Covered numerous times on PixelJudge already, Oculus Rift, the upcoming, Kickstarter-backed, virtual-reality gaming headset may well be a world changing piece of technology.  The development versions of the head mounted system are currently shipping to Kickstarter backers while Oculus work on perfecting version 2.0 that will sell to the public (eventually).

In a post on their Kickstarter blog on the 25th Oculus wrote about the Gaming Insiders Summit a few weeks ago in Montreal where influential 'gaming insiders' discussed the future of gaming and virtual reality.

"One of the key topics we discussed was the latest progress around reducing simulator sickness (akin to motion sickness)."

The post also covers Brendan from Oculus being invited to test drive Valve's prototype VR unit and taking a few more ideas back to Oculus.  Are potential competitors not supposed to be into industrial espionage and stuff like that?  Hero points for Valve, methinks. The release timeline is also hinted at and it sounds like the earliest we can expect to hear anything more concrete about the commercial release of the Rift is 2014.

"To clarify: we'd like to ship a new development kit before the consumer version that provides near identical features that developers can build on and test against for the Rift's launch. That said, we have no plans to announce a new development kit this year. The timing of a new dev kit is tied to the launch of the consumer Rift, and we'll keep the community posted."

This kind of technology sets my brain on fire.  I'm thinking of fully immersive shooters with movement controlled by hand gestures.  A link to the Today Show, where the Oculus is featured, also shows a bracelet that allows users to control a computer with hand motions.  Combine the two and my only real issue is going to be who's going to change my drip feed when my wife leaves me for a real, functional human.

Discussion question:  If you could choose only one game and be inside it perfectly using the Rift, what game would it be?  Fahrenheit gets my vote.  Maybe the next game from Quantic Dream will use it.  Brain. Burning.