Oculus co-founder confirms Facebook cancelled Rift 2 shortly before production

As we learned yesterday, the Oculus Rift line of VR headsets is no more. Once current units of the Rift S are gone, there will be no more stock and we're unlikely to see a Rift 2. Interestingly, a Rift 2 had been developed and was nearing production, but Facebook scrapped it just before it was going to be announced. 

Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus, commented on the Rift S being discontinued on Twitter yesterday. While Luckey hasn't been involved with Facebook for a few years now, there are untold stories from his time at Oculus. He revealed one of those yesterday, saying that the Rift 2 was cancelled shortly before going into production.

What a bummer. Imagining a world where Rift 2 was not cancelled shortly before going into production and then cancelled again in favor of a much lower spec Lenovo rebadge…https://t.co/4bsWOoPbTp

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) April 6, 2021

The Rift 2 project was apparently briefly revived before being replaced by the Rift S, which was developed in partnership with Lenovo. Facebook executives weren't keen on continuing to invest heavily PC-only VR headsets and instead wanted to focus on all-in-one units, as a result, former Oculus CEO and co-founder, Brendan Iribe, left the company in 2018.

Facebook then poured its resources into the Quest instead, which is now the company's main VR product. At this point, the Oculus Quest 2 has outsold all previous Oculus headsets combined, to business-wise, this appears to have been the right decision. Although it is a shame that we aren't going to see Oculus pushing the boundaries of high-end PC VR moving forward. Fortunately, Valve appears to have taken over on that front with the Valve Index.

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KitGuru Says: Did many of you pick up an original Oculus Rift when the headset launched? How do you feel about Facebook scrapping plans for a proper Rift 2? 

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