Oculus Announces Significant Price Drop for Rift and Touch

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In an aggressive move that’ll help lower the bar of entry still further for VR, Oculus have announced sizeable permanent price drops for both the Oculus Rift headset and Oculus Touch controllers, both now cut by $100 each.

There are many challenges VR still faces in becoming an accepted part of everyday life. Leaving the technical challenges with form factor, performance, and experience aside, it’s the high price of entry that is one of the industry’s biggest challenges. If you’re starting from scratch, without a gaming PC, getting up to speed with even with a modest spec gaming rig and the requisite VR headset and controllers will set you back more than many non-enthusiasts are willing to pay right now.

Now, Oculus have announced they are to aggressively cut the price of both their flagship VR headset the Oculus Rift and their motion controllers (which launched late last year) by $100 each. To be absolutely clear here, this is not a one-time offer, sale or bundle; the prices of both products will drop permanently.

SEE ALSO
Oculus Touch Review: Reach into Rift

This drop brings the Oculus Rift headset from $599 down to $499 and the Touch controllers (sold separately) down to $99. This means that together, a full set of VR hardware with motion control capabilities will cost a total of $598 retail (down from $798). As a comparison, the Rift’s most direct competitor, the Steam VR powered HTC Vive, costs $799 as of writing. HTC recently announced financing options for the Vive to help customers spread out the cost of the product over time.

Speaking with Road to VR, Oculus’ Nate Mitchell says that the price cut is driven by improvements in manufacturing and a desire to bring more people into VR, not because there’s an impending ‘Rift 2.0’ announcement.

oculus-rift-sensorsIn a blog post explaining the thinking behind the price cut, Oculus’ Head of Content Jason Rubin, mused on the current state of play for the VR industry.

We’ve read all the stories and looked at the analyst reports. VR is going through the normal adoption cycle for new pieces of technology. We saw hype into launch, facing impossible expectations, and we will eventually break out with the “hockey stick” of mass adoption.

Oculus believes, as do the thousands of original Kickstarter backers and millions of current users, that VR is the next computing platform. We also know that if there aren’t major investments made to the ecosystem, it’s going to take a really long time to reach that eventuality. So today, Oculus is aggressively making the high end of VR more attainable.

Rubin acknowledges that “price matters,” and that progress in lowering the bar of entry for PC VR hardware has been made in the last year.

Today’s new, lower price of Rift and Touch doubles down on a year of dropping PC and graphics card prices. It’s costs 30% less for someone to walk into a store and outfit a complete high end PC VR experience, including desktop PC, Rift, and Touch, than it did just a year ago when we launched Rift.

We believe this lower entry price will attract consumers to PC VR at a faster pace. This is universally good for the entire community, but especially for developers. A larger userbase means higher potential sales, easier player matching, better communities, and results in the ability to invest more in titles. This increased investment means better software which in turn brings more consumers. This virtuous cycle is the fuel that can launch PC VR.

SEE ALSO
Oculus Rift Review: Prologue to a New Reality

However, as is appropriate for Rubin’s position, he points out that cheap hardware is nothing without worthwhile, compelling software. To that end, he says that Oculus is highly committed to both producing and helping to enable more and more VR content this year and beyond, but serves a useful reminder that VR is still in its infancy.

We have to remember that as of this GDC, our developer community has had dev kits in their hands for less than two years and has only been able to get feedback from consumers about what they’re doing for a year. With that frontier style development behind us, and with second generation development and informed design taking place, the sweet spot for developers to create breakout hits opens. Some of these titles will become perpetually loved VR series that are with us for generations.

Rubin says however that in 2017, Oculus will “launch an Oculus Studios title almost once a month on PC alone,” going on to say “Add to those releases the dozens of organically funded titles coming to the ecosystem and it’s just a great time for consumers to get into PC VR”

It’s great news for those consumers who have felt VR has been beyond them in terms of price up until now. Although VR is still a relatively expensive thing to get into, the rapidity at which affordability is increasing is heartening, and Oculus’ move today will hopefully set a trend in the industry to continue driving those prices down.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • PrymeFactor

    Great news! Should bring more people to the VR fold and spur development.

  • Bartholomew

    Today is a good day for VR.
    Today is a bad day for Valve fanboys.

    • Grant

      lol…. how is it a bad day for “Valve Fanboys”?

      Its a good day for VR, its a good day for everyone

      • Get Schwifty!

        Exactly…. the reality is it’s good for VR over all, the only reason exclusive VIve owners who constantly spew negativity are so upset is they fear they have a toy they love with no software… this is so irrational a fear…. no question Vive is going to have a significant place in the industry and there is plenty of software development and its only going to increase.

    • M0rdresh

      Price drop indicates a necessity to drive (stagnant) sales, on the contrary, this is a good day for Valve fan boys.

      Of course that is a bit of a ridiculous statement, precisely intended to make a point that I hope you understand.

    • jlschmugge

      No, it’s a great day for every one in VR. I’m a Rift owner who sure has been rubbed the wrong way by pretentious Vive fanboys, but really, shut up and don’t bring us down to their level. The Vive fanboys still get to cum in their headsets they already own if they want, and word of mouth has been good for them, so I don’t think it can be a “bad day”. More people in VR means more developers will make games, and more people will want to buy a VR headset. This is good for you, good for Valve, and especially every future VR headset still in development that are betting on this industry to take off someday.

      • Bryan Ischo

        You participated in a useless “fanboy” flame war. Welcome to my block list!

