Unfortunately some more bad news for early adopters who pre-ordered the Rift and expected it to arrive on or around the March 28th launch date. The delay has now pushed expected shipping dates of some day-one pre-orders into late May and even June.

Citing an “unexpected component shortage”, Oculus confirmed in the days following the March 28th launch of the Rift that there would be delays in shipping for some orders, and that customers could expect an update to their order status by April 12th. Today the company began updating the estimated ship dates of some orders, revealing the extent of the delay.

One U.S. customer who pre-ordered the Oculus Rift 33 minutes after pre-orders became available back on January 6th has an estimated shipping date between May 23rd and June 2nd, roughly two months from the headset’s launch date.

oculus-rift-pre-order-shipment-delay

Another customer, who pre-ordered 1 hour and 40 minutes after Rift pre-orders went live, says their estimated shipping date is between June 13th and 23rd.

In an earlier update about the delay, Oculus refunded shipping charges for all orders up through April 2nd. The company maintains that “many Rifts will be arriving on schedule and in line with original estimates…”

oculu rift teardown (2)
See Also: Oculus Rift Teardown Offers Glimpse of Unique Lenses, LEDs, and More

At this point it isn’t clear if the delay is impacting the entire queue of orders and pre-orders, or just certain batches and shipping regions. However, this week we did see that the Rift backorder date (for those placing a brand new order) was pushed back another month, from July to August.

An Oculus customer support rep confirmed on Reddit that the Kickstarter Rifts are “from a different allocation,” than pre-orders and orders, though the delay appears to have impacted some of those shipments as well. A somewhat confusingly worded statement from the same customer support rep says that shipping estimates formerly shown to Kickstarter backers were in error:

SEE ALSO
How to Tell if Your PC is VR Ready

Kickstarter Backers, we’re changing your Order History to show “TBD” instead of the date as that date was applicable to the time in which we imported the orders. We’ve already fulfilled a large number of the orders and more are being fulfilled on a regular cadence.

We’ll continue to keep our eye on the shipping situation and bring you the latest as we hear more from Oculus and those waiting on Rift arrivals.

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

    Yep. Preordered one hour 24 minutes after the preorder window opened. Estimated Ship Date 6/6/2016 – 6/16/2016.

  • George Vieira IV

    As soon as the order would go through I ordered mine. Estimated Ship Date 5/23/2016 – 6/2/2016

    • Kijutsu

      Same here… this is sloppy as heck.

    • Frank Taylor

      Same here as well…finished order 25 minutes after pre-orders started. Estimated ship date 5/23-6/2. They have a serious problem with components.

  • Nathan Daughdrill

    14min after the Hour. 5/9/2016 – 5/19/2016

  • Greg Dietz

    I don’t know what time of the day Jan 6th I ordered it but none the less. Est ship date is 6/27/16 – 7/7/16 with a xxxxxxx36xxxxx order #. I really consider this a ‘roll out’. Not a “Launch” IMO. Little disappointed considering I did get one of the “1 – 3 weeks” emails but hey, what can ya do? Wait is all.

    • G-man

      or buy a vive, which you could order now and get it earlier than that rift you ordered 3 months ago.

      • Greg Dietz

        I may end up canceling my rift order and go w/ the Vive instead. At least valve and EXPECIALLY HTC have some manufacturing/distribution experience. The only reason I went with rift over vive anyway was because I hate those haptic touch pads they put on the steam controllers and now they are on their vive controllers :(

        If Oculus is this behind on their headsets it leads me to beleive there’s not much hope for the touch controllers coming out in the second half FY either. I think Oculus really bit themselves in the *ss on this. I’m not sure I can trust anything they say now. Everything from their blog/twitter/e mails/reddit’s may all be hot air because obsolutely nothing they have said so far has been accurate; 300 – 400 dollars cost, March 28 launch date, touch controllers, ect, ect, ect. The list goes on and on. I think I may have made the wrong choice on headsets.

        • G-man

          what dont you like about the touch pads? i think in a lot of ways they are better than a thumbstick.

          and yeah, i dont see touch coming out any time soon. i could be wrnong but i just generaly dont believe anything any of them say about anything easier to not be dissapointed that way

          • Greg Dietz

            The touch pads have the potential to be better-or as good-I think but I’m not particularly a fan.

        • Guy Brand

          I ordered my Rift and Vive the day they went live. The Vive arrived 2 weeks ago. The Rift nothing. Once you get past the initial awe, you realize with both Rift and Vive, there isn’t a lot of software out there. I have a feeling when the Rift finally comes out, there will be a more robust library of stuff to do with it. As of now, your not missing too much.

  • Stephen Marshall

    I ordered 34 minutes in….29xxxx. Got the 5/23 – 6/2 date as well. This sucks.

