Natural motion input is the clear future of VR. And while the Rift would seem to lead in price over the Vive, factoring the controllers into the equation will create a very narrow price gap, if any, between the two systems.

While Oculus has its Touch motion controllers in development, they won’t be ready by the time the Rift begins shipping at the end of March. So the company opted to include an Xbox One gamepad with each Rift as a common input device between headsets. Touch isn’t expected to ship until the second half of 2016. And that means the Rift’s $600 price doesn’t factor in the cost of motion controllers.

oculus-rift-htc-vive-motion-controllers2

On the other hand, the HTC Vive will ship with no gamepad, but will instead include motion controllers out of the box. Comparing the Vive’s $800 price to the Rift doesn’t make much sense unless you consider Oculus Touch as part of the Rift package. Without knowing the price of touch, this comparison is difficult, but unless you think Touch will be exceptionally cheap, the total cost between the two systems could turn out to be negligible, if not identical.

There’s a $200 price gap between the Rift’s standalone $600 price and the Vive’s $800 price (which includes motion controllers).

oculus-rift-htc-vive-playstation-vr
See Also: On Expectations: What Our Audience Thinks About Rift, Vive, and PlayStation VR Prices

We conducted a straw poll back in January to gauge our readership’s price estimates for Touch. The majority guessed it would land between $100-$199. (The majority also correctly guessed that the Vive would cost more than the Rift).

Assuming the intuition of our audience is correct, even at the low end of that spectrum ($100), that would place a mere $100 gap between the total Rift package and total Vive package. At the high end of the spectrum ($199), it would eliminate the gap all together.

SEE ALSO
25 Free Games & Apps Quest 3 Owners Should Download First

Given that there aren’t many analogs, it’s tough to guess how much the price of Touch will close that gap. The biggest hint we have may be the Vive itself.

When considering the total package of each system, both include one headset, two sensors, and two motion controllers. As an outside observer, the components of each headset seem quite similar: two lenses, two custom OLED displays of the same resolution, embedded hardware for tracking, a series of cables, and the body/shell of the headset itself (each headset has one notable wildcard that the other lacks: integrated headphones on Rift and integrated camera on Vive). Unless either company has some significant price advantage among these components or in the manufacturing process, the headsets are likely to be quite evenly matched in how much they contribute to the overall system cost.

That would leave the remaining cost in the hands of the two motion controllers and two tracking sensors. Again, unless there’s some significant cost advantage in components or manufacturing between Oculus’ IR LED-based ‘Constellation’ tracking and Vive’s laser-based ‘Lighthouse’ tracking (which we haven’t heard suggested by either company), then the trackers themselves are likely to contribute equally to the cost.

And that leaves the controllers. Assuming the above is roughly true, simply comparing the $600 cost of the Rift (with no controllers) to the $800 cost of the Vive (with controllers), might just give us a solid estimate of how much they contribute to the package: $200.

One thing I think we can be sure of is that Touch can’t cost more than $200, even if Oculus has to eat a loss on it at that price; launching their motion controllers after the Vive’s while creating a higher total package cost would put them at a major disadvantage in attracting new users to their hardware platform. Look for both companies to try to out-bundle and out-discount each other as we approach holiday 2016.

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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."
  • Tommy Pettersson

    The vive does have an built in camera though. Probably not making a big impact in the cost of the system but it’s noteworthy.

    • Heimdal

      No. But how about extra cost of the Xbox controller and integrated audio for the Rifht though. And the very expensive shipping on top of that, two of them as well rather than one cheaper. The rift touch also needs whole separate camera for tracking. To me it looks like a lot more lost value in that package. Seeing as I predict the rift package to be more expensive with less features, (chaperone and camera , better tracking) All just speculation of course. Except for the shipping part.

    • benz145

      Good point, didn’t think of that, will add it into that section!

      • polysix

        Add the bluetooth phone comms too (this is in Consumer Vive not Pre)! this is worth at least $50 value to most people and shouldn’t be overlooked. Very good comfort/security feature that lets you relax in VR without wondering/worrying if an important call has been missed.

        Good article though and definitely correct about the ‘real’ price of Rift as a full VR system.

