oculus rift sxsw virtual reality panel
Photo credit: The Verge

The first Oculus Rift developer kits are but a few weeks away from landing in the hands of eager developers. Oculus continues to build excitement for the release; this week they were at the annual SXSW and held a virtual reality panel with developers Cliff Bleszinski (formerly, Epic Games), Chris Roberts (Star Citizen), and Paul Bettner (Words With Friends). Oculus VP of Product, Nate Mitchells narrated the panel.

The Verge shot follow-up interviews to talk Oculus Rift and virtual reality with each of the developers on the panel:

Cliff Bleszinski

Chris Roberts

Paul Bettner

The Oculus Rift is an upcoming head mounted display (HMD / VR headset) for virtual reality gaming. In August 2012, a Kickstarter campaign pulled in an impressive $2.4 million in support for the developer kit. The company is hard at work building up the Oculus Rift SDK and no doubt working on the Oculus Rift 2.0 consumer version due out hopefully in 2013. The first batch of Oculus Rift developer kits are expected to reach developers by the end of this month.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."