As we approach the Rift’s Q1 2016 consumer launch, Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey has given us a new minimum for the still unannounced Oculus Rift price.

In the humble beginnings of Oculus, the company sought to create an affordable consumer VR headset that would fall around the $300/$350 price point of the Rift DK1 and DK2 development kits. Much has changed since then and in recent years the company has shied away from specific price claims, but Oculus founder Palmer Luckey closed the gap on one end of the spectrum regarding the price of the Oculus Rift.

See Also: 24 Minutes with Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey on Rift CV1, Touch Controllers, Fresnel Lenses and More

oculus-rift-top-side
Oculus Rift consumer model

In an interview at Connect, I asked Luckey if the consumer Oculus Rift price would come in around that $350 ballpark target that had been discussed by the company long ago. His response is included here in full:

You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. We’re roughly in that ballpark… but it’s going to cost more than that. And the reason for that is that we’ve added a lot of technology to this thing beyond what existed in the DK1 and DK2 days.

And it’s not a matter of ‘oh we’re selling more, we can make more money!’ it’s just the reality that when you make this thing you have to decide what tradeoffs you’re going to make; are you going to optimize for absolute lowest price possible, even if it’s gonna be a lower quality experience? Or do you try to say ‘you know what, this is the first consumer VR headset that were going to be pushing out to people. We need to put a stake in the ground and say: this is the best possible experience that we were able to make. No compromises were made in terms of quality’. Get the cost down as much as you can on that experience, but make it so that the Rift is something that everybody wants to use to the best of your ability.

It would really suck if you put something out there and people were like ‘ah man… the Rift is good, but it’s not quite there’, you know? ‘If only it was a little better, if the lenses were a little better, if the resolution was a little better, if the screens had been a little bit better, then it would be great because you’d  you’d say ‘god, we could have just charged a little more and put a little bit more money into custom hardware and actually achieve that’.

palmer luckey oculus rift price facebook
Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus

The Rift is a lot of custom hardware. It’s using lenses that are some of the hardest to manufacture lenses in any consumer product you can go out and buy. It’s using custom displays we worked on with Samsung that are optimized for virtual reality, in a lot of ways even beyond what you’re actually seeing on these prototypes on the show floor. And the tracking system, the same thing. We could have made tradeoffs that had… honestly like 90% of the tracking quality we had now, and we decided to do things that would bump that quality up a little bit more even though it raised the cost of the headset. I can’t tell you that it’s going to be $350, and I would say I think people are going to be happy with what they get for the price because I really do think it’s going to be that best VR headset you can buy.

It does change the equation a little bit when you’ve got something like Gear VR and when you’re working with partners to make lower cost head mounted displays available to people… it’s a different equation than when you feel like you’re the only person service the entire market, in that case you’re trying to make these balances… what if it was the opposite if you were like ‘if only it’d been a little cheaper then we would have been able to reach more people,’ but with all the projects we’re working on and all the partners we’re working on, I’m confident there’s going to be VR existing at multiple quality points and price points and with the Rift, it makes sense to do what nobody else is doing which is invest in making the best possible quality headset.

Price wasn’t the only thing Luckey touched on in our interview, stay tuned for more.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • brandon9271

    I’m really happy to see that they are going for the high quality within reason. I have to wonder how much Valve announcing the Vive has influenced that decision. I also wonder how Luckey can say the Rift is the best when the general consensus is that the Vive is slightly better.

  • Don Gateley

    A high price plus the requirement for a new expensive computer will sink their ship. I hope they have something more realistic in the wings.

    • Curtrock

      Hey, Gately! Don’t you ever get tired of SHITTING on every-single-thing that Oculus says or does? Although you are certainly entitled to your opinion, I gotta tell you that you sound like a petty troll. Thankfully, Oculus seems to be making all the right decisions, and appears on-track to release a revolutionary product that will change the very nature of entertainment & communication. I guess you Oculus/Facebook haters will be quite disappointed.

    • SuperDre

      I don’t think a computer (without monitor/keyboard/mouse) of around $1000 is very expensive.. Also with the ammount of units they can ship from the start, it won’t be for the masses anyway…. YET..

