Previously, owners of the Oculus Rift had access to games and demos which, thanks to a headset check in Oculus software, remained exclusive to the Rift. Now the 1.5 update to the Oculus Runtime program has rolled around, and the checking system has quietly gone absent- meaning HTC Vive users are now easily able to play previously Oculus-exclusive titles.
Prior to the update, users were able to circumvent the DRM using a third party software called Revive. Of course, this patch has rendered such a program essentially pointless. Although the removal of the check wasn’t mentioned in the patch note, the Oculus developers have confirmed the change, stating that they “won’t use hardware checks as part of DRM on PC in the future.”
This change potentially simplifies the consumer debate on Oculus versus Vive- with no more exclusives in the Oculus corner of the ring, the question simply comes down to hardware power and preferences. Will the idea of VR headset exclusives be eliminated altogether? Only time will tell.