        • jlschmugge

          Good riddance. Even though my comment was actually chastising fanboyism. I guess I should ad this guy to my block list so I don’t have to see his pointless messages.

          • Full Name

            “cum in their headsets” isn’t exactly a convincing way of taking the high road…

          • jlschmugge

            I know. I had a little tickle as it came out.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Yeah I did it long ago…. the forums feel a tiny bit more rational now…

      • Get Schwifty!

        I had to laugh at “cum in their headsets”….

    • Bryan Ischo

      You tried to initiate a “fanboy” flame war. Welcome to my block list!

    • Curly

      I have a vive.. how is this bad news? just means I get to play more oculus games on my vive. :) seriously, though, more people in VR means more support which equals more games for everyone! We need more adoption on either side to help push the technology further.

      • cartweet

        Right on! More great content like this is what we need not a cruddy war.

      • Scott C

        As a Rift owner, I appreciate your rational maturity.

        More customers who decide to make the purchase means more opponents and friends for me in VR.

    • Full Name

      Ha, I think we know who the fanboy is :)
      As a Vive owner I am very happy that Oculus is lowering the price, as it will help VR adoption.

    • ?????

      Just means the price for VR is going down. That’s excellent. Soon everyone can afford it.

      Even Valve is working on cheaper trackers, base stations, etc. :)

  • Firestorm185

    Wow, now there’s something I wasn’t expecting! Take it how you want, it’s still a significant price drop, for sure!

    • Mourz

      They cut price to reduce inventory. A court ordered injunction is on its way.

  • Christopher Moore

    LOL, the spare sensor is now $59!!!!

    Still makes more sense to spend the $40 for spare controllers.

    • jlschmugge

      Serious? That fits within my monthly video game budget. Hmmm…

    • Justos

      Yup, just ordered one.

      • Foreign Devil

        Your ordered extra sensor or extra touch kit?

        • Justos

          An extra sensor. With the 1.12 update, reports are coming in and tracking is amazing again. Oculus is also continuing to improve edge configurations.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Yep… notice no story by RoadToVR…. yet…. I am sure if one person complains about it it will be “but issues still persist” and yet we never hear about the low volume but constant stream of tracking issues by some Vive owners…

          • Full Name

            I’d say the percentage of people with tracking issues on Vive is still lower than for the Touch, but it is getting very good for Touch as well, so unless you want larger tracking spaces, they are for all intents and purposes equal. (I still prefer the ease of room-scale setup on the Vive but that is a one time thing for most)

          • Get Schwifty!

            Oh no doubt the percentage is less, I have no doubt at all the Vive tracking issue rate is significantly less…. but its far from zero. The problem is the constant drum beat by Vive fanboys saying Lighthouse is perfect (when its not) and Constellation is shit (when it’s not).

          • Full Name

            Really for most people, both are more than acceptable at this point. Lighthouse really shines when you get to some less common setups whether larger areas, or you need to track more headsets or controllers/pucks, either because you are doing stuff that requires more controllers or players in the same space. The next version of Lighthouse (rather the upcoming sensor array) supposedly also supports more than 2 lighthouse units, so you should be able to keep expanding the play area by adding more units.

  • jlschmugge

    I guess the ambivalence to the injunction is a good sign, keep my fingers crossed. That was the first thing that popped up in my mind considering the timing. I can believe the manufacturing efficiency argument since it is new hardware, but am wondering if HTC can say the same thing. I’ll keep a grain of skepticism. But regardless this is good for everybody in VR. There still are plenty out there that do not seem to understand why competition is important, well here is example A: lower prices, which leads to example B: people buying more headsets, which leads to more software and greater demand in VR, which does not just mean Rift, but all VR as word spreads and it becomes a “must have” situation. We better at least hope it keeps going that direction. Feels like we’ve been the threshold of it going one way or another this whole time. A little nerve wracking with my personal desire to see VR succeed. Besides, the Rift has been a Facebook money pit filled with headsets, might as well get them moving.

    • Full Name

      There is probably some truth to the components getting cheaper to purchase/make, but clearly this was needed to compete with the Vive. HTC also has some considerable opportunity to lower prices once they start using the latest lighthouse and sensor iterations from Valve, that work better and cost a lot less to produce.

      • Get Schwifty!

        Agreed…. certainly component product is cheaper, but not that much cheaper, its a business move to shore up market share, but that is in and of itself rational business behavior when you wish to increase market share. I suspect Vive will follow suit shortly, be very interesting if they drop to $599… might pick up a Vive set at that point instead of waiting for the new controllers…

        • Full Name

          Yeah, I don’t see HTC having much of a choice. A $200 gap when the systems are very similar except for larger tracking spaces will start shifting the consumers towards the Rift. Besides, they also need to prep for LG coming onto the market with their direct SteamVR competitor.

    • RipVoid

      This may not be ambivalence to the injunction. It might be fear of it. Negotiations with Zenimax may be going nowhere and they want to clear inventory out of fear the injunction may be granted. But really hard to say for sure.

      • Get Schwifty!

        I suspect is a bit of both, but if you look at the history of these types of legal moves, they rarely play out because there is a degree of sensitivity to the fact people own them as consumers… and American law generally is not focused on destroying businesses except in rare cases.

        It would be humorous if Facebook just said “screw it” and bought Zenimax in a hostile takeover…. and then executed, I mean fired the executive staff LOL.

        • RipVoid

          That’s a fanboy revenge fantasy. It’s more likely that Facebook fires and sues the Oculus principals for selling them assets they didn’t own.

