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Software error causes mass Oculus Rift outage

An expired security certificate has seemingly knocked the world’s Oculus Rift VR headsets out of commission all at once.

Alissa McAloon, Publisher

March 7, 2018

1 Min Read
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One of the leading VR headsets in the game looks to be experiencing mass outages today as many users report that the software powering Oculus Rift headsets refuses to run.

Alongside the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift is one of the most widely used PC virtual reality headsets so any outage, especially one as widespread as the current one, should be of particular concern to developers with games on the platform.

As first noticed by Polygon, users on the Oculus forums are reporting “Can’t Reach Oculus Runtime Service” error messages when trying to open the Oculus app.

Oculus users report that the issue remains after walking through the usual troubleshooting steps, and that restarting computers and Rifts have yielded no results either. 

Some have speculated that the issue is tied to a security certificate within the headset’s software that expired today, but Oculus has yet to confirm or deny this theory.

“We are aware of and actively investigating an issue impacting ability to access Rift software,” reads a post from Oculus staff on its official forums. “Our teams apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing you and appreciate your patience while we work on a resolution. We'll share more updates here as we have them. Thanks.”

About the Author

Alissa McAloon

Publisher, GameDeveloper.com

As the Publisher of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.

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