  • Heimdal

    For europe I think Vive is almost of sure cheaper. Just the money you loose on two shippings alone! Where as Htc have cheap regional shipping. As well as being available in stores 5th April it seems :). Oculus touch under 200$ sounds naive.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Scratch that HTC Cheap regional shipping, it’s even much more expensive as the shipping costs of the Oculus.. It’ll cost you 972,81 euro’s (compared to the 899 euro without shipping cost).. So that’s actually 73 euro’s for shipping compared to the 42 euro’s Oculus is asking…

      • Heimdal

        Yeah that sucked . But write me again when oculus is shipping their motion controllers . You will still hit the vive price or sure unless they are willing to lose loads on touch sales. They are working like crazy to make it work well enough at the moment.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          It all depends, the controllers themselves propably don’t cost much to manufacture, just look at a movecontrollers (which is essentially the same, maybe even more hardware in that one) it was always sold with profit and it was sold for 39 euro’s (including tax), so 2 controllers would mean 80 euro’s, which still makes it cheaper.. Let’s not forget you also have to buy a xboxone (type of) controller with the vive if you want to play a lot of the ‘sitting’ VR-games as the vive controllers (AND the touch controllers) aren’t really good for sitting experiences (at least that’s my opinion with controllers like the move/navigator)..
          But time will tell, if the Vive is sold instore (without the hefty 73 euro shipping costs) then it also makes a pretty big difference (as it doesn’t seem the oculus will ever be available instore)..

          • Heimdal

            This is a dreamworld. They’re not like moves at all. 39??? What does an Xbox elite controller go for? This is extremely costly tech for them to make. They have not made it work well enough yet and have all their manpower on it. It will cost .

      • Heimdal

        Don’t know why I cant edit spelling mistakes on this.

  • GabyS

    So both of them have to high price, im very disapointed. I remember when Palmer says about the price, all will can buy one, the price will be around 300-400$ max, but now is 800E + PC upgrade, is to much for now… I think the best choice now is Gear VR.

    • Ian Shook

      TBH a gearVR is a great option. Keep in mind It’ll have a better resolution than either Rift or VIVE. Eventually it might have tracking too, with the right add on product.

      • FloridaOJ

        wut

        • Ian Shook

          Wut what?

          • Peter

            resolution generally means “how good can you see the pixels”
            GearVR turns it the other way round; “how good can you ignore the pixels”

      • blastedcrumpets

        better resolution?

        • Ian Shook

          The Samsung Galaxy S7 (for gear VR) is 2560×1440, while the consumer Rift and Vive are 2160×1200. I’m just saying that viewing stereocubemaps (still 360 VR images) will look crisper on the GearVR.

          • blastedcrumpets

            the s7 resolution is the same as the s6 I think, and when you actually use the gear vr you see it is closer to 720p (I have one, cv). I look at 360 images (professional and self-taken with Ricoh Theta) and they don’t look as sharp as I would like. Hoping for better on the Vive. I’m no expert but I think its something to do with splitting the phone resolution across 2 eyes, whereas the Vive/ Rift has a screen for each eye. Someone who knows more could probably explain it better.

          • Bryan Oliver

            But with more SDE.

      • Some Guy

        Sure, it has better resolution in the screen (more pixels), but the Vive and Rift (especially Rift) have far superior lenses which dwarf the Gear VR.

        It’s not just about numbers, it’s about how the screen actually looks inside the headset when looking through lenses.

        Also, at 90hz compared to the Gear VR at 60hz, images look better at 90hz because of the faster refresh. And in the Galaxy, at least with the S6, the screen has ghosting – a little black smear, while Vive/Rift have supposedly eliminated this.

      • polysix

        Gear VR is a terrible “option” actually. It’s doing more harm to perception of real VR than not using VR. It has low frame rate, super bad graphics and worse – NO positional tracking and bad input.

        Wait/Save for a proper VR system if you can’t afford Vive (skip Rift until they’ve sorted their shit out in Gen 2)

        As for better resolution, only on paper. It actualy LOOKS lower res due to bad optics. This is bad advice sorry. Phone VR is not the future.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      oh stop bitching, you already knew a long time ago a PC upgrade would be necessary, and he actually never specifically said a real price. The first price he mentioned was back in the days before the DK1, which had the DK2 as it’s projected consumer version (which did have the 300-400$ pricetag)..

      • Daddy Warbucks over here will just pull out a handful of cash from the pile he rolls around naked on every night and pick up two, give the extra one to his dog so he’s not in VR alone.

        All you wealthy fanboys need to stow it, there’s no getting around the vast ballooning of costs.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          oh please, this kind of fidelity would have cost you $10.000+ one/two years ago, and that’s only the commercial headset.. So compared to that, it’s ‘peanuts’.
          Simple ‘lowres’ VR has been around for years and years for around the $200-$400 range, yes it’s not as fancypancy as these new headsets, but it gets the VR job done..
          It’s got nothing to do with being wealthy (I’m far from wealthy), it’s got to do with expectations and being realistic..
          The prices oculus targeted for the consumerversion back when they started their kickstarter was based on the DK2 (hell even less) as being the consumer version, and THAT version did arrive in the range they said it would..
          Just wait and the GPU’s and headsets will come down in price.. BTW it has always been known the Vive would not be ‘cheap’..