  • ArchangelX

    My window is 5/22 to 6/1…so I guess it’s not as bad as it could be. :(

  • Muddy

    Ordered 24 mins in and I’m out to June ship date. Poor form Oculus, my HTC Vive has beat you to my door by 2 months!

    • realtrisk

      And it’s so good, who cares about Rift? ;)

  • VRDRUMMER

    Ordered Jan. 6th…..20 mins after the hour # 27 Estimated Ship 5/16 – 5/26
    I really hope that they aren’t filling the Best Buy bundles during this time (April early May) that were sold in March.
    Really Bummed.
    Thank goodness, I ordered my VIVE —2 weeks ago also set for May delivery.

  • teachuslove

    Ordered late on 2/29 with ETA of May. Now showing 7/25-8/4. Not good at all. Need this for a work project. Might have to go with a Best Buy Bundle as they’re showing ship dates of early May (bumped back from late April).

  • Mario Baldi

    In a way, as disappointing as it is to wait, I can understand the shortage. This is the first product of this kind, and it’s probably not easy to estimate the amount of sells on day one.
    Maybe they’ll do better with gen 2 ;)

  • Raphael

    Yes, my order now has 2 month delay. I have Vive on pre-order so if that arrives first I will cancel the Oculus.

    • realtrisk

      You won’t regret it if you do. Vive is as much better than DK2 as DK2 was better than a normal monitor. Having motion controls and roomscale makes ALL the difference. It is just huge.

      • Letrico

        Of course vive is gonna be better than the dk2 :/, even rift cv1 is gonna be better than dk2.

        • realtrisk

          I don’t think you read what I said carefully. CV1 is just an evolutionary step above DK2, with slightly better screens and slightly better lenses. But Vive is a revolutionary step above, adding in the ability to interact directly with the world. It removes the abstraction layer of using a keyboard and mouse/controller and gives you the ability to interact with the world directly with your hands. The effect is so far beyond what Rift does currently, it isn’t even in the same league.

    • Brad

      Same thing here.

      • Raphael

        But I just checked today and it looks like HTC deleted my order. I’d read about that happening and it looks like they’ve done it with mine too. I alerted my credit card company about the future transaction and the amount. I’ve contacted Vive via their support a few hours ago. No reply yet.

        • Chris

          I had the same thing happen to me where I can’t see my order at all on their website. I spoke with HTC and they said they can still see my order and all was good and I should be expecting a delivery sometime between the middle and the end of the month with a warning email a couple days before being shipped

          • Raphael

            Lol. Between Oculus and Vive it’s turning out to be a bit problematic. I still haven’t had a reply yet from HTC but it sounds like my order could still be active then (based on what they told you).

          • Chris

            Yeah. Calling HTC was fast for me and gave me some answers. I’m still a little skeptical tho cuz it felt like he told me what I wanted to hear like some script he read. But I’m trying to hold out hope he was honest. He was able to repeat my info back to me like he was looking at my order at least even tho I couldn’t see it

  • leeleelee69

    My order is due 23rd july?, luckily I preorder a vive this is due for delivery in 10 days. Was looking forward to the rift but it seems like they took the order just to match the vive release. No delays for the HTC Vive shipping as yet!!

    • Mateusz

      How do you know it’s due in 10 days? Been waiting for my Vive since 5th and there’s no news afaik>

      • leeleelee69

        Had a chat with them on there chat line this week as I was frustrated. Guy seemed ok, I dropped a few funnies in the chat and he said order was ok with no delays and should be getting it in 14 days but could not be more specific

  • Tom

    4/25-5/5 for me and my order was to the second when I could get through (xxxxxxx26xxxxx). Here I was disappointed having to wait several more weeks sorry to hear everybody else’s news was worse than mine. I will say selling it on eBay is becoming even more tempting now as they’re going for $1,200+… But who am I kidding, I’m not going to sell it, I’ve been waiting several years for this to be released!! What’s another few weeks :-)

  • Ian Crosson

    I ordered and got second slot initially of early April. The ship date changed this morning to 5/30/16-6/9/16. NO new details, same worthless statement, other than worthless date change that only a fool would trust. Pretty pissed as now HTC Vive which I could have gotten is at same date essentially. Facebook obviously has no ability to manage expectations.

  • Frank Taylor

    It’s not just the buyers who are impacted by this 2 month delay, it’s also all the developers of software who will now have to wait even longer before getting the revenues they were counting on. So, big disappointment all around.

    • yag

      They knew the risks to develop exclusively for a non-existent device… Huge risks and a crazy bet.

  • Zobeid

    You mean you guys actually get an estimated ship date? It could be worse. You could be waiting on a Vive. We’re told nothing.

