Update: A Facebook spokesperson has clarified that statements made during the keynote at F8 were not intended to be an announcement of availability for the consumer version of Oculus Rift.

Virtual reality gaming is coming "this year," Facebook's chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer said on stage at day two of the social network's F8 Developer Conference in San Francisco on Thursday. He also said people would be able to play games in VR on "something" shipped by Oculus.

Schroepfer showed a demo for EVE: Valkyrie, a game that puts users in the cockpit of a spaceship.

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"Why is VR going to work now, when it didn't work in the '80s and '90s?" asked Schroepfer. Because the technology is more advanced than before and ready for primetime, he said: "Each one of these core tracks of technology had to hit a minimum core viability...to get to that sense of presence to sense that you're truly there."

"You're going to be able to do it in something shipped by Oculus," Schroepfer said. "This is going to be incredible."

It's unclear from Schroepfer's comments whether the thing "shipping" would be the long-awaited consumer version of the Oculus Rift VR headset, or yet another developer-only edition not unlike the current "Crescent Bay" prototype.

When asked if the comments meant Oculus Rift would be for sale this year, a spokesperson for Oculus VR later told Mashable: "Nah. When we are ready to announce consumer, we will shout it from the mountaintops."

"Virtual reality done right truly is reality, as far as the observer is concerned," Oculus chief scientist Michael Abrash said during the keynote. "VR today is good enough to create experiences, but just barely."

Abrash outlined areas of VR that still need improvement: Haptics, being able to use your hands in VR; better visuals, ideally with 5K x 5K or 16K x 16K resolution display technologies — per eye; and audio will bring a realistic sense of spatial immersion. Additionally, he expects advancements in mapping technologies will allow for users to stand up and move around, further enhancing the perception of presence in VR worlds.

"It's clear that VR has the potential to change almost everything about the way we live," Abrash said.

Abrash also backpedalled on Schroepfer's earlier comments on the availability of Oculus hardware, saying only that consumer-ready VR headsets would arrive "soon" and could take "a year or two" before they're ready for the type of realistic VR experiences that trick the brain into perceiving them as real.

JP Mangalindan contributed to this report.

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