  • Sky Castle

    Advantages for HTC Vive:
    1. Room Scale – Advantage negated once the Touch controllers come out with a 2nd camera sensor that can do 15×15 feet tracking as well.
    2. Motion Controllers from day one – Again no longer an advantage when the Touch is released. Some may like the unique tracking pads on it over the Touch however.
    3. Front facing camera – Oculus could release an addon to have this feature, but that’s more money to shell out.
    4. Reputation for being the best gaming company for PC. Half life 3 and Portal 3 in VR is 99.9% a certainty, because there’s no damn way Valve would not see how much money they could make releasing two of their most iconic games let alone in VR.

    Advantages for Oculus:
    1. Cheaper up front cost – 99% agree with this article that you’ll be paying the same price as the Vive when you buy the Touch controllers.
    2. Touch controllers – They look like they would feel more natural and comfortable in your hands and it has way more buttons, which is a massive plus for gaming.
    3. Exclusive games – If you get an Oculus you can play any games from both Steam and the Oculus store, however if you by the Vive you can not play exclusive Oculus games. I’m pretty sure there will be hacks to overcome this for the Vive, but it’s still an extra step of inconvenience for HTC owners.

    All in all, I don’t think there’s much of a difference between the two devices and whatever you buy there will be no losers. For me personally, I feel fortunate enough to be able to afford both, and this one month wait for it’s release is utterly unbearable.

    • Cl

      I thought there are no rift exclusive games, just oculus store exclusive games. So you can use the oculus store exclusive games on the vive, but you have to go thru the oculus store to buy them.

      • Sky Castle

        The wording from Palmer Lucky can be confusing. He said that the Oculus Rift is an open platform that can be developed by anyone and on any platform, which leads you to believe you can buy exclusive game outside of the Oculus Store, but he was referring to non-exclusive games when he said that.

        However there are 12 confirmed exclusives, but not all games have been announced. Of the ones we know of are Lucky’s Tale, Adrift, Dragon Front, and Edge of Nowhere. They can only be bought on the Oculus Store and launched from that platform.

        http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/29/11132364/htc-valve-vive-vr-preorders-open-shipping-date

    • Clemency77

      I’m sorry, but Oculus will never be able to do room scale like Vive does without releasing an entirely new headset. Oculus’ visual tracking system loses more accuracy with distance, has more occlusion problems, and if you want to add another camera on the opposite corner of the room (besides this being a complete untested scenario as opposed to Vive’s seamless out-of-the-box experience), you’d have to have cords stretching across the playspace (maybe taped to the ceiling?) to attach to your computer. Vive’s reverse approach, where the headset and controllers are the sensor, requires Lighthouse stations to have no connection to the PC, can track multiple headsets/controllers in the same space, and have been tested at distances greater than 25 feet apart without a problem! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4UlShicgY) The Vive’s is the only forward-thinking room-scale solution. Oculus would have to make a new headset/tracking system to match it. Haven’t you been reading all the hands-on impressions? Vive demos allow total freedom with virtually flawless tracking experiences, while Oculus Touch demos are already showing tracking flaws with the player standing directly in front of the camera. Oh, but Palmer tried Rift room-scale (by himself, unobserved), and he said it works fine, so that’s good enough for you. Oh, and there’s no way Oculus is going to release a front-facing camera that you clip on the Rift, upsetting the delicate lateral balance. In this and many other many ways, Rift owners will have to purchase a new HMD somewhere down the line to catch up with Vive CV1.

      • Sky Castle

        You can’t say the Rift can never do full room scale when you don’t know that for a fact. Yes it’s true the Vive can do room scale better, but it has it’s fair share of problems. Have you not been reading the Valve forums? Their sensors also have moving parts like rotors meaning less lifespan from wear and tear. There’s also reported problems of them getting bricked from firmware updates. And lets be honest, full room scale is not practical for a majority of people. Even if it is, not everyone wants a standing VR experience.

        The Vive has reported incident with tracking for it’s motion controller as well although not as bad as the Touch, but that’s why it’s being delayed for improvements. As for the front facing camera, again you making up shit you don’t know. Oculus can add it later down the road if they want, and if they don’t who’s to say there won’t be third parties that will do it? You sound like like a very bitter hater and everything you mentioned are very minor nitpicking.

        They are going to be great devices with it’s own flaws and advantages, and I have already pre-ordered them both and will enjoy the best of both worlds come next month.