          • Get Schwifty!

            LOL you know I am kidding…. I just said it would humorous. OTOH, its not out of the realm of possibility, particularly since it would give them a massive ability to stage software…. and solve any questions related to the case ruling. That kind of thing has happened before…

  • Atmos73

    Oculud know the Rift is outsold 2:1 so this smacks of desperation.

    • Get Schwifty!

      Desperation or good business decision? 1/3 of a market isn’t anything to be ashamed of despite the crank comments from the Vive Drive By set….

    • Andrew Jakobs

      funny, as there aren’t any actual sales figures except the hot air that superdata is pulling out of their asses, just like last year.. It could be 2:1, it could be even more, but it could also be even less. without actual sales figures it’s hard to say by how many Vive outsells the Oculus (I do think they do at the moment, but then again, with this pricedrop it might certainly change)..

    • NooYawker

      There’s reports of the Vive outselling the Oculus but I’m pretty sure 2:1 is far fetched.

      • Get Schwifty!

        I personally believe its about a 60/40 split in favor of Vive…. better than 2:1 but far from equal to.

    • Full Name

      It’s pretty clear the Vive has been outselling the Rift, though I doubt the margins are that big. This is obviously an issue for Oculus that has put a lot more money into VR than HTC has. Whether this is a somewhat desperate attempt to win market share or not, it is in any case good news for the future of VR. With LG entering the VR market in the next 8-12 months as well, with a solution 100% compatible with Vive, we get more options, more aggressive pricing, which will help adoption rates. At its current pricing levels, it is hard to reach true mass market adoption.

    • Zenbane

      Atmos was banned from the official Oculus Rift forums (for the 2nd time) just the other day due to excessive trolling. Nice to see ya taking your one-man show on the road lol

      https://forums.oculus.com/community/profile/Atmos73

  • Xron

    Nvidia brought prices of their gpus down, oculus of their hmd’s. Now lets wait for vive + amd to bring something aswell and we wil have a good variety of choices that might break the ice of early adoptation.
    P.s. killer Ap’s are needed anyway ofc.

    • Full Name

      LG has shown of their Vive-compatible headset already. HTC will likely feel the heat from both Oculus and LG, so pricing is bound to change, and a refresh of the components would make it perfectly doable. Valve has shown Lighthouse units where they now only need one motor (and it works better!), plus there is a new sensor assembly that is considerably cheaper than what is in the Vive at the moment.

      • Get Schwifty!

        Those units like the controller revision is far off still…. they might surprise us, but in fact it might well be they got wind of the price changes and were working on these as part of a counter-cost strategy…

        • CURTROCK

          Hey! I admire your stamina in continuing to refute all the negativity directed towards Oculus. It’s a full time job. What brings me satisfaction is seeing Oculus reaching their stride, DESPITE all the challenges they are encountering. Deep satisfaction. If this was a horse race, (which it isn’t) Oculus just pulled ahead.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Thanks man, I appreciate it. And despite rumors, I am not on their payroll and irritated with the 1.11 tracking like everyone else. I guess I spend my time here as a result lol.

        • Full Name

          The controllers the LG is using now is an iteration past what HTC has, though I am not 100% sure if they incorporated the latest sensor arrays yet. Valve actually has an iteration after this, that is popularly labeled the knuckle controller. These are actually really cool, and the final revision may allow you to actually complete let go of the controller and they will stay in place due to a wrist holder. More like a Touch controller in usage.

          The model LG showed off in terms of Lighthouses is actually a slightly tweaked version of the HTC ones, but still using two motors. Maybe the timing to get tooling etc ready did not allow for using the latest Valve revision.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Yeah I know about the knuckle controllers, I am holding off on Vive (unless the drop the price) until they are released…. wish we had an estimate on their release, I am guessing Q4 of 2017…

  • Christopher Moore

    Glad to see that Best Buy and Amazon were quick to match. Ordered from Amazon only because I thought Oculus would charge for shipping.

  • Mr. New Vegas

    I hope it means Ver2 is coming

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Don’t count on it. I don’t think we’ll get a new headset from either Oculus or HTC this year.

      • Get Schwifty!

        Yeah, I believe many people think these versions are going to drop like cell phone generations, and at least Oculus has made it clear that it will be more “slower than cell phones, faster than consoles”…. my guess is about a 3 year cycle.

        • Totally Magical Unicorn

          Which is a good thing I think, at least for consumers. It gives a chance for the improvements to really develop, it allows developers time to work with the current set-ups, and for accessories to come out which will create more markets for VR.

          They’re so expensive that it would really piss me off if they suddenly released a better version! I much prefer them releasing accessories that enhance the current experience.

    • Full Name

      I watch this stuff way too closely, and from what I have read, the Rift 2.0 is not coming out for another 2 years or so.

    • Nigerian Wizard

      They literally just said NO V2. And in the position that Oculus is in right now: Half-assed room scale tracking, they are not interested in wireless.

      • Justos

        If you bothered to pay attention you would know that 1.12 solved the tracking issues. And for most it was only a problem since last patch.

      • burzum

        It’s been tracking all over my room and still is… I can’t hear this bullshit anymore. I have other reasons why I would favour another vendor these days but it’s clearly not the tracking technology.

        • Get Schwifty!

          There is no question that there are many people who love their Rift and use it for “room scale”… at the same time there are tracking issues particularly with the 1.11 update… the reviews on 1.12 so far its looking far better. Sadly I am on the road and cant’ test it until this weekend….been waiting to get back on the Arizona Sunshine horse for awhile now but with all the new games its almost hard to decide what to play…

          • Full Name

            It’s working well with 3 sensors. On par with Vive unless you use it with spaces that are too big. The Vive still has the advantage there.