    • popupblocker

      Agree. Mine just turned up and LEFT ON THE DOORSTEP!!!!!!

  • Tom

    I’m curious if the touch controllers will be delayed as well. Any way to press Palmer or the oculus folk on an official statement on this? I have serious concerns they are being forced to focus on cv1 in order to calm the masses and the touch controllers might be bumped to 2017 or be released December 2016 officially but roll out like cv1.

    • VRDRUMMER

      My guess would be 2017 on Touch Controllers to meet the demands of Rift..Or at very best December 2016. That is my take. Unlikely they will invest in production anymore at this stage of CV1 to simply meet demand. They will keep the steady hype that has been created for the VR market.

      • Tom

        If they come from seperate facilities though it would be a great way to try and win back the community

        • VRDRUMMER

          Good point on Touch…maybe..
          But the reality is the community is in the palm of theirs hands, cunning edge new format and product in endless demand at least for now. Typically, companies don’t change or expand especially under these circumstances. Unless it is into multi million demand, which I don’t believe it has reached in preorders…. Even negative press is good as the old cliché goes. As disappointed as alot of customers are with the launch I haven’t read many comments on people cancelling orders for Rift. So we know it’s all coming eventually, Rift, Touch just a matter of time.

          • Tom

            Just got my ship notice several days ahead of even the first projected date. Thought I’d share the good news so hopefully it gives others a positive outlook on the dates. Also mine is shipping next day air saver. That’s a pretty awesome ship speed to have included for free. Hope everybody else gets theirs ahead of schedule!

    • G-man

      i can see it going that way and them not managing to ship them this year. if they do that then they are screwed. vive has tracked controllers right now and they are aiming to have the vive in shops.

      there is absolutely zero reason why they can’t manufacture the rifts and be manufacturing the same amount of controllers, they are entirely different build processes that will require very different machinery and entirely seperate production lines. they don’t have to focus on cv1 headset, they can and should be producing both. this component shortage for the headset should mean by the time people get their headsets the controllers should be ready to go. but thats not going to happen.
      if this company has shown over and over what they are good at, it’s making awful decisions and taking forever to do anything.

      • leeleelee69

        Went today to have a go in PC world. To be honest the controllers blow me away. VR isn’t VR with out them. The kids will love this and me

        • G-man

          yep, tracked controllers is a must. the more you can feel like you ar ein the game the etter, with a xbox one controller you’ll just feel like your eyes are in a vr world, and th rest of your body isnt.

  • popupblocker

    Feel for you guys that are having to wait. It’s really very good. MIny Kickstater one arrived the other day – My vive arrived yesterday which is also awesome. The Rift is a better designed bit of kit over all, but the Vive’s unique features make it more sticky. The Rift can do (small) Room scale which a lot of people seem to forget just without the camera camera it’s a little dangerous!

    • yag

      No need of a camera, just put a foam pad on the floor and you have your chaperone system :)

      • popupblocker

        I think if you have a big enough empty space there is no need for any… I’ve strung my headset cables from the ceiling via elastic so there is a natural pull back when you get to the edge – not if you do this DO use bungy or something cos if you fall over you could hurt your neck or worse. Roll on hands free VR ( not Gear VR doesn’t count! )

        • yag

          Nice, you should post photos of your system on reddit/oculus, some people are struggling with pully/hook systems.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      But SteamVR also has a chaperone system without the camera, not as fancy, but you can still set a boundary and it should work..

  • realtrisk

    Order placed 8 min. after the hour. 5/2 to 5/12 estimate. I question their word.

  • Mike

    I ordered within 4 minutes of the pre-order going live, order # a xxxxxxx24xxxxx. Got the 1-3 week email very early and my checkout said March. I fortunately now have an estimated ship date of 4/18-4/28. However, this was a terrible launch and even worse communication. They would have seen a component shortage a few weeks prior to 3/28, I feel like they delayed info to stop people from cancelling or switching to the Vive (although that wouldn’t have turned out much better)

    • Dunnlang

      I have been involved with these sorts of launches before. I know some of their suppliers too. One of their suppliers ended up delaying our first production build for a new product by weeks. They shipped us 100% bad material, but it was not apparent until after assembly, where 30% fell out and after aging, where the rest of them failed. There was no possibility of having weeks worth of notice. It was literally the day of the production build starting.

      It could be some sort of nefarious attempt to keep people on the hook, or it could have been an 11th hour nightmare like I have seen. Either way, OR could still stand to be clearer about things.

  • Ian Shook

    I ordered 4 full days after the pre-order started. My email yesterday told me It would be pushed out to 7/7/16 to 7/14/16. About 1 month later than expected. Whatever. It’ll be fun when it gets here. I have more important things to complain about.

