Oculus Rift games are coming to Quest via Oculus Link this November

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook-owned Oculus is expanding the game and app library on its standalone Oculus Quest headset by making Rift titles playable on the headset.

There are a few strings attached, however. Running Rift games on a Quest won’t be a wireless experience. Instead, it’ll be powered by what Oculus is calling Oculus Link, and will require Quest users to connect their typically-wireless headsets to their VR-capable computers via any given USB C cable.

But for developers with apps already up for the Rift, the coming feature means that their potential audience is about to see a boost.

In short, “your Quest is now a Rift,” explains Zuckerberg. Later on in that Oculus Connect 6 keynote, Oculus noted that a number of popular titles for the lower-powered Oculus Go are headed to the Quest as early as next week. 

The "forwards-compatability" is just one of Facebook's several moves toward expanding the reach of VR as a whole. With Oculus Link, those new to VR have a $400 way to buy into the Oculus platform, and are able to play both Quest-focused and existing Rift Games without the additional hardware that would've been otherwise needed to do so before.

On top of that, Facebook also announced at Oculus Connect 6 today that Quest is getting an update to add controller-free hand tracking, and has plans to work with neural tech for next geneational hardware down the road.