Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Consumer Release Date: Oculus VR hasn't set a release date yet for its Rift virtual-reality headset, but the Chief Executive Officer says it's very close to final. 

Oculus Rift put likes the prototype. Oculus Rift launched the first public demonstration of the "Crescent Bay" model at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. But regardless of the good buzz from CES 2015, Oculus is still saying it's not ready for the public. Unless it is, but we'll get to that in a bit.

At the CES 2015 Oculus VR sat journalists from SlashGear in a padded room, not because they're crazy, the magazine says, but because they didn't want any outside noise spoiling the experience. Further, the demonstration required them to "stand on a platform 4 feet by 4 feet wide in the center of a room that was perhaps 12 feet square."

Was it worth it? Reports from one demonstration attendee said it was the Oculus Crescent Bay Prototype experience was breathtaking, like running head on into a Tyrannosaurus Rex at the edge of a cliff. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it did spur Master Herald to ask in a headline "What's More Amazing Than the Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Prototype?"

In spite of all the raves, or maybe because of it Oculus VR says the Crescent Bay prototype of the Oculus Rift virtual reality head-mounted display isn't ready.

Or is it?

 In an interview with Engadget at 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nate Mitchell admitted "I, personally, think that that resolution is high enough to be a consumer product for the beginning of the Oculus Rift. And, one thing we've said often, is anytime we show a feature prototype, it's gonna be that good if not better. For me, I do think that's good enough for the V1 of the Rift," Mitchell added.

Engadget made sure to point out that Mitchell wasn't speaking officially for everyone at Oculus VR.

The consumer version of the new gaming headset debuted in September at a developer conference to a select group gaming aficionados who said the new virtual reality product features improved "3-D" audio and includes 360-degree motion tracking to make it easier for users to move around. The headset features a motion-tracking system that uses an external camera that tracks infrared dots inside the headset. The consumer Oculus Rift will also include a 1000 Hz Adjacent Reality Tracker. The developer version of Oculus Rift weighs 379g.

Facebook bought Oculus in March 2014 for $2 billion. Gamespot reported that Mark Zuckerberg gave Oculus a great review at a Q&A session in Bogotá, Colombia.

"You guys all remember the first mobile phones were terrible, and that's kind of the stage where we are now with virtual reality and augmented reality. It's extremely early stage and the early stuff is very rough still, but I think that's going to be a really important trend. We're really excited about that as well. We're building that with Oculus which I think is by far the leader in virtual reality and it's going to be very exciting to see how that develops," Zuckerberg said.