    • Nathanca11

      My $330 pc can play everything perfectly in vr.

      • SuperDre

        Yeah right, if you dail back to almost no detail.. You’ll need a $330 videocard alone to drive the display’s of the Vive/Rift at the refreshrate needed for comfortable VR and a decend detail.
        There is no way your $330 PC can drive even the DK2 with decend graphics.. I have a GTX760 and a highend Core i7 with 16GB of mem, and it can just drive the DK2 with some decend graphics..

    • laser632

      “A high price plus the requirement for a new expensive computer will sink their ship. I hope they have something more realistic in the wings.” << Do you know how much Sony's Oculus clone is going to cost? It's not going to be cheap. Also just as DK2 has sold to existing PC users, oculus will also sell to existing users especially those who are into simulation. As of July 2014 more than 100,000 oculus kits had been sold. Those kits sold almost exclusively to existing PC users. There is no doubt that the PC is the biggest problem with VR potentially although it offers the best experience. PC hardware has always been over-priced. Doesn't help that Nvidia push GPU's costing $1000+. DX12 and perhaps Vulkan will mean lower PC specs able to deliver better performance. Perhaps the first CV oculus sales will mostly be limited to existing users or those who can afford to pay for the hardware. There are gamers who buy 2 or 3 high end GPUs like the 980ti and fit waterblocks to them and run in SLI. These are the kind of gamers who will easily be able to afford Oculus. Also the simulation market. That's a sizeable industry where you can buy steering wheel, pedals and shifters from between $400 and $1500. The flight sim market is also very healthy with sim hardware available costing far more than the price of an Oculus. Oculus CV1 will cost less than I paid for my German made Fanatec racing wheel, pedals and stick shifter.

    • Vox Blackheart

      I don’t care what it costs! I’ve got the PC and the cash just waiting to go. I’m so impressed by the DK2 that I’m convinced CV1 is gonna be a great experience when it finally gets here. I’m expecting to pay £500+ in March and I’m gonna count myself lucky to be a part of another turning point in gaming history. No-one complains that Ferraris are overpriced when they have a Corsa sitting on the drive so why is this any different? This is a luxury experience that thankfully everyone will be able to afford, maybe not straight away, but if you want it that bad you’ll save up and get it when you can. If you really can’t afford the kit then maybe you should be looking elsewhere to get your gaming fix.

  • Mageoftheyear

    Great scoop RtVR! I appreciate Palmer being forthright about pricing and although I hope “in the ballpark” means under $400 the great part about this news is the extent of custom hardware and features being developed.
    I saw it mentioned in the /r/Oculus thread that they may try to sweeten that price with some bundled software and I think that would be a great move – which seems likely to be made in any case.

    • RadthorDax

      Ah, hindsight!

  • David Mulder

    Honestly, I am a little bumped by this, right now we have the mobile VR solutions that aren’t /that/ good at a low price point, then there is Sony Morpheus which is going to cost as much or more than the Playstation 4 itself (probably low market adoption), next we have the HTC Vive which is going to be relatively expensive (it was supposed to be a higher end option and is produced by a company that needs to make a profit from day 1). All in all it means that serious VR adoption for the ‘normal’ market will take at least till the 2nd generation headsets.

    • Nathanca11

      Aren’t that good? The mobile vr market is flourishing with experiences as good as the rift coming out.

      • crim3

        I don’t think mobile VR can deliver any genuine sense of ‘presence’ like CV1+PC

      • kendoka15

        Just the lack of positional tracking makes mobile VR not as good as PC VR

      • laser632

        Not quite. You can’t deliver the same performance on mobile VR at this time.

    • Karl Sarsfield

      But isn’t that a given for any new technology?

      Think about how expensive LED TV’s used to be. Now OLED is the new high-end and LED is quite affordable.

      I might wait until the next generation of mid-range GPU’s come out as they’ll be able to max out the rift for cheaper then a 980Ti.

      It’s all about patience folks. CV1 is finally coming out, but that’s only the beginning.

  • SuperDre

    Well, I guess the $399-$450 will be the price, let’s not forget it also includes a wireless xboxone controller (for now, later at least 1 oculus touch)..
    That’ll be a nice price for starting the ‘consumer’ VR trend, as there won’t be that many units produced on release anyway (that’s what oculus said a while back)..

