Gamers and developers looking to get Oculus Rift into their hands will have to wait until around the first quarter of 2016, Oculus VR said in a May 6 blog post.

The Menlo Park, CA-based virtual reality company however noted that gaming aficionados can start placing their orders later this year.

Like Us on Facebook

The Oculus team added that more details about the consumer version of the Rift will be announced "in the weeks ahead." This is said to include more information about the Rift's technical specifications, hardware, software, input and even made-for-virtual-reality games that are yet to be made public.

According to the blog post, the Oculus Rift "delivers on the dream of consumer [virtual reality] with compelling content, a full ecosystem, and a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality."

Anticipation for the Rift's release builds upon the debut of the Oculus developer kit in August 2012, followed by the release of Crystal Cover in January 2014 and the Developer kit 2 or the Rift DK2 in March 2014. The latest developer version of the Rift, dubbed Crescent Bay, was released in Crescent Bay.

Oculus said that the for-consumer Rift version is based on the "comfort" of the design of Crescent Bay and will have an enhanced tracking system, regardless of a player's position.

Pictures released by the Facebook-owned company feature two angles of the all-black headgear.

Oculus did not disclose, nor hint, what the price would be for the Rift when it hits stores in 2016.

Herald Sun reported May 7 that the "still quite bulky" Oculus Rift in 2016 will be entering a "crowded" virtual reality market, with the pending release of other virtual reality head-mounted display kits such as Sony's Project Morpheus, HTC and Valve's Vive and Samsung's Gear VR.

The 3d virtual system was designed to turn video games into a more realistic and interactive experience. It started as a Kickstarter project in 2012, where 9,522 people collectively raised over $2.4 million. To date, it is still one of most popular Kickstarter-funded projects.

Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook in March 2014 for US$2 billion in cash and Facebook stock.

TagsOculus Rift, Oculus VR, Oculus Rift News, Virtual Reality, Kickstarter, Kickstarter Game Funding, Kickstarter Project, Kickstarter News, Kickstarter, Oculus Rift, Oculus, product launch, technology, Virtual Reality, rift dk2, games, developers, oculus developer