Facebook's enterprise-grade Oculus for Business (opens in new tab) program is no longer offering the Oculus Go as an option, only the Oculus Quest (via UploadVR). That spells big news for the Oculus Go, which just recently saw a major price cut on the consumer side of the spectrum.
The Oculus Go, which came out more than a year before the Oculus Quest, only offers three degrees of movement, known as 3DoF. That means it can only track your head looking around but cannot track your head's movement in the room, severely limiting its effectiveness in most applications.
Oculus Quest vs Oculus Go: What are the big differences?
The Oculus Go's controller is also very limited and acts mainly as a laser pointer, similar to how the Nintendo Wii's controller worked, but features even more limited movement than that controller. The Oculus Go was selling for $599 through this enterprise Oculus for Business program, while the Oculus Quest currently sells for $999 through the program.
Facebook's enterprise VR program includes "software to set up and manage VR deployments, a tailored in-headset experience, and enterprise-grade customer support.", according to Facebook. Oculus has updated its FAQ and features new language for Go offerings moving forward:
We will offer Go with an enterprise license which allows for commercial use and includes enterprise warranty and support, but without the Oculus for Business enterprise software. Oculus for Business FAQ
Given the limitations of the Oculus Go and the price of the enterprise program, it makes more sense to offer the Oculus Quest, which can do everything the Go can and significantly more. The Oculus Quest feature Facebook's Oculus Insight tracking, which utilizes four cameras on the outside of the device to map a physical space and track the headset's movements through this space. This significantly enhances the VR experience in meaningful ways and creates a huge opportunity for developers and companies to utilize VR for training and production.
Whether or not Facebook is looking to sell off the remaining Oculus Go stock and move on from the platform is still unclear. Given the huge, permanent price change for the consumer version of the headset, and the retiring from the enterprise program, it certainly does seem that the headset's positioning in the market is changing. The popularity of the Oculus Quest could also be signaling Facebook that it's time to move on from 3DoF and fully embrace 6DoF, as well.
No limits VR
Don't have or want an expensive gaming PC? Would you prefer wireless VR instead of being tethered? The Oculus Quest is the standalone VR experience you've been looking for.
