Oculus Quest Will Be Able to Run Oculus Rift Games in November

Oculus Quest owners will soon be able to run Oculus Rift games by connecting the VR headset to a PC.

The new functionality, dubbed Oculus Link, will arrive in November through a software update. Owners will just need a USB-C cable and a gaming PC capable running of Oculus Rift games to enable the capability.

"Your Quest is basically a Rift now too," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today at the Oculus Connect conference in San Jose, Calif. "This is going to work with most USB-C cables out there."

The update will let Quest owners get more out of the device; it currently runs VR experiences and games directly over the headset's hardware, which uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 VR processor — or technology on par with a smartphone. Rift-based games, on the other hand, generally require high-end PC hardware, including a dedicated Nvidia or AMD graphics card.

Quest owners can expect another big update rolling out early next year. Eventually, you'll be able to use the VR headset without the wireless handheld controllers. Instead, sensors onboard the Quest will read your hand movements and translate them into the virtual world.

"So this means no controller, no buttons, no straps, no external sensors. Just the full range of motion in your hands," Zuckerberg said. "It takes the experience to a whole new level."

Facebook's goal is to remove all VR peripherals, such as hardware-based controllers, external sensors, and cables, and build the technology into the VR headset itself, making it more convenient for widespread adoption. The Quest, for instance, functions without the need to place external sensors inside a room. All the sensor and tracking technology is baked into the device.

Although today's VR technology has yet to take the public by storm, Zuckerberg indicated the company's recently released Oculus Quest VR headset is in demand. "We're selling them as fast as we can make them," Zuckerberg said.

So far, the Oculus Store has sold more than $100 million in content, he added. Twenty percent of sales have been for the Oculus Quest.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
Xbox 360 FTW
The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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