          • Get Schwifty!

            What size area are you getting with it? I live in a condo right now so my space is limited and I can’t easily test the limits… my understanding is a 8.5′ x 8.5 ‘ area is pretty reliable down to the floor with Rift for most folks with good tracking….

          • Full Name

            I do slightly less than that with good results – more than that causes some issues. Others say they have good performance even way past that though but since I only have one Rift setup (at work), I can only speak from my experience there.

  • ravenbasix

    Last year:
    Oculus founder Palmer Luckey: “We don’t make money on the Rift”

    So they are losing money now…

    • Christopher Moore

      Or they found a way to negotiate cheaper parts and manufacturing and their passing the saving to the customer.

    • Foreign Devil

      That’s my first thought. . Already they are losing lot’s of money in the lawsuit. . Zuckerberg is paying dearly for this venture.

    • Justos

      Did you read the article?

    • Nigerian Wizard

      It’s called investing you dunce.

  • Foreign Devil

    I sure hope this means they will drop the price of components too. .I want to get an additional sensor but not at $100 per sensor.

    • ipollute

      They did. It’s 59 at the store now.

  • Atmos73

    When you’re Rift HMD was launched in such calamity then your Touch controllers launched in equal calamity and your closed ecosystem locks out two 3rds of the VR market is it any wonder Oculus need to do something drastic? For sure let’s drop the price by a 4th and give our games away for free! The race to the bottom is on and Oculus are at the for front not because they want to but because they have to in order to regain market share. If Oculus cared about VR they would open the Oculus Store to all VR owners not just a Rift owners.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      To be honest, if you have an Oculus you have the biggest library once the SteamVR games work with your touch controllers.
      I don’t think Oculus would mind to open the Oculus Store, but it would require the other headsets to support the Oculus SDK officially (not going through revive, but then again, SteamVR for Oculus is using the OculusSDK)..

      • burzum

        What? Why should anyone support a proprietary SDK? Before the Rift launched Oculus said they want to be the most open company and set standards. Actually Valve / HTC is doing this now. Open SDK, open tracking technology. Oculus is actually right now the most closed and worst supported HMD in the OpenVR SDK I think… So the other way around it goes: Oculus should put more effort into OpenVR. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr

        • cartweet

          OpenVR is not open! It is closed source.

          • Scott C

            And more importantly, controlled by a single market player.

        • Scott C

          Oculus is putting effort into OpenXR from the Kronos group — you know, the actual open standard being developed by a collaboration of industry players.

          • Javed Asghar

            Oculus is trying to save themselves as the war now will all be about the store and software, this is because of the new manufacturers soon coming to play in the hardware space.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Mere hater….

          • burzum

            Being a member of some group and putting effort in are two very different things. MS is for example part of some “industrial standard” groups as well. OpenVR is there and working. If OpenXR is as fast as their other effort I expect a RFC by 2025.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Uhm, OpenVR is NOT Open, Valve is the one who controls what happens with it (the main branch), yes you can use it.. Oculus does not have a say on OpenVR, and OpenVR uses the OculusSDK for implementation.
          I have no idea which API is better (technically), maybe the OculusSDK is better maybe OpenVR, but it’s HTC that does not want to support the Oculus SDK even though they can if they want to (which mean contacting Oculus and working with them).
          Because you happen to like Valve, but their interest is trying to get as many people onto their Steam platform so they can take more profit from the games sold on Steam. Don’t think for a minute Valve actually really cares about real ‘open’ standards, everything they do is in their interest for their Steam platform. So it’s in their interest to make sure SteamVR works with as many headsets as possible.
          It doesn’t matter what you think, as a consumer you have at the moment the most choice in ‘good’ VR content with an Oculus, that’s why a lot of people are bitching at Oculus, but in the end they do exactly the same as Valve… Yes you can use the Oculus SDK without having to use the Oculus Store.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Good post – the blindness surrounding how the industry really works and that Valve/Vive are not guys with white hats on is amazing… HTC and to lesser extent Valve have been at this game a lot longer than Oculus, and have learned how to stroke the market to generate unfounded loyalty and lack of criticism, to the extent a competitor makes a positive move for the consumer and all many people can do is criticize it without realizing it’s ultimately good for them too, cause the “I wantz meh gamez nowz” crowd can’t think straight.

          • Cl

            Doesnt steam support oculus SDK so they can play games there? So why do you think the vive has to work with oculus sdk to play games on oculus store when they could just officially support vive? Maybe i just dont get it.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            SteamVR is needed to have real Steam (store) support, just like the Oculus SDK is needed to have real Oculus Store support.

          • Cl

            What i mean is, devs that put games up on the steam store are able to make the games run with rift. In other words, support oculus sdk?

            So why do you think htc needs to make their headset work with the oculus SDK to play games in the oculus store when the devs can just make it work with the vive? Because oculus wont allow them? Just sounds like some double standards.

            Because steam is the one that had to allow oculus in. Oculus didnt have to do anything for this…. But you say its on htc to do the work to get into oculus store… get it? double standards. Oculus needs to do the work to allow other headsets in.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            You do know Steam support was done when Oculus and valve were still working together……

          • Cl

            Yes and they made it so the steam platform itself supports oculus SDK. Here is an example of what i mean. yea, its an old article. http://www.roadtovr.com/valve-steamvr-update-adds-support-latest-oculus-rift-sdk-runtime-0-8/

            So instead of htc making their headset work with oculus sdk, oculus should support OpenVR SDK on their store. Then it is even and no double standards.

