In an update posted on the Oculus Developer Forums, Oculus said that the first batch of the official Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 has left the company's manufacturing facility and are on their way to distribution centers.
The pre-order price for the next version of Oculus' virtual reality headset is $350. The first units are expected to be received by the week of July 14.
Oculus, owned by Facebook, expects to send out about 10,000 units of the development kit from the company's factory this month, with about half the number going through distribution centers and shipped to those that have pre-ordered the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 by month's end.
All development kits will be assigned tracking numbers, which will be identified once the unit is processed by a distribution center. The tracking number will be sent through an e-mail, which will also state an estimation of the delivery date of the development kit.
In their forum post, Oculus is asking those that have pre-ordered the development kit to check the shipping address listed on the developer's account at the Oculus Sales page to avoid any delays in delivery.
The company reported that the number of pre-orders for the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 has reached 45,000. However, due to Oculus being currently behind in meeting its manufacturing targets, some developers that are expecting to receive the unit within the month will have to wait until August to get their hands on it.
Oculus added that it currently has a team in China that is working on increasing factory production to be able to catch up with the queue of pre-orders and shipments.
The Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 will be the device's final developmental model before Oculus launches a consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset.
The development kit includes some important upgrades compared to its predecessor, with one of the more prominent upgrades being the improvement of the display. The Oculus Rift Development Kit 1 uses a 1280x800 screen resolution, while the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 uses a 1080p OLED panel.
The new development kit also includes a tracking camera which is capable of translating the head movements of the wearer into movements within a game to make it feel more natural. The unit also includes reductions in motion sickness and blurring, which makes it possible for users to comfortably wear the Oculus Rift much longer than they previously can.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey previously said that about 12,500 of the 45,000 pre-orders came within the unit's first 36 hours. This means that some of the developers that sent in their pre-order on the second day will have to wait much longer to get them. In addition, the second iteration of the Oculus Rift Development Kit looks like it will surely surpass the number of orders of the first kit, which sold only around 50,000 units.
