Oculus VR Co-Founder Palmer Luckey Gives Apple Headset an Endorsement Ahead of Reveal

Apple has yet to reveal its long-rumoured AR/VR headset officially. However, Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey has already had some seemingly positive experiences with it.

In a tweet, Luckey simply states, “The Apple headset is so good.” Luckey may be one of the few outside of Apple’s staff to have seen and tried the headset. For years, it’s been claimed that Apple is working on its first mixed-reality headset. However, the company has yet to officially comment on the existence of the device.

The Apple headset is so good.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) May 14, 2023

Luckey first launched Oculus VR in 2012 following many years of working on various kits. As a part of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Luckey raised $2.4 million USD (around $3.2 million CAD) and began expanding the Oculus brand. In 2014, the company was acquired by Meta for $2 billion (roughly $2.7 billion CAD). Luckey was once considered a leader in the VR space. However, since the acquisition, he left the company suddenly and went on to found Anduril Industries, an autonomy-focused company.

It’s largely believed that Apple will reveal its headset during its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this year. Kicking off on June 5th, Apple will host a keynote, detailing new hardware, software, etc. Although there was a bit of back and forth on whether production delays may impact the reveal, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman was positive on whether Apple would show it off. Alongside the headset, Gurman believes that the new xrOS operating system will also be shown.

Although, Apple is keeping things close to the vest, it’s said that the headset may cost around $3,000 USD (roughly $4,050 CAD). Though, this price will set out to justify the rumoured cutting-edge specs the headset boasts, including multiple 4K OLED displays, a dozen camera modules, eye-tracking and hand-tracking functionality.

However, much of this is pure speculation as Apple needs to confirm exact specs, the software output, as well as third-party support prior to launch. It’s as good of time as ever as there’s a significant conversation regarding VR and its longevity going around. This year also saw the launch of Sony’s new PSVR2 headset, which while a solid piece of kit, didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Perhaps it’s Apple’s turn at bat.