We’re excited to announce that Gear VR Innovator Edition, the first development kit for Gear VR, is now available for purchase online at samsung.com for developers in the US (with additional regions to follow). It’s still early days for mobile VR, but you can start building inspiring experiences now.

Gear VR enables virtual reality anywhere, anytime, and it’s the most integrated VR system we’ve developed to date. Working closely with Samsung, we’ve expanded the Note 4’s native performance by developing a highly optimized VR graphics path with integrated system software.

This is just the first step toward true consumer mobile VR. Though it’s missing several key components for comfort and presence, we’re working with Samsung to improve in every vertical including optics, distortion, heat, weight, ergonomics, tracking, and display tech. Ultimately, it’s a long term effort that we’re committed to getting right.

Alongside Innovator Edition, we’re also launching the Oculus VR Store, an integrated discovery and distribution system for VR content built for Gear VR. It’s very basic in terms of functionality today, but it’s the beginning of a true made-for-VR content distribution and discovery platform for Oculus developers everywhere.

All of the initial content is currently free, which makes for a unique opportunity to experiment, iterate, learn, and grow the mobile VR fanbase. Early next year we plan to introduce commerce to the platform, allowing developers to monetize their VR games and applications.



Anshar Wars by OZWE

Over the last few months, we’ve asked a small group of developers to create content for Gear VR using prototype hardware and pre-release builds of the Mobile SDK. Thanks to their hard work and dedication, we’re launching with a collection of high-quality sample experiences that show off what Gear VR is capable of, and highlight a range of comfort options from stationary to locomotion.

You can swim with blue whales; pilot arcade fighters through asteroid fields; dungeon crawl; use extrasensory abilities to solve puzzles; collect swirling, 16-bit minotaurs; and a lot more with these first experiences. A huge thank you to all the developers who helped make this possible!



HeroBound: First Steps by Oculus

Innovator Edition is just the beginning for great mobile VR, but we can’t wait to see what you build with it!

— The Oculus Team