Samsung and Oculus are planning to release their Gear VR headset later this year. The virtual-reality headset designed to be used with Samsung smartphones, will reach consumers by the end of this year, said John Carmack, Oculus's technology chief. The device will be accompanied by a specialized app store, said Carmack.

"For people to do mobile games, that's a reasonable-ish timeframe," he said during a speech during a speech at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. He added that the Gear VR that will eventually hit store shelves will not be very different from the prototypes the company has shown so far.

Many companies are expecting to launch VR geadset devices, including Sony, Microsoft, HTC and Valve.