  • NingJare

    I preordered within the first hour and got an estimate for 13/6 -23/6 today. A bit disappointed but I can’t wait to use this thing =P I will watch YouTube videos and read news every day until I get it haha

  • VRDRUMMER

    What arrogance from Oculus, or ignorance…I don’t know which.
    Goes to show you Trust means alot, if not everything.
    -Advice be as transparent as you can and communicate well in advance of promise dates if you can’t meet commitments. It will go miles in establishing confidence and trust with your customers. I mean you are the Pioneers of this whole VR format at this current stage. It seems you guys just sent out a couple thousand CV1 to say you were first in the market.
    I purchased a brand new PC over $3000.00 just for VR experience (Oculus), I know, I know I could have built my own for less than $2000.00 but I chose to do this and preferred laptops so it had to be an expensive MSI by my choice.
    I purchased late Jan. early Feb. so to have it and be ready for what I thought was a solid March 28th Oculus launch.
    Now, the laptop is 500.00 cheaper from the vendor that I purchased and seeing that my Rift date has been pushed back by almost 2 months I could have waited to have ordered the PC.
    I know you guys are going to have a solid product in the CV1 I have enthusiastically followed for 4-5 years but I shake my head at the way have approached your consumer version and introduction into the market.

    • Dunnlang

      You’ll never be disappointed that you waited on a consumer electronics purchase. Things always get cheaper or better technology. This is especially true of fixed model products like laptops that depreciate as new models are rolled out on a regular schedule.

      There is likely nothing OR could have done to prevent this situation and this may be the best level of communication that they can provide. You probably can not even begin to guess how many different scenarios are being passed around internally at OR and with their suppliers. OR must do their best to distill all possibilities down to something likely and reasonable for the consumer. That is far more challenging than you would guess.

      • VRDRUMMER

        Yes, I am fully aware because of my professional line of work and experience. That is why I speak with the degree of understanding and not selfish anger.
        I work for a great Pioneer company in Quality. Completely familiar with unforeseen scenarios, delays with suppliers etc.
        But our competitors capitalize on knowing this and their R&D is ultra progressive, my company makes a great demanded product too riding of sound and history.
        I appreciate and respect your comment but I do know that these things can manifest within a company and that Culture change can be hard to implement so not to repeat. My conviction and passion always is for the consumer.

        • Jim Cherry

          I think part of the problem is start up culture versus consumer product manufacture culture. Start up culture is fail fast, ask forgiveness as apposed to permission. While consumer product manufacture culture is all about finding lowest margin and standard product cycles. OR is probably still geared as a startup.

          • VRDRUMMER

            Good point.. They will learn from experience as we all do and iron out the wrinkles … Because we know naturally they would want things to go as smooth as possible too.

        • digic

          Hi Vrdrummer,

          Securing the supply chain is one of the biggest challenge Hi-tech compnies have to face, I think we all agree on that. Unexpected events can occur we all agree on that , no one ever said it was an easy job , but at some some point you have to endorse or take your responsabilites … We are not taking about a startup with two guys in their garage who invested the 500$ they had on their saving account … we are talking about a company that received 2 billions dollars of cash , a company that can easily afford to hire the very best personns on earth ( including logisitic managers ! ) , a company that has been in the business for 4 years …let s face it there is no excuse at all …

          • Tom

            OR was bought by Facebook a multimillion dollar company but how many hardware devices has Facebook launched? They are obviously still learning how to deal with the manufacturing and hardware side of things. I agree things could have been handled better as I’ve felt the disappointment multiple times of delays (all the way back to the initial seconds of launch when the site crashed and I couldn’t place my order) but in the end I still want the product and hope the quality is worth the wait. From everything I’ve heard and seen I am sure it will be.

          • VRDRUMMER

            I agree Tom..It will be awesome.. And all of this learning curve for them isn’t the end of the world. I hope you enjoy your Rift when you get it..

          • VRDRUMMER

            I agree didic.. We don’t know if within the issues they are having (component related) if they aren’t making those accountable…. Internally writing them up Ect.
            So to check off:
            We aren’t saying design engineers
            We are saying Marketing besause of sales and their part in March 29th original launch date.
            Project Manager should be clear, CV1 was signed off.
            Their Buyer is not getting a raise for componat miscalculations.
            Can’t blame Production if the are waiting on parts, but hopefully the component isn’t one that would keep them from being able to do partial assembly and have the builds ready to go once the missing component arrives.

            Thoughts?

          • digic

            You know , honestly I don’t know who to blame ;-)
            Maybe Mark & Palmer should have taken advices from Elon , this guy was able to create premium electric cars and space shuttles with no hardware experience , and obviously did a much better job …

            Beside the issue of hardware shortage , I keep thinking there is a communication problem , what’s the point about creating a buzz by delivering in personn the first order to Alaska, when you knew that at that time most of the devices were left behind somewhere in an asian factory ? Was he expecting some kind of overnight miracle ?

