Elite: Dangerous shifts focus from Oculus to SteamVR

One of the Oculus Rift’s earliest and brightest talismans has turned heel and backed a rival device.

Eurogamer reports that developer Frontier has confirmed that its virtual reality development efforts are now being focused on Steam’s HTC Vive headset. Indeed, Elite Dangerous hasn’t been updated to work with more recent builds of the Oculus SDK.

This is despite Oculus support being patched into the game over two years ago, and the fact the Facebook headset has been used as a demo tool on numerous occasions.

It has denied, however, that the change of heart has anything to do with an exclusivity agreement.

We’ve supported VR for a few years now, and Elite Dangerous is arguably the world’s leading VR-ready game,” it said. We want to give players the best possible VR experience however they play and that means focusing our efforts.

Right now, we’ve chosen to focus on SteamVR. We haven’t cut an exclusivity deal with any VR manufacturer, and we’re still working with Oculus on Rift support.”

UPDATE: Frontier has re-iterated that it continues to work with Oculus and has denied reports from elsewhere online that a deal was struck to see Elite Dangerous released on HTC’s Vive first. It has not yet addressed the lack of support for more recent Oculus SDK’s, however, or clarfied for how long it intends to focus on SteamVR.

"We thought it best to reiterate what we’ve been saying since the release of the Oculus 0.6 SDK. As quoted in the story, we are actively working with Oculus and will keep the community updated as soon as we are able to do so," head of community management Zac Antonaci stated.

"We are keen to support VR in all its forms and we are proud to be leading the way in VR gaming. "I can confirm that there is no deal to release Elite on HTC first. Valve released a stable driver before Oculus but we remain in close contact with Oculus."

The headline has been amended from ‘Elite: Dangerous no longer officially supports Oculus Rift’