        • realtrisk

          How do we really know if Vive can do room scale better? This is pure speculation at this point. I love all these people saying this when they don’t have either product. It’s such retarded fanboyism. Don’t cow tow to them, man!

          The only “evidence” I’ve seen anybody level is that some developers have said this… but when I read the linked article, what the developer ACTUALLY said was that they didn’t have a Rift yet, but suspected that there might be some problems. Again, just speculation, not fact. Folks like UKRifter that have tried room scale with the Rift said it worked just as well!

          I remain skeptical that there will be that many compelling room scale experiences anyway. When I want to game, I want to sit back and relax, not be standing up flailing around, so to me this seems like something that I’ll only enjoy in a few limited circumstances. I’m with you tho’… got ’em both pre-ordered, so we’ll see.

          • Sky Castle

            Yeah I prefer playing VR sitting down myself. I get that some people like room scale but I would only enjoy that on small occassions. Most of my gaming will be in a chair. Besides, I think Omni is even better than room scale since you’re not bound by your room limitation and can run in VR nonstop, and it works for any HMD devices. It’s very expensive but worth the price in my opinion. I am getting that and Immesit as well. You should check them both out if you haven’t hard about them.

          • Piotrek

            Do You know how Omni will work with Vive? I assume that sensores on Your shoes will be assigned to WASD on the keyboard. I wonder if all the VR games will work with Omni and Vive/Rift bundle or You need separate drivers etc. People from Omni are not saying much. They did some demos (recently with Vive), but they show it on their game so no wonder it worked. I preordered Vive and Kickstarted Omni, but I’m afraid seamless integration is not so obvious and easy.

          • Sky Castle

            Yes it should work for all HMD devices and most games even none VR games because it indeed does use wasd inputs. Their website has a lot of FAQ that’s pretty insightful you may want to look at.
            http://www.virtuix.com/frequently-asked-questions/

          • realtrisk

            Oh man, I hope, hope HOPE that either the Omni or the Virtualizer end up taking off… I really want one, but buying two HMDs is already breaking my bank… and I just can’t justify yet another purchase of something that’s unproven. But if it takes off, I’m SO there.

            One thing I’m worried about the Omni that maybe you know about… are aiming and walking decoupled for all games? I worry that if you walk where you’re looking, the effect is instantly broken. I know games made specifically for it will work decoupled, but what about games that aren’t, like Fallout 4 or Skyrim? I couldn’t find much info about this problem, but it seems huge to me…

            I haven’t heard about Immesit. I’ll look into it right now.

            *Edit* ImmeRsit looks like a total gimmick to me. I had to laugh at the video they show. Nothing that “moves” a chair or couch can be plug and play and work with all movies and games without being a gimmick. Specially coded software with physics driving the motion is an absolute must for motion platforms. At best, it will probably shake with the low end and may even intelligently sense screen rotation to cause tilt, but there’s no way it would be good or immersive.

            If you want motion, look into something like SimExperience or even just Simvibe, both are physics based seat movers/transducer vibrators. I have Simvibe and some transducers, and its freaking awesome. All vibrations are based on physics, unlike a normal transducer that just thumps with bass notes in the soundtrack. Only bad thing is it only is for motor simulations, but I’ll take it any day.

          • Sky Castle

            It’s hard to tell how serious the decoupling issues are since the Omni is not out yet, and I haven’t had the chance to try it, but with the time it has until release I’m optimistic about the company working out any kinks it may have.

          • Clemency77

            How do we know? Because hundreds of people have tested it and been blown away? Whereas Rift’s room scale is completely untested.

            I think the “fanboy” is the one who believes Oculus can do room scale as good as the Vive without a shred of evidence.

          • realtrisk

            You sound like a spoiled little child. If there’s “hundreds of people” who have tested them BOTH, show me some links. I’d love to be enlightened. The only two people I’ve found who tried comparisons are Palmer himself, and UKRifter, both of who said Rift worked flawlessly for room scale. And how can I be a fanboy when I’m getting both?

          • Full_Name

            eh, it is actually being used. Nobody has been allowed to say anything about room scale rift tracking due to Oculus slapping heavy NDA’s on people allowed to try it out.

        • Clemency77

          I didn’t say it will never do room scale. I’m saying its room scale will be garbage compared to Vive unless they release a whole new system.

          You seem to have an awful lot of blind faith in Oculus. I’m basing my support of Vive’s room scale on hundreds of hands-on testimonials from journalists, developers, friends and even myself that it works and works beautifully. You’re willing to bet that the Rift can do the same thing without anyone ANYONE having tried it yet (except Palmer, supposedly). I’m only being rational, people who claim that Rift will be able to match Vive’s room scale are dreamers, if you ask me.