            Now , I had dinner tonight , I ‘m healthy , I love my job , my friends , my family and my dog , so I should have nothing to complain about , even if my 700€ piece of equipment is stuck in limbo , I agree this not the end of the world :-) , I have no intention to flood social networks or expect people to drop a tear while reading these lines :-) nevertheless I think they should take this VR thing more seriously , and focus on managing the crisis rather than taking selfies in Alaska.

            Once again : this reflects my personal opinion , I m not mad at anyone , just a little disapointed.

            Kids : it s time to grow up now , you are at the head of a multi billion dollar company , and the planet is looking at you ;-)

          • Tom

            The reason he went to Alaska was to keep a promise to himself that he had since first having his vision of OR. I respect this gesture but agree transparency would have been great here in the delayed shipments. Based on how he was ‘rushing’ to get back to the office I’m sure he was aware of the issues at the time but can you blame him for wanting to see the look on at least one happy customers face before pissing off so many? ;-D

            Again, I don’t even know what he does for OR anymore since he’s simply dubbed ‘founder’ by title. I think he is more the face of the company than he is anything else at this point unless anybody can prove otherwise.

          • Guy Brand

            Really enjoying my Vive right now! Ended up canceling my Rift order.

          • VRDRUMMER

            @Guy Brand… That’s great! Can’t wait to get my VIVE…(May) I am still getting Rift too, whenever it ships..

      • G-man

        informing your customer a week after they expected their product to be shipped after waiting two months to that point is unjstifiable. they must have known about the component shortage the day the pre orders went live and they realised how many they needed to manufacture to meet that demand. maybe i’d give them a week or two after that to conatct suppliers and realise they weren’t going to be able to find a large enough supply to meet the demand, but then where is the othe rmonth? they just sat twiddling their thimbs hoping the problem would get fixed and they wouldn’t have to tell their customers that their product wasn’t going to ship on the dat e they had been told? thats not how to run a business at all.
        there should have been far more communication from them, even if just to make people know the shipping dates might be delayed, and so people like vrdrummer wouldn’t waste their money buying a pc earlier than they needed to. just imagine how many people have done that now and could have saved a bunch of money…

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, to be honest, that’s your own fault.. A laptop/pc can be delivered within a couple of days, and getting it ready only takes a couple of days (keeping regular working hours in mind). And you never had an actual shipping date when you pre-ordered.. So ordering a very expensive laptop so early on is your real mistake.. but then again, you did already have the fun of using it…

      • VRDRUMMER

        Agreed AJ.. Hence the end of my sentence “by my choice” I took responsibility…
        I was given a date of launch on my preorder March 28th.
        Now, this has been an unorthodox launch if as a gamer you compare and look at when companies like Sony, Microsoft give their launch dates in giving a specific date for launching new products. And anyone who has preordered expects it the product on the launch date specified.

  • David Glenn

    I Got my notice 11:30 PM last night about my Oculus Delivery date! They now taking about delivery about the last week in May. I figure that is about a month delay given that I figured that originally thought it would be at the end of April before I got mine! Anyway, it just gives me more research time on the HTC-Vive for my VR paper. Though I may have to exclude Oculus all together if I run out of time or it’s delayed any further.

  • PianoMan

    I do wonder how much Oculus knew before launch of the delays looming. They must have had some idea. They knew the numbers that were required for manufacture and components design, testing and supply chain would have been sorting a long time before launch. Perhaps they didn’t want to spook their own market. The last thing they wanted to do was ruin their own launch. Ge the orders in first, deal with the customer backlash after, because of the type of product it is, many orders will remain. Plus it limits the number of people cancelling early before the Vive pre-orders and launch (which has been interesting) to stop them jumping ship. Both Oculus and HTC could do better here, more communication and simply just be honest. Oculus knows more that they’re letting on and I am concerned about the later impact this has for Oculus, may even delay the Touch controllers too – more so given how relatively new these are in the development process. HTC simply needs to give people more accurate dates, but they have been somewhat more open – with the Global VP of Comms at HTC Julia Herd actually personally dealing with requests for shipping etc herself. Although, still down as just a ‘You’re down for a April delivery, that’s all I can tell you for now’. Better than nothing, but a date is always welcome, especially in these days on next day delivery and transparent shipping and tracking for most orders these days.

