Skip to main content

Oculus confirms Rift games don’t have to be sold through its storefront

oculus rift
Ross Martin / Twitter
Now that the Oculus Rift headset is heading out to consumers, Facebook-owned Oculus VR has launched a new Oculus PC software development kit (SDK), version 1.3. Available now on the Oculus Developer Center, this new SDK not only includes support for the new consumer edition, but provides integration into the latest versions of the Unreal Engine and Unity platforms. The company has also unleashed the Oculus Platform SDK 1.0, which allows developers to add features like peer-to-peer matchmaking and leader boards intogames and apps.

However, along with this announcement, Oculus VR revealed that developers don’t necessarily have to offer their Oculus Rift games and apps on the Oculus Store. In fact, they can use their own in-app purchasing (IAP) system if they want, meaning Oculus VR won’t take a cut of the profits. Even more, developers can sell their Oculus PC product to the community through the Oculus platform by requesting royalty-free keys.

Recommended Videos

To access this content, Oculus Rift owners must enable the “Unknown Sources” setting in the Oculus app for the desktop. However, the company points out that Oculus apps sold on other distribution platforms will still need to provide means for returning to the Home menu. They will also need to provide notifications, health and safety notices, and platforms overlays.

“The Oculus platform and store are designed to provide the best VR experience and content, but we also recognize that people will want to use apps that aren’t available on the Oculus platform or in the store,” the company said on Monday.

Oculus VR has also launched two new sections in the Oculus Store on PC: Concepts and Early Access. The former is based on Oculus Share and provides means for developers to publish “innovative experiments and tech demos.” The other section, Early Access, contains games and apps that are still works in progress, and the developers are looking for feedback from the Oculus Rift community.

For developers who are still hanging onto the second-generation Rift development kit (DK2) hardware, they can use the “functional” unit with the latest SDKs throughout the year. However, the company notes that SDK2 isn’t supported as a consumer device.

The Oculus Rift is now shipping out to consumers. Palmer Luckey personally hand-delivered the first headset to a guy in Alaska wearing a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops. The recipient, Ross Martin, was actually at work, so they couldn’t fire up the VR headset. Instead, they talked about various topics including the Rift development.

“I said hey guys, I’ve been working on this since 2009, we’ve been working on Oculus since 2012, I’ll be damned if some random delivery guy is going to get the satisfaction of delivering the first Rift. That’s mine.” Luckey told Polygon. “So I could figure I could take a day out of the launch process and take a quick vacation in Alaska.”

He also commented on Twitter that hiking through Alaska in the winter wearing flip-flops was “a mistake.”

Reviews for the consumer-based Oculus Rift are now rolling out, and they seem a little mixed. Naturally, customers need a somewhat high-end computer that’s tethered to the headset, limiting movement. The touch controls are also not available at launch, but the hardware itself is reportedly awesome, as we expected. Those who wear glasses may also have an issue with the headset, so keep that in mind (or slap on a pair of contacts).

Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
The best inkjet printers of 2024: tested and reviewed
The EcoTank ET-3850 is a rare printer that lets me print envelopes from my phone.

Inkjet printers are incredibly versatile, printing text documents, labels, color graphics, and pictures in great detail. Some models are good enough to create professional photographic-quality prints. All-in-one inkjet printers add scan, copy, and fax, making them a good choice for small businesses and home offices.

We've reviewed inkjets from the best printer brands and collected our top recommendations to help you find a reliable solution that fits your needs for the best printer to buy.
The best overall inkjet printer: Canon MegaTank Pixma G3270

Read more
Apple defends the M4 Mac mini’s power button
The underside of the M4 Mac mini, showing its vent and power button.

Apple announced a new wave of product refreshes recently, and not only does the charging port for the Magic Mouse remain on the bottom of the device -- the M4 Mac mini's power button has been moved to the bottom, too. These design choices have riled up plenty of people, but it seems Apple stands by its new power button placement for the Mac mini.

In a video posted on Chinese social media platform Bilibili, Apple's Greg Joswiak not only defends the decision but praises it. He calls it a "kind of optimal spot for a power button," claiming that you just need to "kinda tuck your finger in there and hit the button."

Read more
Is AI already plateauing? New reporting suggests GPT-5 may be in trouble
A person sits in front of a laptop. On the laptop screen is the home page for OpenAI's ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot.

OpenAI's next-generation Orion model of ChatGPT, which is both rumored and denied to be arriving by the end of the year, may not be all it's been hyped to be once it arrives, according to a new report from The Information.

Citing anonymous OpenAI employees, the report claims the Orion model has shown a "far smaller" improvement over its GPT-4 predecessor than GPT-4 showed over GPT-3. Those sources also note that Orion "isn’t reliably better than its predecessor [GPT-4] in handling certain tasks," specifically coding applications, though the new model is notably stronger at general language capabilities, such as summarizing documents or generating emails.

Read more