    I guess, most people who already own a DK1 or DK2 will also buy a CV1, so that’s covered for now.. And I also think a few months after the initial release you’ll see more and more ‘chinese’ ripoffs for a fraction of that price on the market..

    • laser632

      Chinese ripoffs won’t be viable to people wanting to use Oculus rift. There have been cheap HMD units available for a long time and they are cheap for a reason.

  • vrepl

    Dear Facebook – everyone knows that it doesn’t matter if Oculus will be available for 300, 400 or 500 USD. I know that quality costs a lot. It’s not cost makes your product less interesting for me than VIVE (which also costs a lot) – you have same resolution as VIVE, no controllers attached (xbox pad is a joke – I can buy this for 15 bucks on ebay), much worse tracking (VR sitting experience… ), and no virtual grid.
    Consumer VR A.D. 2016 DOES NOT CHANGE WORLD!!! It will be jus a toy for heavy gamers, or for people with too much money. So – if I will have to choose, I choose VIVE, because it’s a better toy. Maybe CV2 if it will be worth it.

    • SuperDre

      the DK2 is a sitting experience, but if you have seen demo’s of the CV1, it’s clearly not sitting only.. Also lighthouse isn’t perfect.. And a lot of consumers don’t even have to space to actually be able to use lighthouse perfectly… You know NOTHING about the actual performance of the new Oculus tracking system, so it’s all guessing.. All your assumptions are based on the DK2, which is not even close to an equivilant as the CV1..
      And I wonder were you can get an actual Microsoft xboxone controller for 15 bucks..

      • vrepl

        You have right – I have not tried CV1 yet – just like you (?). As a consumer I can only depend on specifications (and Facebook does not give us specifications, just marketing blah blah blah). So – depending on specs I prefer other product.

        I will be always respect Palmer for 1) the resurrection of VR dream, 2) really believing in product. But – in my opinion – he lost touch with reality. VR is just a toy for gamers – and even not for constant gaming, only for momentary use. I know that, because I was unable to interest ordinary people with Gear Vr for more than 30 seconds. WOW… boring.

        People will buy it just to try VR, just for to see what the big deal is. MARKET will decide whether it’s a good idea, or another misfire, like Kinect.
        And for ‘appetizer VR’ toy I prefer toy with controllers, and room experience, not just for sitting.
        Pad? I live in PL, and here you have wireless XBOX pad for 19 bucks:

        http://allegro.pl/xbox-360-oryginalny-bezprzewodowy-pad-microsoft-i5685506475.html

        • SuperDre

          That’s a 360 controller, not a xbox one controller, and that one is at the moment a lot more expensive..

        • laser632

          “People will buy it just to try VR, just for to see what the big deal is. MARKET will decide whether it’s a good idea, or another misfire, like Kinect.” << Kinect has generated a lot of interest and new applications outside of gaming. Kinect is far from a failure. HMD VR isn't another "misfire". It never was. It never misfired… It has been used since the 90's in professional fields. And now the technology has evolved where it is ready for consumer use. Something that gives you a better experience than any imax theater and with massive 3rd party development is way beyond misfire.

  • ryogaki

    This figures. First the oculus rift sells out to Facebook. Then the product gets delayed over and over. Now the price point is going to be higher than led to believe. This company is not doing a good job building a good reputation. If you got a product then put the best product you can out. Do not waste peoples time with speculation. After all this I kind of hope the valve system takes it all. I know it valves VR system will be pricey but at least it will be complete. Not some half ready hyped up system that doesn’t even come with a controller or a free moving sensor. And everybody should know that that will get upgraded and sooner or later. You cannot have 1 VR system where you can move around and another one where you can’t.

    • SuperDre

      oh please, how will valve’s system be complete? Also let’s not forget, most consumers don’t have the space to actually use valve’s lighthouse system, and we don’t know much about oculus tracking system which will accompany the rift, it’s said to also be good for moving around..

      • Louis

        Just let em be man. I’m going to buy the oculus it it’s 400 or 500 or 600. Anyone who buys the wannabes will find that they paid quite a lot of money for an inferior product.

        • Raphael

          Wise words. Oculus already has a good range of supported games and educational software.

      • JoeD

        The lighthouse is scalable and the Vive works just as well seated. Other than that what the hell are you talking about?

    • Michael

      absolutely agree with you ryogaki, I feel the same way as I’m sure a lot of others do as well, I will be buying a vive as I feel it’s a more complete package after trying them both as I have the space.

      • laser632

        Yes, absolutely… you’re dumb too. To start with… Oculus has not been delayed “over and over”. There never was any hard date for CV1 in 2015. There was a lot of media speculation. Oculus sold out to facebook? That sell out is leading to a much better Oculus with custom hardware. If it wasn’t for Palmer – Valve and Sony wouldn’t have competing products. Sony would just be trying to sell their crappy HMZ at $1500.

        • JoeD

          Sony and Valve are competing products, Dipshit.

          • Raphael

            You can’t understand a sentence can you? Did I say Valve and Sony were in partnership? “Valve and Sony wouldn’t have competing products” << Learn grammar. Valve and Sony wouldn't have competing products" << Shall I say it again? If I had thought Valve and Sony were working in partnership I would have said "Valve and sony partnership". You're a bit too dumb to have a conversation with. I'm going to look for some evening education classes you can take.

          • Eagles83

            Sony and Valve are not making competing products. One works on PC and one works only on a console. Where exactly is the competition?

    • laser632

      “ryogaki Oct 1, 2015 at 1:09 pm
      This figures. First the oculus rift sells out to Facebook. Then the product gets delayed over and over. Now the price point is going to be higher than led to believe. This company is not doing a good job building a good reputation. If you got a product then put the best product you can out. Do not waste peoples time with speculation. After all this I kind of hope the valve system takes it all. I know it valves VR system will be pricey but at least it will be complete. Not some half ready hyped up system that doesn’t even come with a controller or a free moving sensor. And everybody should know that that will get upgraded and sooner or later. You cannot have 1 VR system where you can move around and another one where you can’t.” <<<< Ummm, has anyone ever mentioned to you in passing that maybe you're kind of stupid? I'm just wondering because the statements you've made here are pretty dumb.

      • JoeD

        Try saying something instead of just looking like an ass.. that would be a real novelty.

  • SlimeQ

    guess I’ll be going with the osvr razor ;)

    • laser632

      I haven’t studied that one much. It’s open-source development isn’t it? Razor aren’t very good at building a publicity infrastructure to get their more unusual products popular. Razer Hydra was a good product without good marketing.

  • neveser

    Oculus, Vive, PSVR… all on day one.

  • hzd

    I don’t see why it’s to be so expensive, release a plus modle for those with the cash to drop and a basic version.

    Standard – edition no gimped headphones in the side and 1080p res locked at 30fps for console support and mid to high end PCs no controller or any included stand or accessories. £200GBP

    Premium – non capped FPS possible 2k support ( dependant on PC / console e.C.t + Include the headphones and a controller and any other stuff you need for a full experience £300GBP

    Watch the standard edition fly off the shelves and the power users adopt the premium one for all those pimped out PC rigs and optimised tripl A titles.

    For 200GBP id Insta order one that I can slap on my mid to high end PC rig and play fallout 4 / alien isolation or portal.

    Problem is if its expensive less will early adopt and your already gimping sales for the future, what ever is cheapest and does a good job is going to sell the most units.

    Why spend more money if others can provide the same experience for less, console users already have controllers so why sell the one with it, just knock off the price from the get go.

    Many users will complain about the ear phones built in, many people already have a USB gaming head set or decent surround sound in their living rooms so why include that ??? Throw a headphone jack on the thing and be done with it.

    So many ilogical choices from them, that will just destroy their sales from the get go, hell if you can already achieve this with some android software and a Google cardboard why should users fork out the price of a smartphone e on what is currently a gimmick with so far not much current gen game support !?

    Come on oclus, play the game and get the thing backed well by users so that you can eventually sell 4k res ones a year down the line or so.

    It’s like selling expensive sports cars you don’t just make the best most expensive amazing thing and then sell it for millions and expect people to come flocking to you. Or hope that cash you did make in 2 cars will float you for your next endeavours.

    Sell it for an afordable price and get all the FPS / Racing game console users right off the bat, as word gets around offices and playgrounds people will really want a slice.

    Image having games on steam and such with the oclus logo on the covers so that you can just play and go. . . but it sounds like some people will drop the high price and only have afew titles with poor support for the first 6 to 8 months.

    I’d love to have one but I’m not going to spend more cash than a high end graphics card on something that still requires me to have a high end graphics card to run it, I’ll just use my display I already use and just live with the normal immersive ness of the good old VDU.

    • Raphael

      You don’t see why it’s expensive because you don’t see. Not because it’s too expensive… it’s just that you can’t understand why it’s more than you want it to be. It’s really a waste of time trying to explain why the price will be more than $350 but it has a lot to do with extensive research & development from a large team of scientists, engineers, coders and designers. Cost of hardware including new engineering challenges. $350+ is a bargain when you consider that before Oculus there was Sony at $1500 or Vuzix offering non-gaming and low performance VR at more than $350.

      Palmer has kept his promise to bring affordable VR. Even $399 would make it the cheapest most advanced consumer VR ever seen. Oculus DK2 is already the cheapest highest spec consumer prototype ever developed. The pricing isn’t artificially raised and there isn’t any lack of clear thought about what they’re going to sell. Your idea of having multiple models might be something we see for the future but not now. VR will come down in price eventually just like most other hardware.

      Nevertheless… Oculus CV1 will be the most advanced consumer VR at the lowest price in history.

    • NobleBrutus

      I think you misunderstand the point… Palmer is saying his first concern is that the headset creates a good first impression, people have to say ‘this is the future’ wen they try it not ‘this is a gimmick’ otherwise the market will collapse in the long term.

      Less sales now in return for more sales later.

      Besides… you could just pick up a DK2 if you really want those specs you listed… in fact it probably out does what you suggested.

    • Matt

      Please dont try to talk about VR when you have clue at all.

      30fps cap? That would literally be unusable. You would constantly feel sick.
      90fps is the minimum for a good VR experience. This is basic knowledge at this point for anyone paying even slight attention.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Actually, my VFX-1 didn’t have such a high fps (or low latency), and yet with the VFX-1 I have absolutely no motion sickness, whereas with the DK2 I have.. So it’s not the 30fps or low latency that’s the real problem… I think the problem with the DK2 is the software only IDP, whereas the VFX-1 has, and movable lenses AND focusable lenses actually they look like the ones from a microscope..

        • Probably mainly because the VFX-1 only had 45° FOV, and you wouldnt get that peripheral vection?

  • Klokinator

    To be honest, I’m waiting for the rift. I would pay $500 for it, because I know it will be the best possible experience. I’m waiting to buy it explicitly because I don’t want less than the best, I want full immersion. Good on them. You want cheaper? Get the HTC vive or the Sony headset.

    • RadthorDax

      Cheaper? The Vive was always targeted as higher-end and was to be more expensive than the Rift, even in their announcement of the product. The Rift was going to be the cheaper of the two headsets. Are you going to pay close to $700 for your Rift when the Vive with its better features probably won’t be much more expensive than what the Rigft has turned out to cost?

    • Hassassin

      Just curious, still buying it at 600USD?

  • Karmin

    Are these prices in USD? because I’m trying to get an estimate on how much I’m going to have to save to get a rift but I need to know what type of currency you’re using

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Yes in the article it’s about USD, but expect around $450-$500 for the Oculus Rift (which includes the headset, tracking and a xboxone controller), but don’t forget you’ll need a hefty GPU to drive the headset.. I think you’ll need at least a nvidia 970 (or something comparable) to get decend results…

      • Karmin

        Thanks mate, I live quite close to a good tech store so getting a GPU should not be a problem (until we look at the price tag) but that’s exactly the info I needed thanks again :)

      • xostrowx1991

        Unfortunately you were a tad off, but your guess was a hell of a lot closer than mine lol. $600 for a fucking VR headset, i can buy a GTX 980 TI for that price, OR i could up and buy an ENTIRE gaming PC for that cost with a discounted GTX 970 ($280-300), I5 4670K ($200), Motherboard ($50), Power supply ($40), 8GB RAM ($35-40) = Total of ~$625. What a rip off Oculus….shameful…

        • Raphael

          Idiot.

