Facebook Inc. is prepping a range of new features for its Oculus virtual reality headsets as it works to make the technology easier to use with less equipment.
In doing so, the company is hoping to drive more revenue, as the amount of VR content available for consumption grows. In the four months since Facebook launched Oculus Quest, a $399 stand-alone VR headset that does not require a connection to a PC or any other hardware, the new device has driven about $20 million in sales on the Oculus Store, or 20% of the gaming platform's total sales as of Sept. 25, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
"Quest is off to a great start. It's only been on sale for four months now and we are selling them as fast as we can make them," Zuckerberg said at the company's Oculus Connect 6 event, which is focused on VR strategy and developments. He did not disclose exact sales numbers for the new device.
Among the many announcements at Oculus Connect, Zuckerberg announced a new feature called Oculus Link, which will allow Quest owners to connect their headset to a gaming PC to run Oculus Rift content and games. Unlike the Quest, Oculus Rift connects to a PC and requires outside equipment to run games.
"Starting November when we ship this update, your Quest is basically a Rift now, too," Zuckerberg told event attendees in an announcement met with a chorus of cheers.
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The linking feature will work with most USB-C cables that come bundled with laptops and smartphones. Facebook also designed its own dedicated cable that is long enough to provide the freedom-of-movement that VR games require.
Another major feature set to launch in early 2020 for the Oculus Quest is hand tracking, which will allow players to use the full range of motion in their hands to control the VR games and apps without the need of physical controllers or external sensors.
"Six months ago, if you wanted to get into VR, you needed a PC, cables, sensors, hand controllers and half a dozen physical objects, and soon it's just going to be a headset that you can bring with you anywhere that you go," Zuckerberg said.
Facebook has even loftier ambitions for its VR technology. The company plans to leverage CTRL-Labs Corp., a startup that it recently acquired, to work on neural technology that would allow users to input commands using their thoughts.
"We're going to invest and make sure this is a foundational part of the input for the computing platform," Zuckerberg said.
The executive also announced a new VR social experience called Facebook Horizon. Launching in early 2020 in closed beta, Horizon will allow users to build their own virtual environments, create and play games with friends, or just explore user-generated landscapes. Creating content will be possible for those with no coding knowledge, and it will not require taking off the VR headset, Zuckerberg said.
Also taking the stage at the Sept. 25 event was Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's vice president of AR and VR, who announced that the company is building augmented reality glasses that will run on a new AR infrastructure called LiveMaps. LiveMaps will utilize crowd-sourced data, traditional maps and footage captured through phones and AR glasses to produce 3D maps of the world. Facebook already has several working prototypes of AR glasses, but they are still a few years out from becoming consumer products, Bosworth said.
Facebook also made several gaming-related announcements. The second part of the "Star Wars" VR game, Vader Immortal, is available Sept. 25 on the Oculus Store, while two major VR titles, Asgard's Wrath and Stormland, will launch Oct. 10 and Nov. 14, respectively. Meanwhile, Electronic Arts Inc.'s Respawn Entertainment LLC unit announced Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, coming exclusively to the Oculus Rift next year.

Oculus Connect 6 keynote