          • Sky Castle

            And you’re making a big assumption their room scale will fail with nothing to go on as well. The people at Facebook with unlimited funding and hiring the best minds in the business say that the light base technology is a dead end while camera sensors still have a lot of growing potential. That’s why they went with that. I think I will have more faith with their engineers team than you.

            Even giving you the benefit of the doubt and say the Vive sensors will be better, the gap won’t be so large that you may think. At the end of the day, room scale is for the minority anyways, and with both HMDs shipping to my house next month I can care less which one does room scale better. I’m getting the Omni which makes it irrelevant.

          • Clemency77

            Yes, you’re right, I’m not going to make a $600 assumption that Oculus’ room scale will be brilliant without any evidence. Vive has provided the evidence, so I’m going with that.

          • polysix

            Ah leave him to it Clemency, there’s a fool born every minute as they say. Just as well for oculus as that’s the only ones they are selling to at the moment.

            I’ll qualify that flame baity remark to say – you MUST be a fool to spend $600 on a system from a company that has continually reversed direction, lied, evaded important questions and are actively letting people buy into rift without having the balls or deceny to LET THEM KNOW if it REALLY CAN do room scale or WHEN/IF the touch will really release and at what price.

            Sorry but companies like that can fuck off until they get better at being consumer friendly. I was an oculus fan too (DK2 now sold) I won’t be going back to Failbook VR again. Fuck ’em and their stupid bundled gamepad and lies.

          • Full_Name

            But they started with a flawed approach to room tracking. Please see my post above that explains the differences between Rift and Vive tracking..

      • It might be worth pointing out that in every case that somebody demoed Vive at “Room Scale”, there was a guy standing there who’s only job it was to watch the cables. Do you have a cable-watching guy already on retainer? That’s over $2000 in gear tied together with a thin cable you can easily trip on and smash the whole lot. Might be cheaper, and smarter, to just stay on the couch like Lucky Palmer suggests.

        • Sky Castle

          lol, every Vive will come with a butler.

        • Clemency77

          I guess you haven’t seen or read much about the Vive… They’ve been specifically NOT minding the cord since the Pre to show people that it’s not an issue. Developers and others who already have it are reporting that it’s not an issue. (Some derivatively refer to it as “Cordgate,” as in a lot of controversy over nothing.) But way to show your support of new tech! (“Boo! Don’t try new things! It’ll never work!”)

        • Piotrek

          I’m putting hook on my ceiling, so cables do not go in the way and are always above my head

          • I would highly recommend following through on that idea! We’ve nailed velcro to our ceiling and it’s been great for the Vive. Hope to eventually replace it with actual conduit so that it looks nicer. You’ll need longer cables between your PC and the little adapter box that Vive comes with, but that’s cheap. After a short while, you begin to subconsciously turn the right direction to avoid twisting the cable.

        • Full_Name

          Nope, not true. There were in some of the cases were they showed it off at conventions etc, but there has also been cases where they don’t do that, and there are countless videos of people using it without help (reviewers, developers etc)

      • CronosXPX

        The real question is: will you really enjoy to move around with a bunch of cables behind you? I’m not sure.

        • Clemency77

          Have you watched any videos of people who already have Vives (including the one above)? They don’t seem to be having any problems.

        • polysix

          A bunch? you mean the SINGLE cable that is super long and made to slip about like a snake that doesn’t impeded you unless you’re a flat footed fool?

          Nobody has problems with the cable once they are used to it – a day max.

          Quit with the BS, it’s getting stale. Rift got anhiliated by Vive in gen 1. Maybe Gen 2 oculus can put as much NRG into their VR package as they do into their spin.

    • Full_Name

      Nope, you have no basis to say that Touch will be as good as Vive, and it is speculated due to the camera technology used, you may need 3 or 4 cameras worst case. The problem with cameras looking for diodes vs lasers triggering active sensors is that the cameras are limited to 60 fps, far slower than the laser scan refresh, the accuracy is slightly lower for cameras, and if you move too far away from the camera, it will have an issue making out the diodes. In addition, the cameras have less field of view, and require more processing. The only potential upside by using cameras is to get some game mixed reality like certain kinect games etc. Of course, the other way around, there are some mixed reality possibilities with the built in camera on the Vive HMD as well.

    • polysix

      “Room Scale – Advantage negated once the Touch controllers come out with a
      2nd camera sensor that can do 15×15 feet tracking as well.”

