Oculus leaks images of consumer Oculus Rift prior to press conference

Oculus VR accidentally released images of the Oculus Rift consumer headset on Tuesday. Considering the company is announcing the details of the device at a much-anticipated press conference on Thursday, however, the leak seems more like a well-timed PR stunt as opposed to an honest mistake. And if the appearance of the renderings was indeed a mistake, the interested drummed up across the internet sure was a great byproduct.

The images appeared when the company unveiled its new website earlier this week. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey took to Reddit to explain the snafoo. “This is an old placeholder concept image that we accidentally leaked,” he wrote. “Everything in it is ancient, certainly nowhere close to final (as evidenced by the GPU specs and the game named ‘war’). Enjoy checking it out, at this point, but don’t expect everything to carry through to the stream on the 11th.”

On the pre-order page, an image suggests that the Rift headset, the Rift tracker, the Simple Input Device (SID), a game pad, and cables will arrive to consumers in a sleek, minimal black box. The SID could be a solution for navigating menus and selecting content, or it could be a motion control device akin to a Nintendo’s Wii remote or HTC Vive’s want controller.

Overall, the design of the headset is far more sleek and compact than previously seen, so those waiting to order whatever is revealed on on June 11th will surely not be disappointed. Pricing is as of yet undetermined but is anticipated to come in around $1,500 for the total package.

As previously reported, the Oculus Rift consumer version is to be shipped in the first quarter of 2016. Keep tabs on Oculus’ website for the conference countdown, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted.