The hotly anticipated Oculus Rift VR headset is now available for pre-order for $599. The device is expected to ship March 2016.

This morning Oculus Rift pre-orders went live on the company’s site. Initially the Oculus Store was serving up blank pages, but eventually began to forward eager pre-orderees to see an option to add the Oculus Rift to their cart.

The unit comes in at a $599 price tag which is on the high end of where we thought it would land, though Oculus insists that this hardware is heavily subsidized. The company previously said it wanted to ship the Rift at-cost to make sure that the headset sees wide adoption. Some users report an additional $30 shipping fee for the Rift in the U.S.

The store also reveals that the first Oculus Rift pre-orders are expected to ship in March, 2016, which sticks to the company’s Q1 2016 target window which was announced last year.

The Oculus Rift comes with the headset itself, a tracking camera, Xbox One controller, Oculus Remote, and two bundled games: Eve Valkyrie & Lucky’s Tale.

Some users are reporting payment problems at the moment, with the system not taking their payment details. Rift purchases are currently limited to 1 unit per customer.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Ben Lang
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."
  • Ian Crosson

    They just changed site to April not March. Kinda made me laugh because i couldn’t order until the change went through.

  • Steve B

    Quick update on the payment problems – try logging out and logging back in. That resolved the issue for me. Also, my shipping date said April not March. Perhaps that is due to my payment issue pushing me back on the pre-order list.

  • GonzoDark

    Make that May :/
    I wonder if they are “sold out” for the rest of the year within the next few hours.

  • Knut Sindremedisin Åbjørsbråte

    In Europe it is 699 euro, which amounts to 750 usd. I might get one down the line, but not right now at that price.

  • Kim Baumann Larsen

    I managed to get my order/payment through at last and got an estimated April shipping as well. The original shipping date said March 28 I think.

    • Sebastien Mathieu

      did you get a email confirmation??

      • Kim Baumann Larsen

        Yes

  • Sebastien Mathieu

    did you check you’re order on the store?? mine do not show the amount??? and did not receive the confirmation email…

  • Sebastien Mathieu

    anyway I my order did not go trough, I think i’m gonna wait and see for the VIVE… and play on my gear VR until then:-)

  • Riley Prescott

    Basically if you didnt get an email then your order did not go through. Just checkout again. Since you can only order one anyway, there is no way you can be charged twice.

    • Sebastien Mathieu

      you’re probably right, but if i’m going in my order history on the oculus shop it shows my order but no amout??

  • aaltomar

    742 eur shipped to Finland. I’ll pass since it’s quite a bit more than what I expected.

  • Sebastien Mathieu

    “The Oculus Rift costs $599 USD. That’s significantly higher than the $200 – $400 price range the company had offered in the past”
    it’s surely a typo the meant 200+400$ range :-)

  • Brandon Toy

    I spammed the page at 8AM. Didn’t work so I switched browsers and it seemed to work. Never got an email, but my order history has two iterations of the pre-order. If I try to order again, it says I’ve already pre-ordered. Additionally, my credit card has two $1 charges from Oculus. Not sure what to make of that.

    • Sebastien Mathieu

      they probably charge the 1$ to validate your card, because they are supposed to bill the entire amount only when on shipping….

  • matnojje

    I’m out. no way i’m buying the rift now. I will get a 980 ti instead, its cheaper ( in sweden at least). I will wait for HTC pre.

    • Mageoftheyear

      Uh, HTC Pre is a developer kit. Unless you’re a developer and Valve approve your project for a DK then you’re gonna have to wait for the commercial Vive. And since HTC have labelled the Vive as “the premium VR experience” I assure you it will not be cheaper than the Rift.

      • matnojje

        My bad, I thought pre was the final name. If its more expensive I will by a used one in a year (rift or vive if i can find one). More game will be out i will know if VR is a fad or not by then.

        • Mageoftheyear

          Good idea. A year after launch the normal retail price may be lower too. If I had to bet I’d say that the vast majority of the Rift and Vive’s sales will be to places like universities, schools, the commercial, medical, engineering, scientific and business-to-business sectors, architectural firms, 3D designers… basically everyone except gamers.

          These are the people that’ll buy enough units that the price will start to drop for the rest of us. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s something to look forward to. :)

  • wheeler

    The technology has finally reached a point where high quality VR experiences can be delivered at an affordable price point.

    • SpartanView

      Lol. Affordable… My DK2 was affordable at $300.

      • brandon9271

        Honestly the dk1 and dk2 spoiled everyone by being so cheap.. They also made many of us totally motion sick ;) I’d gladly pay more for a premium experience that didn’t give me a headache or make me want to barf

  • cybernaut

    If you can wait until July it will almost certainly be cheaper. 498$ in Switzerland for example: http://www.microspot.ch/msp/de/gaming/spielsteuerung/oculus-rift-vr-0001037449

    By the way: same price for playstation vr: http://www.microspot.ch/msp/de/gaming/spielsteuerung/sony-playstation-vr–0001037450

    • deHavilland

      That obviously was a mistake/joke! Currently it’s priced SFR 799 (roughly $ 800) with free shipping. And I don’t wanna wait 3 more months! Oculus, please add Switzerland to the list of countries!

      • cybernaut

        They changed the price a couple of hours later. Too bad I didn’t order it right away. originally it was listed at 499 SRF.

  • audrey berlons

    March is the blame. Just few people will get it in last days of MArch. The rest closer to the summer.