        • Mike

          I can understand though. The Oculus SDK just has better performance right now with Asynchronous Space Warp.

      • Same w/ Vive owners who have Revive right now? What’s your point?

    • Get Schwifty!

      OMG do you guys ever stop crying about exclusives…. that’s all you really care about is access to the software…. you’re going to get them just wait for it.

      Valve effectively is a direct partner of Vive and yet the “best game software distribution system” along with a 2/3 or so market presence with uber tracking can’t get enough games going and has to do 3 “AAA” titles to move things along? See anything wrong there with what you are saying? Why is it that if a game on Steam doesn’t support Touch you don’t get upset about an imbalance there equally and yet Oculus owners are effectively left out? Oh, right, Oculus owners should be punished for buying one because they didn’t buy into the Vive platform and so-called “Open VR” movement which is for some reason not putting out loads of software at the rate you want….

      Be honest, you don’t really “Care about VR”, you just want any and all software you get can your paws on…. stop trying to sit on your high horse and wagging a finger… there is no high motive on your part just a selfish desire for more toys.

      • wheeler

        We don’t want hardware exclusives because it is bad for consumers in the long term. If Oculus dominates, then there’s a very real possibility we’ll have one entity controlling the hardware, software and marketplace for VR. We are fine with content maturing at a slower pace for that to be avoided.

        All of your crap about Vive owners just selfishly wanting to play Oculus games is silly because everyone here knows how simple it is to load up revive (or even pirate games if they refuse to pay for them). We are already playing these Oculus games with minimal issues–we’re not missing out on anything. All of the anger and frustration comes from the disgust of seeing exclusives on the PC platform.

        • Javed Asghar

          Dont bother with some real facts mate – he def works for Facebook/Oculus, read his comments on all articles here talking about “a ton of money to throw”, “Powerful lawyers”, “wait vive will have issues soon just wait they will come(fingers crossed)” all of this should give any person with any common sense an idea.

          If he doesn’t work for facebook/oculus and does all this PR for free for them, then honestly bravo to big corporates for having free PR fanboys like this.

          • Get Schwifty!

            LOL I most certainly do not work for them, I work for a small independent IT Security company, far from the VR world. So far you have not refuted any of the logic of what I have said, I just get tired of all the emo-speak without people thinking. Think…. it’s all I ask. If you can’t debate the points, then please, save us the trouble of posting mere opinions and personal attacks.

            And having been around probably a lot longer than you I have witnessed the cycle of the dominant player everyone loves f*ck up finally and lose face…. it _will_ happen one day, its just a matter of time… happens to all companies because they operate more or less the same. That is not a knock on Vive, I have if you read my posts great respect for them, with one exception they are from the cell phone school of marketing; you will pay a premium for incremental upgrades as they milk their user base, knowing the fan base will pay.

            Now, it may surprise you I plan on picking up a Vive setup alongside my Rift+Touch, but I am holding off until the new controllers are released. I don’t like the fact Oculus feels the need to do exclusives BUT it makes sense why they feel they need to given market conditions relative to Vive and Valve being joined together…. they would be fools to depend on Steam alone.

          • Javed Asghar

            Yawn…. ton of money father co has. Powerful lawyers get away with anything. Vive will eventually also stuff up just wait… I do not work for Facebook I just do all this for free for them.

            I want VR to survive and not do free PR for oculus yet everywhere I defend oculus in every single comment with so much passion without even being paid for it. I do a normal job for another company but have the time to post every 10 minutes on every comment to do with oculus.

            I want VR to grow but i just like to say guys wait vive will stuff up just wait it’s not just daddy others will too… I am not young to talk like this either I am actually quite old and because I have been on this site for a while – I am more legit…

            Yawnnn… thanks for making my day but your defenses are boring. This is not a personal attack but a reply to you “not just defending oculus but directly attacking other platforms” keep it real mate.

            Ps. If you don’t work for them buy and support both. Each is good at one thing over other it’s been proven, I use rift for sims and vive for room scale I also support hololens and waiting for that kit.

            Also if you do work for them, your passion to defend just oculus not VR but just oculus might be better paid off with a different company maybe? Should look into that.

          • Get Schwifty!

            This is actually getting funny…. I seriously, honestly wish I did work for them… know how my day was spent today?

            Teaching 7 people how to use security software for 9 hours then having dinner with my boss and his parents and now I should be in bed because I have another day of teaching left before I fly home, then turn around on Monday and spend a week working on a DLP consulting gig…. hell I haven’t even gotten into VR since the 1.11 update for Rift because it essentially made it unplayable for me. If I am lucky and my wife doesn’t drag me around all weekend doing shopping and shit, I might even get to try out the 1.12 update for Rift and give a report on here…. I am hopeful it will be good, but good or not those who really read what I post will know I will come on here an honestly say it either works or it doesn’t for me, but I will also honestly tell you I know enough people that room scale Rift works well and is not a myth as many Vive fanboys will try to make out.

            What I _do_ enjoy is poking the irrational and illogical on here… it is actually fun because quite honestly no one really offers up much opposition so far. Your diatribes amount to accusing me of working for Oculus and mocking my comments without actually refuting any of my points…. exactly what I get kick from. I dont “defend” Oculus per se, but I also understand why they sometimes do what they do and from their perspective it makes perfect sense… the didactic thinking that “Vive good, therefore Oculus bad” simpleton’s logic is galling to say the least… they both have good points and bad….

