Oculus Rift, in an effort to create its own environment, had built up a series of DRM walls to force Oculus Rift-exclusive games to only work with the Oculus Rift headset. The most recent update, runtime 1.5, seems to have removed the headset check, reversing Oculus’ DRM.
As noted in a post from the Revive developer on the Vive subreddit, the latest update to the Oculus Rift has removed the headset check for Rift games. “I'm getting reports from multiple users that the headset check is indeed removed,” CrossVR wrote on reddit.
“I don't think they changed their stance on exclusivity, but they're at least willing to meet us halfway by letting us mod our games. I'm delighted to see this change and I hope it can generate a lot of goodwill for Oculus.”
Without the headset check, those with VR headsets that are not made by Oculus can now enjoy games they were originally locked out from. Those with a Vive headset can use the free program Revive to get everything up and running. Simply follow the install instructions, and you’ll be good to go.
While the Oculus update seems to have removed the headset check for now, this could either be an oversight or a temporary removal. Oculus could very easily reinstate the DRM if it so chooses. It’s certainly nice to see a company reverse a negatively received decision though, similar to how Microsoft rolled back all of the poorly received features originally planned for the Xbox One.
So what do you think? Are you happy to see Oculus removing DRM from its software? Do you think this is a permanent or temporary change? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
