Facebook just gave the Oculus Quest a much-needed upgrade

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Two major updates to the Oculus Quest standalone VR headset were just announced by Oculus at its annual developer conference.

Oculus Link will let you connect the Quest to your PC, to play any game from the Rift’s library. That’s coming later this year, but the really interesting thing is coming next year, in the form of hand-tracking.

Oculus Quest is getting hand tracking and more games

The Oculus Quest hasn’t been shipping for long, and it’s already looking like it’s the way forward for Oculus in the future. Adding the ability to tether to get access to the more graphical-intensive Rift content with the option to still use it in standalone mode is fantastic. Hand and finger tracking to remove the requirement of physical controllers will make the $400 Oculus Quest hard to beat for the price.

• Facebook says no additional hardware will be needed to use the two new Oculus Quest updates (maybe some PCs will need a different cable, as the Quest comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable, which not every PC has)
• Oculus Link will connect to a VR-capable PC and let users play any of the games or experiences in the Rift’s large catalog
• Hand tracking will make your controllers an optional extra – perfect for playing Oculus Go games while you don’t want to be tethered to your PC

The downside of this is that it hurts Oculus in the short term. Adding tethering effectively makes the Rift S pointless. Adding hand tracking makes the Oculus Go pointless as well. It’s good for the VR industry though, which has needed a mid-price, mid-specs headset to drive mass adoption.

What do you think? Interested in the Oculus Quest now that it is getting hand tracking? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.