          • Javed Asghar

            LOL… ok mate sure. I wish I had a fanboy like you thats all I can say. Who says “powerful lawyers” “ton of money to throw” “vive will fail too one day just wait it will happen, because oculus failed in one aspect vive should do” and does free PR for me. one can always wish right.

            I only started commenting reading on your rants and defences “POINTLESS” on most occasions.

            You say you want the best for VR, no you either justify spending into just one ecosystem or I still imply you work for them, considering your passionate defences with statements like “Powerful lawyers and ton of money to throw”.

            I never said Oculus bad – you just defend them on bad as well and wrong too. If Vive or another company does bad – it is what it is and in this consumer driven market which Valve is clearly expanding to other hardware vendors, there is no point just defending one player even when they make the wrong moves – clearly disregarding all the original kickstarter goals and backer’s expectations.

            Ps. I do not hate oculus far from it, I been using them since Dk1 and I do not like the HTC kit any better either – I just use VR. LG might be my next set if any better. I could care less for your oculus/facebook and their powerful lawyers though. Its just that everything coming out just tells you the shady game Palmer played pissing a bunch of people off. And now that Facebook’s realised that Oculus hardware is not just the only one in the world of even completely their own work, its time to fight the software war. This drop is hardware price is simply another proof of that. More exclusives cheaper hardware is simply to gain more market into their store. Ps. Valve knew it was all about the store from day one. Who cares about HTC – start caring about open standards and having a choice. Be good if I ever hear from you admitting that Oculus did in fact do something wrong rather then wishing Vive fails soon too.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Not sure I ever said I want the best for VR…. I accept the market as it is…. I just get tired of the immature attacks on them constantly in the light of reason that explains why they do what they do.

            Kickstart be damned, they don’t forever owe “the community” anything, the kickstarters got their free CV1…. that’s my opinion…. if you fund something on Kickstarter and expect that group which may be come a company to not “act corporate” at some point your a fool, plain and simple…

            its really not about the store, the store is nothing but a means to drive adoption and establish a brand, so that eventually some form of revenue via social media leveraging a strong VR market they are part of is the plan, which makes perfect sense. Again, they would be fools to pin the success on game software through Steam as it is clearly designed to promote Vive over everything else.

            You don’t like Palmer, shady or not, the reality is I judge the product as it stands…. not Palmer, not Carmack, etc. In the end the market as a whole doesn’t give a shit about this lawsuit, or what you think about Palmer… and that’s a simple fact. Too many early adopters who live for this think their world view is the norm; it is not. The eventual average consumer is going to spend their money in the direction they find easiest to enjoy with a premium experience, which is slowly what Oculus is putting together, whether we like it or not. I don’t flinch away from this, and I sure understand their strategy, and frankly I think in many ways their approach is ultimately going to drive VR mass adoption far more than HTC Vive and Valves emphasis on room scale…. that’s a niche in the market, not the whole enchilada.

        • PrymeFactor

          Sorry, this is stupid. These games are being funded by Oculus. Most will not exist without this funding. Who will make exclusive AAA games for such a small user base without such financial guarantee?

          It’s beyond childish and foolish for a grown man to expect Oculus to fund a game and put it up on Steam to give Valve 30% for doing nothing.

          PC store exclusives aren’t new Uplay and Origin have exclusive games that are locked to their storefront. The truth is that most of those complaining here are either inmature fanboys or paid Valve astroturfers and shills.

          • Get Schwifty!

            Good point about the fee structure, wasn’t even thinking that, but that combined with the problem of trying to market through a wall of Vive branding explains very clearly why _for now_, the exclusives are deemed necessary to establish the brand.

          • Atmos73

            We dont care if Oculus makes games or funds games themselves the point is they lock out the majority people who bought into VR. That is bad for VR when you create a divide. Origin and the other Non Steam store don’t turn people away because they think it’s s good business idea. Facebook are in this for themselves not for the good of VR and you need to wake up and realise that, not have your head up Zuckbergs Ass.

          • Get Schwifty!

            You are on serious drugs if you think a single vendor is “doing what’s good for VR”….. I mean honestly, you need to really sit down and meditate on this idea….

          • Actually, Uplay games are on Steam and well, it’s not like you need a different kind of machine to play EA games :)

          • And it’s actually about exclusivity to one piece of tech and really grinds folks gear.

            But then again, you don’t see folks on sites like cdkeys or kinguin or greenmangaming or GOG, or humble bundle or indiegala, or givaways, etc. looking for cheap Rift games. All about them 75% off or more sales, baby :)

            Now thats an issue…For some developers using their SDK or w/e. Feels good to buy games cheap. More games sell that way.

        • Get Schwifty!

          You and both know this isn’t going to happen, all the exclusives do is help them establish a platform by brand. And you make my point about Revive, again the incessant crying over this when you have a means that Oculus is essentially allowing you to use to “get in” makes the constant diatribes meaningless. Like I said, its unfounded fear. I get the “disgust of seeing exclusives” which you can easily bypass to get to and are almost guaranteed to be timed anyhow… my point is the crying is way out of proportion to the situation. Honestly, you could make the exact same argument about any console platform which is producing exclusives, half of which make their way to the PC. Do you really think all these new games are not going for the most part to be direct for Vive at some point?

