Having previously announced that the consumer Oculus Rift and Touch controllers would be available for pre-order in 2015, Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey today confirmed that pre-orders will hit “soon after New Year.”
Following the announcement of a substantial launch delay to the HTC Vive from Q1 2015 to April 2016, Oculus has now confirmed that eager early adopters won’t see pre-orders until early 2016. Founder Palmer Luckey notes in a tweet today:
Fortunately Luckey also says that the Rift is still on track for the previously announced release date of Q1 2016:
Earlier this year, Oculus had announced that the much anticipated consumer Rift would open for pre-orders in 2015, ahead of the 2016 launch. It was also stated that the company’s Touch VR controllers would open for pre-order alongside the Rift, though it isn’t clear if that will still be the case with this delay.
Back at Oculus’ ‘Connect’ developer conference in September, the company said that the first Rift headset had rolled off the production line as part of a manufacturing test.
“We set a date out for ourselves for when we wanted to build the first product and we hit that date on the nose,” said Oculus Hardware Project Manager, Stephanie Lue, on stage at Connect. “Our hardware teams are pouring our hearts and souls to get it just right for the experience and for manufacturability so that we can get this out to as many people as possible. It’s definitely worth the wait.”
While Oculus Touch remains entirely unpriced, Oculus confirmed to Road to VR that the Rift would cost “more than $350,” which is believed to exclude the cost of Touch. Each Oculus Rift will come bundled with an Xbox One controller and EVE: Valkyrie.