  • G-man

    “Kickstarter Backers, we’re changing your Order History to show “TBD” instead of the date as that date was applicable to the time in which we imported the orders. We’ve already fulfilled a large number of the orders and more are being fulfilled on a regular cadence.”

    jesus christ, this is a message a company sent to its kickstarter backers? do they not have someone proof read these messages before sending them to thousands of people?

    i just picture palmer sitting at his desk with about 2 dozen empty red bulls around him, tearing his hair out not know what the hell to do and gong over and over the message a dozen times to be as non commital aspossible until it barely makes any sense

    • PianoMan

      I’m starting to wonder if Oculus as a company is actually still just him, in his parents garage, a soldering iron, some phone components and his laptop… Mum dealing with calls, Dad helping him box stuff and the Dog writing emails.

  • PianoMan

    Just reading too at how many Kickstarter backers are getting hammered with delays. That is not acceptable considering these are the people that helped get the ball rolling and Palmer Lucky (Spell check) get his $2B pay day. Part of me wonders how much control Palmer really has! Whenever I see him in interviews, he feels out of his depth. Perhaps it’s time for a board shuffle 80/90’s Apple style.

    • Tom

      Technically he is always referred to as a founder of oculus but no current title beyond that. Here’s a website with a snapshot of who’s in charge. Again, note he is listed as founder and nothing more. http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=241782536

    • Andrew Jakobs

      uhh, as an original kickstarter backer you get the CV1 for free, which wasn’t even necessary as you already got the vizor you backed.. Let’s not forget, as a kickstarter backer you paid for the initial DK1 not for any release afterwards..
      The reason you see out of his depths in interviews is that he is just not good at it (has been pointed out a gazillion times), and that’s also why a lot of times other people do the interview..

      • PianoMan

        I wasn’t aware of that. I thought that the backers got the original dev kit and then paid more for the CV1, they simply got first dibs. Interesting. OK well I guess it could be said they have less of a complaint. However, for those who pre-ordered minutes after the doors opened and being promised with a launch date, it’s pretty poor to then say they’re not going to get it months later. More so given Oculus must have known a long time ago of this issue. It seems something is awry in Oculus, they’re upsetting people. First they promised the price wouldn’t be what it is, then that it would be launched last year, then the pre-orders went up, now the launch has been screwy and products delayed. I wonder how on earth they can be trusted. If I had a CV1 on order and been bumped down the line, I’d consider hugely in cancelling.

  • Ko-chin Chang

    I ordered my rift on Jan 15th and my estimated ship date has been pushed back to 7/11/2016 – 7/21/2016

  • Correct Real Person

    WAY TO COMPLETELY F UP OCULUS! YOU THINK THEY’D ANTICIPATE LARGE DEMAND. GOOD IDEA I GUESS, GET HUGE HYPE FOR YOUR PRODUCT SO EVERYONE GIVES AWAY THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY RIGHT WHEN OCULUS WANTS IT, THEN DRAG YOUR FEET AT SHOWTIME. PROB OF SIPPING MARTINIS SOMEWHERE…

    • CURTROCK

      Oculus doesn’t charge customers until their product is shipping.

  • sntxrrr

    It took 14 min before I got an order processed on launch and my expected delivery is 5/30/2016 – 6/9/2016 in Europe. :-(
    Surely my HTC Vive must arrive sooner…

  • sntxrrr

    I suspect it is the Xbox controller that’s causing the delay. Two reasons:
    1) Oculus doesn’t control its manufacture. They should know a few weeks in advance what shipments are coming in from the factories they’ve contracted. But the controller is beyond their control and a supplier might just have said to them “you want an extra 200.000? Sorry, mate!”
    2) They don’t explain what component is in short supply and the controller is contentious with some people erroneously thinking it makes the Rift more expensive (by what? 20 bucks or so?) and some stating they don’t want another controller. So they don’t want discussions about it to flair up again, making an unfortunate situation even worse.
    Just my 2 cents…

    • Jim Cherry

      just one problem with your theory ms is involved with the xbox controller and they don’t do well when it comes to keeping things secret so if it was an xbox controller shortage we would have been hearing rumors ahead of time.

      • Letrico

        The thing is, the wireless receiver for Xbox one are always on shortage. People are speculating the shortage is with the Xbox one wireless receiver, not the actual controller.

  • Striptaway

    Another expensive toy, whose developers spend their time
    calculating when and how much money they will make off this useless
    escapist junk.

    • Bryan Ischo

      Being smart enough to realize the potential of VR goes hand in hand with being smart enough to have a well paying job that makes that tech affordable. Sorry you are out in the cold on this one. Work hard and get a good education and maybe someday you can join the party too.

      • Striptaway

        Your reply is infantile and makes all the wrong assumptions.
        BTW; I am retired engineer and have forgotten more than you will ever comprehend.
        Aside from all that, you must spend most of your time knitting without needles

        • CURTROCK

          The fact that you call it “useless escapist junk” speaks to why it is YOU who are making all the wrong assumptions. I’m sure people like you made similar comments when the telephone & television were invented. Do you still communicate with a telegraph using morse code?

