Palmer Luckey, Oculus founder and creator behind the original Oculus Rift, teased an upcoming announcement that he’s working on a new XR headset.
Luckey says in a post on X that he’ll be talking more about the device at Augmented World Expo (AWE), which takes place in Long Beach, California from June 18-20.
Could it be a consumer standalone like Quest? The one ‘ultimate’ PC VR headset to rule them all? A retro-style collector’s device, which might be informed by the Rift creator’s sizable personal VR headset collection? Or maybe a headset that kills the user when they die in VR? He’s actually already built that one, so probably not.
Whatever the case, Luckey told Road to VR that the head-mounted display (HMD) in question will indeed be a VR headset “and more,” however it won’t be shown off “for a while,” as the announcement is intended to precede possible leaks since “it won’t stay secret.”
While there’s no telling precisely what it will be, the announcement (to the announcement) seems to follow a new chapter for Luckey, who has recently dipped back into consumer hardware with the release of a Game Boy-style device, called ModRetro Chromatic, which the Oculus creator calls his “ultimate tribute to the most important handheld console of all time.”
Then there’s the possibility that it’s none of those things mentioned above, and not intended for consumers at all. Following his departure from Facebook in 2017, Luckey founded the defense technology company Anduril Industries, which is involved in creating AI software, autonomous drones, and threat detection systems. The company has also mentioned in the past it’s developed XR software for the battefield, which could mean an Anduril headset could be on the horizon as well.
Whatever the case, we’ll be keeping an eye on Luckey’s X profile in the meantime as we lead up to AWE, which takes place June 18-20.