          Oculus cannot compete with Steam directly right now, and they sure as hell would be idiots to try to market their brand through Steam which is papered over with VIve branding all over it. Why you guys cannot see this is beyond me…. again its because you see it through one lens which is “I wants meh gamez nowz” and that’s all you consider. Put yourself in Oculus shoes and think it through.

          • But then again, you don’t see folks on sites like cdkeys or kinguin or greenmangaming or GOG, or humble bundle or indiegala, or givaways, etc. looking for cheap Rift games. All about them 75% off or more sales, baby :)

            More games sell that way especially when available everywhere otherwise devs could lose out on potential sales which could be an issue for them. Good thing a lot of them have a choice except ones funded by Oculus :)

            Not just about Steam. So many cheap VR bundles have come, none shall ever contain Oculus funded games. VR games sure are expensive for what they offer.

      • burzum

        Well, there is one difference: On Steam it’s up to the devs if they want to support other HMD and input devices through OpenVR (or the native SDKs) while in the walled garden of Facebook only their own HMD is supported and allowed. And yes, I know, there is Revive, but that’s a workaround and no official supported solution from Oculus. I own a Rift, don’t have a Vive (yet), just in case somebody is going to call me now a Vive or Rift fanboy. I see them pretty much equal hardware wise but their behavior as a company is very different. I agree that on Steam there is a huge amount of really shitte VR content while in the Oculus store you get mostly the better VR titles. However, I would prefer to have the choice of multiple stores than being forced into one.

      • Just think, if Revive did not exist…Oh god the flood gates…The sea level rising :)

    • jlschmugge

      Ok the HMD calamity I get with the component shortage, but what happened with the Touch “calamity”. I ordered one the day it was on presale and even got it in the mail two days before official release.

      • Get Schwifty!

        Typical Oculus-hater rhetoric… what do you expect… funny how no one talks about the delay period VIve had… it was shorter, but they did have distribution issues for couple months there…. and they had tracking issues as well, not to the extent, but they did (and if you read their forums, there is a percentage who do every day). The great lie is that Lighthouse is “perfect”… it’s very good, but not perfect, its has occlusion issues at times and can lose tracking.

        • Have ye ever punched a screen or something after reading comments?

        • polysix

          Typical oculus fanboy defense.

    • polysix

      Agreed Atmos. Oculus didn’t cut the price for the good of anyone but oculus, running scared and once again revealing the lies about ‘sold at cost’. Now they magically found new ways (within less than a year) to make such savings and pass them on? bullshit, they always sold it at least 100% marked up, Nate himself said it was sold higher than needed to be appear aspirational.

      Now it’s adjusted to the price it should have been (packed in with touch) at launch (and still a bit too high based on the flaws). Too many mistakes, too little too late, vive/valve are way ahead now and when Vive 2 or Gen 2 Steam VR HMDs hit oculus (facebook) will be a footnote in PCVR history (but of course they will still drool over mobile VR and all the data it brings them)

  • Miqa

    Holy sh*t! Almost bought one a couple of days ago, could have missed this. This will be great!

    • jlschmugge

      Ha! Close call. Although I’m not upset I paid full price for the HMD a year ago, this is really recent for the Touch controllers I paid twice as much for just a few months ago. I’m still debating if I could have waited if I knew of the price. Touch finally makes the Rift what VR should be, and the experience has been great, but if I knew I could save a hundred bucks? Ironically, I’ve been only playing non-touch games lately (well just Elite:Dangerous on a hotas).

    • Scott C

      If you had, you’d have at least been given the $50 store credit Oculus is offering customers who purchased their Touches in the last month.

  • Konchu

    Regardless of the reason for the Drop we are waiting for your response HTC/Valve.

    • Nigerian Wizard

      There will be. Welcome to healthy capitalism in action.

      • Get Schwifty!

        Yup!

  • Full Name

    Rubin was pretty vocal that they are not going for wireless anytime soon, and in fact was pretty negative, saying that the quality is not good enough (which I personally disagree with), and that the pricing would hinder adoption.

    Also, based on statements made at GDC, it sounds like Rift 2.0 is not coming for at least 2 years.

    • Get Schwifty!

      Have you actually experienced any direct wireless experience to qualify your disagreement or is that just opinion?

      • Full Name

        Yes, actually I have. I am in the fortunate situation of getting to test pretty much anything new that is coming out whether it is for Rift or Vive. It’s hardly a controversial opinion either. If you search up some reviews from respected publications, the feedback is overall very positive.

        • Get Schwifty!

          I asked an honest question, was it from empirical experience or just opinion…. and you answered, and frankly I am glad to hear it works well. I honestly hate the HMD cable tethering…. and would gladly pay for a solution without one. I will say that I agree, most of the press is positive, but frankly I like to hear from people who have real hands on. Not sure what crawled up ZeroStar’s arse but it was an honest and reasonable question, my apologies if it sounded too skeptical, that was not my personal intent, but given how many people post “opinion” parading as fact these days….

          • Full Name

            Thanks, I try to not read too much into questions online. It tends to get heated really quickly. There is something to be said for people being passionate about their opinions of course, but I try to stick to the facts (or honest opinion/experience) as much as possible.

      • ZeroStar

        You are constantly blasting people with their supposed ignorance on anything VR and now Full Name directly responds to you here about having personal experience and you clam up? C’mon, let’s hear it. You spend all day here and on UploadVR so I know you saw his reply. Looking at all your comments (almost a thousand at this point) and despite your claims I’m pretty sure you either work directly for Oculus or somehow indirectly benefit from their success. It seems that you take a ‘balanced’ approach to criticism and concede some points about Oculus at times but probably only in an attempt to hide either your die hard loyalty or financial incentives. Ironically you run around complaining about fanboys but I’m not sure I see a bigger one than you here. I never comment at all but felt it was worth it to prod you along a bit here to get your take on this. For as much of a slanted view you sometimes take I’ll admit you inform (and entertain) me with your responses.