          • Striptaway

            The analogies you make are like comparing the Hadron Collider to ball bearings on a string.
            Consumer VR is a literally piece of expensive crap and serves only the mindless fools who live to waste their lives away.
            BTW; The phone was invented 150 years ago and since it was a true technology breakthrough people did not question its place in the everyday lives of people.
            Industrial and military uses of VR have been around for over a decade and do serve a very useful purpose.
            Consumer VR is marketed to fools who either are total morons or have no concept of the true realities of life

          • CURTROCK

            I hope I never become a narrow minded, judgemental old fool like you appear to be. Here is another analogy : A boring old man who spends his time shitting on breakthough tech & those who embrace it, vs the endless possibilities of VR. Enjoy the “true realities” of life, as you see it.

          • Striptaway

            You already have the narrow minded fool all wrapped up and considering you think like an infant makes that a pretty good trick.
            VR is not breakthrough technology but is part of the 24/7 marketing that proliferates this country.

          • CURTROCK

            Ya, ok. Wisdom from a guy who trolls a website focused on tech he thinks is for fools. #nolife

  • Bryan Ischo

    I have this feeling that HTC/Valve forced Oculus to release before they were ready. Consider:

    – When HTC/Valve announced a release date of end of 2015, Oculus basically responded by shifting their release plans to not include the touch controllers. They probably had a meeting where they decided that they could not afford to release 6 months to 1 year after the Vive, either because they thought that it would put them at too much of a competitive disadvantage, or because someone’s ego at Oculus was based in part on being “the first consumer VR headset”, or both.

    – When HTC/Valve announced that they had slipped their date until end of Q1 2016, it gave Oculus just enough breathing room to execute a partial rollout of their product with the reduced feature set (i.e. no touch controllers).

    – Oculus released their CV1 about a week before HTC/Valve, thus being able to claim “first consumer VR headset” and satisfying their egos

    – But Oculus clearly was not actually ready for a full roll-out release and probably knew this.

    There are too many pieces that fit together perfectly here. Quite simply, Oculus was humming along on what they thought was an aggressive schedule to deliver the CV1 with touch controllers early 2016. Then their internal dates began to slip, probably because they are having trouble with reliable tracking using their image processing based solution (exactly how easy can it be to tell the dots associated with a controller from the dots associated with a headset as they move across each other in the camera’s field of view???). Then they see how much solid progress HTC/Valve has made and see that HTC/Valve have no intention of sitting around polishing their product to a brilliant shine before releasing it, forcing Oculus to make some hard choices about how to schedule their release to best leverage what they can get done in time to claim first shipping VR headset, and to try to establish that developer lock-in momentum. The result is they decided to ship without touch controllers, but instead just use a lame xbox controller input solution which we all know is just a hack to allow them to release early. And even then, they knew they’d have to release before their manufacturing capability was able to fully satisfy all orders.

    And here we are.

    • Tom

      OR has already come out and said they never planned to release touch with the cv1 to allow time for content to be made. This is the same model they followed with releasing cv1 as they could have made dk2 an actual release of they wanted but thy didn’t because they wanted the initial launch to have enough credible content to be available to make the large purchase price worthwhile. Maybe you can say that’s a lie but I think that’s a smart marketing strategy.

      • Bryan Ischo

        Could just be saving face. Could it be that after all their user testing they were not aware of how fundamental hand presence is to the experience? No. They knew it. But HTC/Valve forced them out of “we can take as long as we need to make the perfect experience” mode, and into “we need something that can ship before the Vive” mode, and touch got dropped.

        Also, somewhere along the line, “we need to be sure that we can actually ship in volume on our declared release date” also went out the window.

  • Morality_Mortality

    I pre-ordered the Rift 11 minutes after orders opened on Jan.6th (once the Oculus webpage started working correctly) and I recently received my new updated shipping range of 5/9/2016 – 5/19/2016 . . .

    The dual reasons I haven’t CANCELLED my Oculus Rift in favor of the HTC Vive is because the Vive lists shipping in June and it’s $400 [CDN] more.

    Oculus is very lucky (<—pun) that they don't face direct competition . . . yet.

    Like VRDRUMMER I've spent close to $3000 on a new PC and spent added effort in order to ensure it was fully built and ready for the end of march. An "unforeseen component shortage" can happen – sure – but because that shortage was not communicated effectively or in a timely fashion to consumers is a critical oversight and one that demonstrates a lackadaisical attitude on the part of Oculus shipping and support staff.