          • xostrowx1991

            I know right? Anyone who buys that is definitely an idiot for sure lmao!

          • Raphael

            I’m one of 50,000 idiots apparently… HTC Vive.

  • IonDrako

    $599.00 on release, in the ballpark my ass

    • Sku1lcrush

      My exact same thoughts, I really wanted to buy this. I won’t be considering it unless they cut down at least $200. the 599 is without tax or shipping. Once you include it, it comes out to $688 Almost twice that of the DKs.

    • theadam

      €699 in Europe. That’s over $750, lol (plus shipping though!). Thanks, going to pass on that one (and this was like a 100% buy on my part).

      • Sku1lcrush

        Same, if they could remove the Xbox one controller and a little extra price cut, I’m sure a 500 incl taxes price point would be possible.

        • Jo Yardley

          They could remove the controller, the game, the remote and even the fancy box it comes with and that would bring the price down considerably.

    • wroka

      He was talking about the edge of the ballpark’s parking lot.

      • cetrata

        $250 more is way out of the ballpark. Could understand $50 more.

    • Nisei

      My ass indeed!
      I’d have paid $399
      $449 would’ve been OK too
      But $599???
      All my hope is on the Vive now. Even if it’s the same price or $50 higher I’ll choose the Vive over the Rift.
      Just because they haven’t given me the feeling they’re screwing their followers.

      • Sandy Wich

        How were people screwed? Nobody was able to preorder the consumer model before the price was revealed. People had impossible expectations floating on a dream. Wasn’t going to happen if the thing was going to be a quality product. Which it is. Would you have rather payed 300 dollars for a half working, rushed, piece of junk? I admit Palmer should have updated people on the price, but this is business, and he’s not your best friend.

        I can see it now, you trying on the 300 dollar model at christmas and your family goes, “WOW John! …Is it fun?!?!” And you must embarrassingly reply, “No.”

        As for people who bought the dev kit thinking the real thing would be cheaper… boo hoo? It was a developer kit, not a kids toy.

        • DeafKnight

          You claim it’s a quality product. How do you know this when it’s not even available yet? Simply because some dude said it was?

          Or are you basing that off the DK versions which were considerably cheaper and prove that the consumer one didn’t have to be this ridiculously priced…

          • Andrew Jakobs

            The DK2 is considerably different from the consumer version, it used off the shelve components, it didn’t have headphones/audiosystem, it didn’t come with any controllers, it didn’t come with a sturdy case..
            The consumer version is much more advanced in optics and displays than the DK2.. So even without the controllers/headphones/case it would still be more expensive as the DK2..
            In all it isn’t ridicuously priced, it’s just more than you expected..

          • IonDrako

            I’m pretty sure you missed what DeafKnight was saying, I think what he meant was they didn’t need to go so overboard with the device as to need the price to be so much higher than their “ballpark” price. Though I understand they probably wanted to show people “hey guys this is the best we got, etc etc.” Personally what I think they should have done was make 2 consumer models for release. One being this, their high end, only for people who have the money for high end computers that can handle the device and can easily afford it and then another for potential consumers that are okay with a lesser spec model that is more reasonably priced and able to be run on lower spec computers. If they had then the profits made would have sky-rocketed compared to just releasing the decently expensive high end computer only version

        • Eagles83

          You are correct people are not getting screwed because they couldn’t preorder until the price was revealed. However what I think Nisei was getting at was that Palmer stated the price would be in the ballpark of $350 but would be higher. The price that was revealed is in no way in the same ballpark as the actual preorder price. Either Palmer didn’t know what the hell he was talking about at the time or he was being dishonest. HTC and Valve already came out and said that their device was going to be more expensive than Oculus which means that they were being honest about their messaging from the beginning.

    • Sandy Wich

      It’s custom manufacturing. No company is going to build factories across the globe to mass produce an unproven technology, of course it’s going to be extremely expensive, it’s the opening phase.

