lot of money into software over a very long period of time before they get to any kind of parity with Steam, if that's ever possible.

Or, they just give up on the idea of being competitors to Steam on the PCVR front and just sell PCVR headsets for as much profit as is sustainable and have that as the business model.

Or concentrate on standalone development which is a harder business for Valve to supress without a headset that's better than Quest.

I hope Oculus continue with PCVR but from a business point of view, I think it's the toughest route. I'm also definitely not one of the people thinking Valve are generous because they've invested in one great VR game and didn't make it an Index exclusive... I feel it's part of a roadmap to mitigate risk of competition, maintain a monopoly, simple as that.

So, I'm less optimistic about future PCVR hardware from Oculus than I used to be. The other side of the coin though... having been using my Quest more than I though I would.. I'm pretty optimistic about stand-alone.

Just my take... and sorry, I typed more than I thought, but we've all got more time on our hands these days.