      Keep telling yourself that. Rift can’t even do SEATED 360 controller tracking without THREE cams let alone roomscale with just two. Yeah you can ‘hack’ roomscale with two but if you enjoy playing in VR with your controllers losing tracking every few minutes then knock yourself out. Even 4 cams (prob minimum) still won’t give you what vive does with two lighthouses. The controllers just don’t track as well esp low to the floor, and the cameras have poor resolution after 2 meters AND FOV problems again near the floor.

      There’s a lot more difference between Vive and Rift than your armchair analysis wants to highlight, plenty of armchair pundits with VERY LITTLE technical knowledge or prior VR experience are on the Oculus defence team. Kinda fitting as they’ll all mostly be seated for the best part of 2016 and probably until generation 2.

  • Mateusz

    “Comparing the Vive’s $800 price to the Rift doesn’t make much sense unless you consider Oculus Touch as part of the Rift package. ” This sounds like some PR talk and coming from no other than main director of RtVR Ben Lang. Maybe we should say comparing VIVE to Rift doesn’t make sense cause how you’re going to play gamepad games (RTS, TPP) with just the motion controllers. They don’t work well if used as a double joypad of sort lol. Entry level means entry level. You’re making it look like package without motion control is not real VR when it is. I’ll get Vive anyway but it is just PR talk most likely sponsored by HTC itself. Road to Vr seemed to be quite leveled so far, but I am dissapointed with how one sided this particular art. is.

    • Sky Castle

      You’re wrong. There are games that only work with motion controllers like Hover Junkers and Tilt Paint Brush to name a few. This is the direction VR games are heading. Sure you can play some VR games with just controllers or keyboard and mouse, but you’ll miss out on games that require the motion controllers. So yeah you will have to buy the Touch and factor in all of the total price package if you want to play those games.

    • Typical dialog from some know it all sap :)

      More like know nothing at all.

      • realtrisk

        I know, right?

    • benz145

      The article opens with a sentence that the rest of the article hinges upon:

      “Natural motion input is the clear future of VR.”

      • George Vieira IV

        In my case I don’t think motion controllers will be the solution that provides natural motion input. My main reason for preordering a Rift was for sim games where I will be using a wheel or joystick setup that will give more haptic feedback than the controllers can since they would be just floating in the air. So the need to purchase the motion controllers is a negative for me.

        • Full_Name

          valid point, though I recommend you try some games that actually have room scale and motion controllers. You may be surprised how immersive it is :)

      • Mateusz

        There will be plenty of people not interested in motion control even if it is future of VR. You can’t play Elite Dangrous with motion controllers. Why would someone need motion control to khm khm watch virtual-real-player ;) ? I already mentioned TPP and RTS as well. I appreciate reply, and understand the point, but wording of that particular sentece is still very unfortunate in my opinion.

        • Full_Name

          You shouldn’t play Elite with a xbox controller or keyboard/mouse either. You should use a HOTAS.

          If all you will play is stuff that don’t require motion controllers, of course get the Rift. They are equally good then, plus you get a free xbox one controller and pay 200 less. However, many people will want motion controllers and roomscale tracking for at least some of their VR experiences, and the article correctly points out that the pricing will probably be very even. If you want to compare two similar solutions:

          Vive + Xbox controller for pc = approx $870
          Rift + 2 Touch Controllers, + 1 or 2 additional cameras will range anywhere from $775 to $875 is my guess.

          Even if it turns out a bit cheaper, I have far more faith in Lighthouse tracking since it is proven to work extremely well in a 15×15 environment, and is expandable. Touch and additional cameras we don’t know much about since Oculus is hitting anyone that get to use them with NDA’s. We do know that additional camera(s) are required for 360 degree tracking, which means at the very least 1 more camera you need to plug into USB.

    • Bryan Oliver

      Palmer himself said that gamepads suck as an input solution for VR. There’s lots of games that do work with a gamepad, yes. But if you look at demos of DK1 and 2 to people not used to technology, one of the things almost everyone does is to reach out to touch something, even though they know it won’t work. They just want to use their hands.

    • polysix

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CoDJttJofg LMAO

      Please do embrace all you can do with a gamepad in VR, I did for nearly 2 years with the DK2. Short version: IT SUCKS.

      VR is great whether it’s Rift or Vive but lack of real input is a crime against VR and Palmer knows it. Their own motion controls and esp their tracking doesn’t compare to Vive so they have delayed it, desperately trying to make it as good but it never will be -it’s designed wrong from the outset (Valve abandoned a touch like design due to this) And until oculus admit they messed up, move to lighthouse or at least copy vive wands for tracking reasons then they will be behind now and playing catch up till gen 2. FACT!