      Wait a year, if it sells well, we will see this thing drop in price exponentially. Not to mention there will be a sizable amount of software for you to enjoy.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    I wasn’t really considering it because I had the DK2, but for $599 I’m certainly not gonna consider it, as said that’s excluding $55 shipping and without taxes, so $599 + $55 * 1.21 tax = $791 converted to current rate euro = 791 euro, that’s twice what I paid for the DK2.. ok, they ship with an extra controller, but you can get it for less than the $50 it costs in the MS shop..
    I think a lot of people are gonna let it go and not preorder… But now the question ofcourse is, how much will the HTC Vive gonna cost if the Oculus already costs that much.. I think it will be around $800-$900..

    Also some people seem to forget it requires 3 USB 3.0 and 1 USB 2.0 slot to fully work..

    • Nisei

      Why would the price of the Vive suddenly get higher now that we know the price of the Rift?
      People were expecting the Rift to be around $400 and the Vive would be more expensive than that.
      I think many people expected the Vive to be around $600
      Valve and HTC’s comments on the Vive price were, presumably, also based on the fact that the expected Rift price would be around $400
      So perhaps there won’t be any price difference now. And if Valve is smart they will set it below the Rift price.
      If they can do that, the race is run and Oculus loses.

      • Vodkapls

        I think vive is marketed as a premium vr device. Premium often means that it cost more but lets hope you are right.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Valve and HTC suggested a price much higher than $600 back then, and seeying what’s in the current Pre (which still isn’t the consumer version as the consumer version will get some extra tweaks and headphones), I think it will be at least around $800 (excluding shipping/taxes).
        If you really expect the Vive to be sold less than the Oculus, then you are really being unrealistic.. If it does sell for less or even the same, I would be quite baffled by it and would suspect it being sold under cost (which I certainly don’t expect from HTC)..

  • Zubei

    $600? How big is this ballpark you play in?

  • Frank

    As a developer this is a big disappointment. The whole idea of a consumer version is that it would be less expensive than the development version. I see that almost none of the OR developers have updated their software to the latest version of the OR Runtime.
    This extreme price will be the final push that the OR needed to fail.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      I do wonder if the DK2 will work with the latest OR Runtime, and if so, I wonder how long the DK2 will be supported..

  • CaptJellico

    I guess when your company gets bought by Facebook for $2 BILLION, then $600 seems “roughly in the ballpark” of $350. What a bunch of DBs these people are!

    For about $50 more, you can get into a GTX 980 Ti, which would be a far more useful piece of hardware than this overpriced novelty item.

  • john

    I won’t be buying it for that slap-in-the-face price.

    • Christopher Barnhouse

      No worries, they’re selling like hot cakes ! You can always wait for the more expensive Vive though.

      • john

        Ill just buy the DK2 on ebay when it is cheap.

  • Kim

    Hahaaaa they just overshot the price point by 250 euro. Thats a pity will have to pass on that one. I

  • Timi Pahl

    over 750$! and ich cant get it here in china. (i am german)
    thats a huge slap in my face!
    thanks OR. i stick to my DK2. this sucks

  • Daz166

    Dam I was 100% in but that price is crazy with shipping and I don’t want the Xbox controller any way??? That’s me out but a bit gutted!

    • Andrew Jakobs

      I do think Oculus has made a mistake in thinking all people would want a controller (and the remote) being shipped with it, hell even the headphones is not something a lot of people want.. but without that (and even the new case) I still suspect it would run around $530 or something like that (controller is about $40 and the remote would not cost more than $20 and the case can’t cost that much to produce)..

      • mckenny37

        The controller is just as much for developers as it is for the user. It’s good to have a standardized gamepad for any games that use it. Also it adds 10 to 15 dollars to your price tag for an $80 contoller so you can sell it for a profit

  • Sandy Wich

    Peoples expecations over this technology were unbelievably unrealistic. This isn’t a phone or car, it’s an unproven technology, it’s NOT being mass produced!

    Of course it’s going to cost a huge amount, just like EVERY new technology these days. This is the initial phase, and until it’s proven to the shareholders they are NOT going to invest buying/building factories across the world to mass produce this product. That is financial suicide!

    Wait a year and if it’s successful we will see some mass production, price reduction, bug fixing and most importantly, quality software to support this investment.

