Facebook announces $399 Oculus Quest standalone VR headset

Facebook’s next virtual reality headset is finally ready.

The Oculus Quest, a standalone VR headset that uses touch controllers, will go on sale next spring for $399. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the product on Wednesday at the company’s Oculus Connect developer conference.

Facebook has been teasing the headset, which was previously known as the Santa Cruz prototype, for two years. The Oculus Quest represents a kind of middle ground between the company’s Oculus Go headset and the high-end Oculus Rift, which requires a PC. 

Oculus Quest is a self-contained headset, like the Oculus Go, but offers an experience that’s much closer to the more expensive Rift. It’s equipped with cameras that enable positional tracking, so you can freely move around a room without bumping into your surroundings (what’s known as “six degrees of freedom” in VR parlance), and uses the same touch controllers as the Rift.

When the Quest goes on sale in the spring of 2019 — Facebook didn’t provide an exact launch date — there will be more than five titles available, including some popular Rift games like Robo Recall.

With the launch of the Quest, Facebook has reached an important milestone towards its VR ambitions. The standalone headset has long been heralded by the company as an important step to encourage widespread VR adoption. Zuckerberg said the Quest will complete the company’s first generation of Oculus devices.