Oculus has today announced that its headset, the Oculus Rift, will launch commercially in the first quarter of 2016, with further details about the hardware and tech specifications coming in the next few weeks. 

The news also comes with a few images of the release headset, which looks significantly more ergonomic than the previous DK2 and Crystal Cove versions. Additionally, the announcement teased unannounced Rift games, and a probable Oculus presence at E3.

Oculus CFO David Wehner was coy in an earnings call last month when an analyst asked if the headset would launch this year. "I just note that Oculus is very much in the development stage, so it's early to be talking about large shipment volumes," he said at the time.

One Oculus Rift competitor, the Sony Morpheus headset, which will work with the PlayStation 4, is shipping in the first half of next year. The Samsung Gear VR headset, which uses a Samsung phone and Oculus tech, is already in the world in an "innovator edition" aimed at developers and hardcore gadget-heads. The HTC Vive, developed in collaboration with Valve, is due to ship in 2015.