Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

The Oculus Rift was never going to include Touch controllers at launch, Luckey says

waiting too long for your oculus rift buy a bundle sale feature
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The HTC Vive and PlayStation VR are both set to feature new controllers that are able to track hand movements, making for a more immersive virtual reality experience. The Oculus Rift, however, will not include these kinds of controllers until later in the year. Why? Well, because the company wanted to focus on the games for the headset first.

Palmer Luckey, Oculus’ founder and inventor, recently gave an interview discussing the fact that the Oculus Rift won’t launch with Touch controllers, suggesting that instead he wanted users to control games with what they’re used to — gamepads.

“We never planned on launching Touch with Rift,” Luckey said in an interview with Ars Technica. “We’re going to have a really great Touch lineup later in the year, but we really wanted to focus on the games people have been working on for years with gamepads right now.”

Oculus Rift
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The decision is a diversion from what other companies are doing, but Luckey certainly seems to have his reasons. According to Luckey, he didn’t want to push Touch controllers onto consumers and consequently raise the price of the Oculus Rift package, because consumers might not even want Touch controllers yet. Additionally, Touch controllers will only be compatible with a handful of games at launch, making them useless for users who don’t have those games.

Related Offer: See Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and desktop Bundles here

Still, the lack of Touch controllers will be a big omission for some users, especially because it will greatly add to virtual reality the experience. Instead of simply being able to reach into the virtual environment, users will have to control games with traditional gamepads.

According to Luckey, the “launch” of the Oculus Rift will take multiple years. Sure, the first headsets will ship in just a few weeks, but consumer adoption isn’t going to be immediate, and the hardware being released will reflect that. Even when Oculus’ Touch controllers are released, it will take some time for consumers to get used to them and start using them easily. That may give other companies a competitive edge in the meantime, but Oculus thinks that exclusive content and the hype surrounding its headset will help alleviate that.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Best OLED monitor deals: Get an OLED screen from just $450
Marvel's Spider-Man running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

Shopping some of the best monitor deals is a good way to save on some extra screen real estate, but if you’re looking for something that can produce a stunning image you should turn your shopping cart toward the OLED monitors. OLED is one of the best picture technologies currently available, and it can create a lifelike image that makes interacting with games, presentations, and creative work much more immersive. The best OLED monitors can run pretty expensive, but that’s what OLED monitor deals are for. If you’re looking for superior picture quality and some ways to save, read onward for more details on the best OLED monitor deals taking place right now.
ViewSonic 15.6-inch VX1655 4K OLED portable monitor — $450, was $500

Getting into the OLED game can be both affordable and portable with the ViewSonic VX1655. It’s a 4K OLED display that’s made to function as either a laptop extension or something to pair with a tablet. It comes in at a super sharp 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 60Hz. This isn’t something you’d want to pair with a gaming PC, but it’s a great little display to keep with you if you do creative work on the run or want some extra screen real estate while working on a tablet at your desk.

Read more
Best monitor deals: Gaming, office, curved, OLED and more
Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor

Whether you prefer to work at one of the best desktop computers, the best laptops, or anything in between, an external monitor can be helpful to add some extra screen real estate. One of the best monitors can even go a long way toward reducing eye strain and creating an immersive digital or gaming experience. While high end monitors can get quite expensive, there are always some impressive monitor deals to shop, and we’ve tracked them all down. Reading onward you’ll find what we feel are the best monitor deals, whether you’re shopping for 4K monitors, gaming monitors, ultrawide monitors, or more general monitors meant for all-purpose users.
Best monitor deals

The following deals represent a best-of of the deals below. They're selected to give a mixture of prices, styles, and levels of discount. If you don't see something you like, don't worry, as the following sections will have plenty more deals for you to choose from. However, this is a highly recommended place to start:

Read more
7 best Chromebooks for 2024: the best for every budget
Close up of the Chrome logo on the top of a Chromebook.

Chromebooks might have a hard time competing with Windows laptops and MacBooks, but that doesn't mean they don't have their place. We've reviewed hundreds of laptops over the years, testing for important qualities like performance, battery life, and display quality — and we've found that Chromebooks consistently excel at performance and reliability.

You can find Chromebooks from Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and many others, and we've dug through them to put together this roundup of the best Chromebooks on the market. They're incredibly accessible devices, and for the right person, a Chromebook can be the best laptop in terms of value.

Read more