      Nobody wants to pay over $500 for “VR” when it really means a small subset of VR (Rift) seated + gamepad, that is NOT the future. Sure it’s nice to do that but an expensive system should allow you to do anything and Vive does (Seated or standing).

      And btw you can also use gamepads and hotas/wheels on vive just fine, you don’t HAVE to use the wands for games that aren’t designed for it. You don’t just hold your vive wands together to mimick a gamepad you just… ugh.. use your gamepad (an xbox 360 gamepad is fine and most VR users already have these and they are dirt cheap). Me? I’ll use gamepad maybe 10% of the time in VR at best, the rest would be HOTAS, WHEEL and especially Motion Controls.

      Roomscale or even ‘moving standing’ and rotating standing are worthless without motion controls too!

      • veritas

        The part I don’t get was that Valve was sharing their VR research with Oculus up until Oculus being bought by Facebook. Valve already had the light house designs and they also dropped their “cutlass” (similar to Touch) motion controller design due to occlusions. So how did Oculus ended up with inferior Constellation tracking system and Touch motion controllers? Unless Valve did all those things after Oculus being bought up by FB.

        • polysix

          I’m sure for that answer you just need to:

          1. Ask Palmer Luckey
          2. Invert his answer and you’ll have the truth

          Good luck with that! :)

  • Sven Viking

    In Australia, after taking into account tax and processing fees that aren’t calculated at checkout, the total cost for Vive is USD$1055.

    The total cost for Rift is USD$781, so Touch needs to total less than $274 (shipped) to cost less than Vive.

    P.S. – Make sure to fill out your customs declaration forms electronically when paying Australian GST, otherwise the processing fee increases from AU$50 to $90.

    • NimbusTLD

      Hi Sven, can you please tell me more about this customs declaration form? Where do I find it? I want to make sure I fill in mine to reduce the inevitable customs tax Dx

      • Sven Viking

        I haven’t spent much time on it yet, but after some quick googling, I haven’t found much detail on how to actually go about it. I’d guess customs are supposed to contact you about it once the package enters the country. We’ve been discussing it here:
        https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/48b0z4/australian_vive_price_usd81727_110_shipping_8173/

        And some of the things people have been saying don’t sound encouraging, e.g. that it takes forever and the easiest way is to hire a customs broker to handle it for you. :(

      • Sven Viking

        In case anyone checks back here: Last word from HTC support was that FedEx will arrange to charge Australians the GST and customs fees.

        • NimbusTLD

          Awesome, thanks so much and filling us in Sven :)

        • NimbusTLD

          Hey Sven, just wanting to share that I received my Vive today via FedEx, and I am pleasantly surprised to report that I was not charged any extra fees! :D Thank you FedEx/Aus Customs!!!!

          • Sven Viking

            Assuming we don’t get a bill later, we actually won’t have paid any tax. That’s highly unexpected. With that and free shipping for the Oculus Rift, things are turning out surprisingly cheap for Australians.

          • Sven Viking

            They recently said this was a mistake and they’ll charge tax etc. on future orders, by the way.

          • NimbusTLD

            Hah. Where did they say this?

          • Sven Viking

            Can’t remember precisely where I saw it but there’s some related info here: https://reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4e47q9/australiannew_zealand_price_increase/

  • Badelhas

    Anyone has the slightest clue regarding availability dates in other countries?

  • Mark Kiernan

    How long do we have to wait until we have all the hardware needed inside the headset? I.e. no PC required?

    • Bryan Oliver

      GearVR will keep getting better and better. Perhaps at some point it will not require a phone, but include everything needed. Maybe it includes a box in your pocket, connected to the HMD by a cable. Google is working on something like this.

    • polysix

      If you want the kind of power that a PC of that time will provide the answer is “never”. If you want TODAY’s bare minimum PC spec of decent VR at this fairly low res – then you’ll need a 980gtx i7 4x equivelent in a small enough tech to stick inside a light enough HMD and then a BATTERY that works far beyond any laptop battery we currently have to power it. That’s gonna be one heavy-ass HMD.

      NOW if you just want a self contained gear VR type experience? that’s pretty easy, maybe in the next 2 years? But you won’t be getting great looking VR on it.

      The real answer is wireless HMDs, the tech is out there now and being improved all the time and I think Gen 2 PC HMDS (maybe 2018?) will be wireless. Along with Foveated rendering to reduce the transmission load, (and PC power needed) they can then also put higher res screens in (and/or increase FOV). We’ll get better graphics, better performance, zero cables and no face heater ‘all in ones’ or ‘mobile hack jobs’. Of course wirless HMDs will still need battery power but driving the screens won’t be as bad as a whole computer on board…

      A wireless but PC powered HMD will always be lighter than a phone based one or a built in one, and comfot is a vital as performance in VR.

