Oculus Quest taunts some customers after arriving more than two weeks early

By Aaron Mamiit May 4, 2019

The Oculus Quest, which will officially ship on May 21, is taunting some customers after the standalone virtual reality headset showed up more than two weeks early on their doorsteps.

A handful of people who pre-ordered the Oculus Quest from Walmart reported on Reddit that they have already received the VR headset. These include Redditors fragnet, kwescoat, and duchene-bag, who uploaded images of the device on their respective posts on the Oculus Quest sub-Reddit.

Facebook, which owns Oculus, said in a statement to UploadVR that a “retail shipping error” caused some pre-orders to be delivered earlier than expected.

“Affected customers are being notified and the issue has been fixed. Because our software hasn’t been released pre-launch, people won’t be able to set up or use their headsets until the official launch on May 21,” the Facebook spokesperson said.

This means that the buyers who now have the Oculus Quest in their hands should not consider themselves lucky. The VR headset may have arrived early, but since the Oculus mobile app does not include the Quest as an option, it is not possible to set it up.

One of the customers who already received the Oculus Quest has found a good use for the VR headset though. In a video uploaded on Reddit, real_jasperpants showed that the device was confirmed working — as a paperweight.

The Oculus Quest, which is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, aims to deliver the same VR experience as the Oculus Rift without the need to be tethered to a PC. Unlike the similarly standalone Oculus Go though, the new headset features Oculus Insight, which enables spacial tracking without the need for the Rift’s external sensors by replacing them with four front-mounted cameras.

The new standalone VR headset will be officially shipping out on May 21 with the PC-tethered Oculus Rift S, which is an upgraded version of the Oculus Rift. The other new VR headset will offer increased resolution, improved tracking, an integrated audio system, and a headphone jack.

The Oculus Quest and the Oculus Rift S, both with starting prices of $399, will come with new Oculus Touch controllers, some of which may have hidden messages inside them.

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