    Be patient, be realistic.

  • DeafKnight

    If you look at the photo of him, you can see he can barely contain the sheer guffaws of laughter at knowing how much they’re going to charge for this thing! Not that he cares, with his pockets diamond-lined by Fartbook…

  • DeafKnight

    Not only is the price ridicuoluos in the first place, but if you try to order it here in the UK, the base price is £499!!!
    That’s over $80 more than the US price.
    AND that’s not even including tax or shipping costs.
    I was so ready to buy this – I’d even been sitting on the website for almost 24 hours or so ready for the launch.

    Considering the DK2 is selling for under £100 on ebay right now, I think the choice here is fairly clear…

    • Andrew Jakobs

      The baseprice for the UK is including taxes, but excluding shipping..

  • Filip

    Next time you interview him, ask him about this tweet : “If something’s even $600, it doesn’t matter how good it is, how great of an experience it is – If they just can’t afford it then it might as well not exist,”

  • zdrak

    i think they should go all out with this version of the oculus rift probably a lot of streamers and youtubers are going to buy it but there should be another one that is more consumer friendly around the 350/400$ range i don’t mind the 600 bucks it just means you have to save up more im def buying it but they should think more about the consumers too but having the idea or releasing and consumer friendly and the better version of the consumer friendly could be a better choice it means that alot of people would be around their price range and people that have the money too buy the better version of the oculus would def buy that. Drop the Mic BOOOM! Problem Fixed. Thank you.

  • Arthurio

    I guess I will wait for the version that doesn’t include stupid uncomfortable headphones and an extra controller I don’t need or want. Also my guess is that version 2 or 3 will have a 4k screen (hey there already are 4k cellphone screens why didn’t oculus use one of them?) which should be the minimum for something a few cm from your eyes. Also I’m guessing v2 or v3 will use a single usb 3.1 port. It’s sad that Oculus Rift still isn’t where it’s supposed to be after all these years. And if Oculus won’t be able to do it then someone else will.

    • Eagles83

      Oculus won’t use a 4k screen simply because there aren’t any graphics cards that can display 4k graphics at those frame rates. Maybe 4 or 5 years from now that would be possible but certainly not now.

  • Helium Phoenix

    7 months ago, Palmer Lucky was quoted in an interview that the price would be “…between $200 and $400…” for the commercial release. And then it debuts at a price point 1.5x to 3x what he said. 7 months ago. HE HAD TO KNOW it wouldn’t sell that cheap then, but didn’t want to admit it…..and he’s claiming now his ‘ballpark’ definition was ‘misconstrued’…..he lied, plain and simple.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      funny enough, in may 2015 Oculus said it will propably cost in the $1500 range including a PC to run the headset… guess what… they sell a PC including their headset on their site for……… $1500….. Even in october 2015 the same was repeated…. and I found an interview in june with the following quote: “We want to stay in that $200-$400 price range,” he states. “That could slide in either direction depending on scale, pre-orders, the components we end up using, business negotiations…”

      So I think people are just misreading a lot of misquoted interviews..

      And let’s not forget, a lot of interviews are done on a busy conventionfloor, so a question can be misunderstood and an answer can be to short.. in regard tot the ballpark comment, this is as what was quoted (here on this site): “You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. We’re roughly in that ballpark… but it’s going to cost more than that.”.. he said it’s going to costs more than that, and people just interpret what their definition of ‘ballpark’ is.. also maybe he heard the price wrong…

      Just stop bitching about it, it’s the price and that’s it.. Buy it or wait for the price to drop or another competitor with a lower price.. And seeing that the headset is selling quite well, a lot of people just went ahead and bought it without bitching about it..

  • Mark

    Same here…all this waiting and I was so excited, but you lost me as a customer. What a let down.

  • American GunNut

    $599 release price now? There goes 90% of the people that would have bought one if it was even close to their original price projection.

    • Raphael

      Still repeating this inaccurate cliche in the hope of scaring Oculus into dropping the price so you can afford it? Did you do the same when 4k monitors entered the market at $2000? Vive costs significantly more than CV1 and has no trouble selling. My Vive arrived last week.