Oculus catches up with Rift preorders, announces 2016 developer conference

After months of delays, Oculus just announced that it’s filled every preorder for its Rift VR headset, and new Rifts will ship within 2 to 4 business days. The news is coming alongside a date for Oculus’ third annual developer conference, Oculus Connect: October 5th to the 7th, in San Jose, California.

“We want to apologize for the delays in getting Rifts to doorsteps. We appreciate that without your support, VR wouldn’t be where it is today. Thank you for your patience over the past few months,” says Oculus in a blog post. The Rift was recently restocked at Amazon, and this month, it’s going to be appearing in select Microsoft stores. Over the next few months, it’s also expanding its presence at Best Buy to over 500 US stores.

The next big milestone for Oculus is Touch, its motion control system. “We’re on track to launch Touch and introduce true hand presence along with an amazing lineup of games and experiences later this year,” says the post — as expected, more details will emerge at Oculus Connect in October. That means Touch will probably ship after PlayStation VR’s release on October 13th, but could still be available in time for the holiday season.

Oculus Connect is Oculus’ version of Google I/O, Apple’s WWDC, or its parent company Facebook’s F8 conference: a show for developers that often features important product announcements. As expected, it will feature keynotes from Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, chief scientist Michael Abrash, and CTO John Carmack — interestingly, there’s no mention so far of a speech from founder Palmer Luckey. Applications for the conference will open on August 2nd, with more details available on the Connect site.