  • Sky Castle

    People are blowing up on Reddit and rightfully so. I had an April release date that got pushed back to late May/early June estimate myself. I’m glad I still have my April Vive order.

  • gadg3tg33zer

    I feel fortunate. My date only moved out 3-4 weeks. I reserved within the first hour. Due to a slammed web site, an error forced me to start over. My first attempt to reserve gave a march date, my actual order had an april date and now, today, I’m informed that wit will be mid-late May.

    Just finished my new pc build for the Rift. It is decidedly much faster than the minimum spec that they have on the “discounted” desktops. And I can overclock every component if need arises.

  • Muddy

    My HTC Vive is here tomorrow, two months ahead of CV1. That gives me a decent amount of time to play with it and if it’s as good as everyone is saying it is, I’ll cancel my Oculus order. This appalling delay could end up saving me money… silver linings and all that…

    • DiGiCT Ltd

      Roomscale and the controllers make the difference on Vive, for the gear itself there is nearly no difference.
      We are still developing a room scale game, which will hit for steam greenlit auround May.

  • DiGiCT Ltd

    Funny thing to read yet another story about occulus :)
    Some of the people here called me an idiot, not knowing anything and stuff like that before here on this roadtovr site, all after i stated 1 moth ago that HTC vive is just the absolute winner out of the 3 VR gears.

    Funny, but hell ya I’m happy i did order the vive, all went perfect no complains yet.
    The difference is indeed professionalism.!!!
    Facebook is just a software company with online customer, digital product.
    Oculus founder some soldering guru with an good idea, respect for that.
    Although both are missing the most important experience and thats consumer electronics manufacture and reseller.
    HTC has long time expertise in manufacturing and has good supply chains for components, partnering up with Valve just made it better as they are one of the biggest game software platform in the world.
    They just had the perfect business plan.
    Spending (for most consumers) expensive gear +pc the thing that counts is reliability.
    The choice for HTC vive is simply on reliability as in future rift and vive will be similar with exception of room scale probably.
    Sony is also good if you have a PS for reliability as they have the same skills as HTC has in their business.
    That being said, i feel sorry for the ones sticking to the Rift.
    See it as the story Google invented android system but does not sell the most android phones in the world, same again google is a software company, not consumer product.
    Running manufacturing and consumer products is different and requires more set of skills and knowledge.
    I just know it as many years , my customers vary from manufactures to trading companies, bringing them consultancy and solutions for their specific business model.
    IMHO occulus might just overseen how complex organizing a consumer product might be.
    For the people here mention about this huge facebook investment, i need to agree that they should have hired the skilled ppl for this business, on the other hand it also might just be that most will not leave their current job for occulus as its only 1 product this company sells and what after the hot sales time is over … ??
    Hope they will solve their issue soon for the ones still waiting for rift, so happiness can take place for current sadness.

  • Foreign Devil

    Everything would arrive on time if the components were manufactured in USA instead of China.

    • DiGiCT Ltd

      Rofl, thats a good statement if you also want to pay more money for the components :D
      China works just fine and USA is far from perfect anyhow :)

      • Foreign Devil

        These compoents would be built by robotics in USA. . not humans. It would cost a bit more but that is OK.

  • Maria da Cunha

    Goodbye Oculus! I’m moving to the VIVE!

    • CURTROCK

      When Oculus announced the $600 price tag, you were screaming about how it was way too overpriced, and how you couldn’t afford it. Now, you are buying the $800 VIVE system? So, why don’t you admit that you are just someone who likes to post negative comments about Oculus, and price has nothing to do with it?

      • Maria da Cunha

        I’m spending all my savings of 4 years!

        • CURTROCK

          Congratulations! The VIVE is well worth your $800 investment. I have tried it. It’s amazing. I will be waiting for my Oculus Rift, which is also amazing.

  • Greg Dietz

    Although I pre ordered the rift I’m debating on canceling the pre order. Mainly because I’m not sure I can trust anything Oculus says anymore; 300 – 400 price range, oculus touch controllers, March 28 release date(more like a SLllllllow roll out), 1 – 3 week e mails, ect, ec, ect. I think Oculus has a real and valid credibility issue now. Not sure I can rely on what they say anymore. Reminds me of dealing with my teenager. Half truths and loads of bullsh*t.

  • Ann

    I was to get it in june and now they say august. Keep pushing it and i will be buying vive.

  • Correct Real Person

    “…can I still keep the 2 billion dollars?” said Palmer Luckey from a yaught off Alaska.

  • KuraIthys

    Kickstarter headsets are from a different batch…
    Mhhmh. Which explains why it’s now may and I have yet to even hear back from them about it.

    Look, I can’t complain since I’m getting it free, essentially, but it still sucks to be kept waiting like this…