Facebook's Oculus Go, the company's standalone headset, could finally be official announced on the stage of Facebook's F8 conference May 1st.
Facebook has already unveiled that the new $199 headset would be releaed early in 2018. Now Variety cites unnamed sources claiming that it will debut at Facebook's F8 conference.
A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment.
Oculus Go is based on the same software as Samsung's Gear VR headset, which means that it will out of the box offer access to thousands of VR games and 360-degree video experiences, including apps from Hulu, Netflix, and HBO. Unlike the Gear VR, it integrates a display and all of its computing power directly into the headset, doing away with the need to use a phone or PC for VR. However, unlike the company's pricier Oculus Rift headset, Oculus Go doesn't use any positional tracking technology. This means that users won't be able to lean into any VR experience, making the device less immersive than the Rift.
At CES, Facebook announced a partnership with Xiaomi and Qualcomm to manufacture the Go, but the device itself remained a no-show.
Standalone headsets are necessary to push the company's vision of social VR. "It's the idea of having a completely self-contained product that you can just put on and start using it. You can do everything in one step," Hugo Barra explained in January.