    • I tried a GameFace prototype today and found it surprisingly impressive. Totally self contained, and had better FOV and less SDE than Gear VR. Better ergonomics, too (PSVR-like head strap).

  • I worry about the audio. Rift comes with an audio solution that they’ve put a lot of effort into to increase immersion and which they claim match the specs of a high end unit. The Vive…comes with cheap off-the-shelf earbuds. Not even mentioned on their main product landing page because it’s such an afterthought.

    It’s easy to claim that everyone already has great headphones, but it’s actually not the case and it totally ignores the obvious problem of needing two pieces of equipment. Lots of people have desktop speakers, or portable earbuds for their phones – looking around while out and about, relatively few people actually drag around headphones (let alone quality ones) unless they’re the usual bass-heavy stylish suspects.

    Having VR ruled by bad quality audio as the basic experience is such a disappointing outcome on the Vive side. It’s enough for me to completely come down from the fence and just go get a Rift. I can live without roomscale given the realities of my accomodation – but I’m not going out to spend even more unnecessary cash on getting a decent pair of headphones when the darn things are built into the Rift already.

  • polysix

    Two things you’ve ommitted in this otherwise pretty accurate article that affect cost and esp VALUE:

    A. The vive (consumer version) ALSO includes integrated bluetooth which hooks up to your mobile phone allowing you to make/take calls/text and view calenders while STILL in VR. THIS is a great feature and probably worth $50 all by itself! As a previous DK2 user and dev I know full well how annoying it can be to get into VR only for the phone to ring, have to take it off just to see it’s a junk call or w/e (but you check in case it’s important). ALSO when sound is on you can miss VITAL calls so you opt out of VR till that call has come – with Vive you don’t need to! you can spend ALL DAY in it and never worry about missing a call (Audio wise or visual wise) you can opt to have it pop right up on the VR screen and deal with it there (via Vive’s built in MIC too).

    That is yet another bonus to Vive over rift, real tangiable usability that makes being in VR for long times more relaxed and “secure” (along with the front cam that with tron mode will allow a double click to see your room/desk and to find your chair/controller etc) all of this without remoing the HMD! Brilliant! Rift doesn’t and won’t have any of that until Generation 2 (if at all).

    B. ROOMSCALE – Sure, the rift will have motion controls AND a second cam when they finally get it launched, BUT roomscale is NOT a given and oculus don’t even support it officially. The problem is 2 oculus cams can’t track everything anywhere near as well as two Vive basestations can, the cams suffer from FOV problems low to the ground AND the system needs 2 cams JUST to see both controllers at 100% of the time (due to their shape they occlude far too easily) these are reasons why touch has been delayed but unless they come out with Vive style wands I can’t see them ever fixing this problem with Touch anytime soon. Be warned, as oculus are being VERY shady about this and not open at all.

    All in all the tiny amount extra that Vive costs for such a robust and fully packed system is clearly the better buy if you wish to use motion control and roomscale (and from a DK2 + gamepad owner for years -YOU SHOULD care about motion control and roomscale cos sitting down with a gamepad gets old fast).

    One last thing, Oculus shipping is terrible, the cost to actually SHIP touch will need to be factored in. No way is touch + extra cam + shipping coming in any less than $200 and likely more. Factor in the need perhaps for at least ONE extra cam (so 3 total) just to do robust *seated* 360 controller tracking and maybe TWO extra cams (4 total) to even aproximate roomscale and suddenly your in very deep in a system that is playing catch up to the vive.

    My own vive is ordered (first day first ten minutes) and have sold my Rift DKs as I’m not buying into HIGH PRICE VR to be sat in my seat only and esp not to use gamepads. Also bear in mind (for those that aren’t clear) VIVE works perfectly with sitting AND a gamepad/wheel/HOTAS if you so choose too. It can do EVERYTHING the rift does but a lot more besides.

    • shijocj

      Nice write!! I am also having the same opinion..How do you see the possibility of games contents with in 1 year? I am also looking to Legacy game support apps like Vorpx. any input on this regard..This is the Huge factor I am leaning on to decide which way I should go.

  • Jeri Haapavuo

    I am guessing that the Oculus Touch price will be a total ripoff since Oculus already has lots of customers. Many people have already bought the Rift and they are not going to sell it away or stick with the Xbone controller. That is why Oculus can set a really high price tag for Touch, and they should. The price for Touch will be something like $350. I hope Oculus will release a Rift + Touch bundle too, for a bit lower price.

  • jay67

    So with all of them movement is still basically using an analog joystick with your thumbs. Thus VR will never have great market penetration.