        • Get Schwifty!

          LOL actually I just saw it at 10:30 EST…. I don’t “spend all day on here” I actually work, sometimes long hours. I certainly don’t work for Oculus, I just get tired of the emo-speak on here from the Vive set… and if you read my posts enough you will clearly see I also speak highly of Vive as well and will likely have one of my own when the new controllers are released.

          I have been quite open about the fact I too have tracking difficulties as of 1.11 with Rift, but I also was quite honest and open about enjoying limited room scale prior to that as have many others. That I don’t buy into the Vive-only mindset on here doesn’t make me a Rift fanboy in the least, I just get tired of the exclusive incessant whining and the claims that tracking is horrid on Rift which is just not true for everyonem and in fact 1.12 in beta is getting pretty good reviews from testers so far

          I was dead serious in my question, did FullName actually use it or like most users on here just repeat something they heard or “feel”? Nice to know I got your goat there ZeroStar… now, let me converse with Full Name and get back to our discussion…

        • Totally Magical Unicorn

          I found it a simple and valid question. Plus – he’s contributing to our little VR community! Please do the same more! It’s not exactly huge so it’s nice to get all view points and feedback on the articles and such.

        • BOOM!

  • Full Name

    No, if you check the VR news, you will see Rubin and Oculus is not embracing wireless any time soon. Of course there will likely be 3rd party solutions coming to Rift, as is the case for the Vive (which gets its TPCast accessory in the next 2-3 months).

  • OgreTactics

    This is good news for Oculus (and HTC when they’ll do the same), it means they’ve managed to overcome those delirious marketing pricing decision and reposition it.

    This also means that whether there’s an upgraded headset released late 2017 or not, the price will further drop at fall.

    This is still too underwhelmingly spec’d to justify buying anymore as GearVR seems to be the way to go for event or ad VR productions, but given how shitty the not new GearVR is, we might add to upgrade, that is if we figure out the standard/cheap VR terminal (for event/showcase) production problem.

    Too bad it won’t really change much in this year sale numbers despite the many VR quality content coming out this year, especially knowing the sale numbers of content…

  • fuyou2

    Big deal, oculus tracking still sux! even if they drop the price by $300 still a flawed hardware.. Oculus is in Violation of Theory of Virtual Reality. I bet not many know the Theory Of Virtual Reality :)

    • cartweet

      The latest patch a couple days ago has given nearly every one with a rift virtually flawless tracking.

      • Get Schwifty!

        The “Oculus tracking sux” meme will take a few years to die, but it will. And I am the first to also say Vive tracking is superior… but that doesn’t make in good functioning system Constellation is therefore bad… that is fanboy logic.

  • DaKangaroo

    When it comes to VR, all price drops, from any competitor, of any size, are both greatly welcome and appreciated.

  • CURTROCK

    Bravo, Oculus.

  • J.C.

    Personally, I’d be pretty pissed at a $200 price drop on ANY device I’d purchased less than a year ago. Smaller price drops along the way, sure, but a $200 drop (I know, $100 per device, but who ISN’T going to buy the touch controllers?) implies their line about “we aren’t making a profit on the hardware” was horseshit. Especially dropping Touch’s price by HALF within a few months of release.
    To anyone NOT enamoured by VR, this will appear to be a desperation maneuver, and maybe it is. I hope not. The death of ANY big player in VR this early would murder customer confidence in the product.

    • Get Schwifty!

      WHut? I mean thats how tech works… it always gets cheaper… I just got a 1080 for Xmas and now the Ti is effectively 35% faster for the same price…. that’s tech.

      I don’t believe they are making any profit from the hardware, and I think they are willing to eat a loss for a while to make up market share…. is that horseshit or just a company with the means making the CV1 experience effectively a loss leader to expand the market to make more later with a increased install base?

  • Mourz

    They cut price to reduce inventory. A court ordered injunction is on its way.

  • David Green

    now i will buy the rift! thank you !

  • David Green

    Occulus is owned by facebook there not going anywhere!

  • Cl

    If vive price drops by $200 i will buy it right now.

  • Get Schwifty!

    I kind of like the drama of putting on the gear… feels like I am prepping for a rocket ride or something…. sounds like you will be much happier with an AR solution…. but yes, you and I both will be dead before the Holodeck is real…

  • Totally Magical Unicorn

    I get where you’re coming from. But have you tried it yet?

    It’s certainly more inconvenient than my PC, but I don’t consider it a replacement for PC games. It’s an addition. I have a great PC and can play awesome games, and now I can also play completely different games in VR. A new level of immersion and new gaming possibilities.

    What you’re talking about just isn’t going to happen for a long, long, LONG time. Meanwhile, the current VR is absolutely fantastic. I put on a headset, walk to the center of the room, press a button and I’m in. It isn’t hard. The hardest thing about it is getting off my butt to do it when I’m so used to gaming while seated.

    The cable. The discomfort of the headset. The lack of HD resolution that I’m so used to. It all fades away once I’m slicing fruit with a sword. It’s a whole new experience.

  • Well, you can punch the screen in Bigscreen Beta :)

    Theres an effect.

  • RipVoid

    I do it with you. You are hardly a paragon of rational thought as you claim.