Expect Gear VR 2 to launch at the end of the year

During an Oculus panel at GDC, John Carmack revealed we can expect the Galaxy Gear VR at the end of this year, during Samsung's next release cycle. There aren't specific dates attached to his announcement but he seems determined to stick to the schedule.

"We've got a plan now, we've got a date, you can mark this in the calendars," Carmack said. "Oculus is going forward as hard as we can, trying to sell as many units as possible with the next Gear VR."

Carmack said that he couldn't discuss all the details but because Samsung typically launches two big products a year, the next big launch will take place around the holidays. This falls into line with Samsung's recent unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S6 during the MWC 2015 phones rodeo in Spain.

The next VR headset will apparently be much better than the current iteration of Gear VR and see a wider release complete with all the "Samsung [marketing] blitz."

Gear VR versus Gear VR

Carmack also spent time comparing the Innovator's Edition of the current Gear VR with the newest Galaxy Gear VR model which uses the freshly announced Galaxy S6 instead of the Note 4.

System software like notifications have changed because, "notifications have destroyed the experience on the Note 4."

There won't be radical changes made to the S6 Gear VR, but the newer phone is definitely more powerful than the Note 4 so we can expect a better experience.

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