Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2 Sells 25,000 Units in One Month

[Steven Bogos]

Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2 Sells 25,000 Units in One Month

Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR doesn't seem to be slowing down the demand for Oculus Rift dev kits.

When Tech Crunch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133231-Facebook-is-Buying-Oculus-VR-for-2-Billion-Update-4>Facebook bought Oculus last month, a lot of people were upset. Turns it, it wasn't the people who were planning on buying an Oculus dev kit, as the company has told <a href=] that it has sold 25,000 Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2s since the pre-order page went live on March 19. To put things into perspective for you, the original Oculus Rift Dev Kit sold around 60,000 units in its entire lifetime, meaning DK2 has sold almost half that number in a single month. Turns out people really want to either develop, or experience, virtual reality, no matter what company is backing it. Who'd have thought?

"We never expected to sell so many development kits," wrote a Oculus Rift community manager last month after a component shortage forced the company to halt sales of the first development kit. These sales figures echo a statement made by another community manager earlier in the month, when he said that the Rift was selling "just fine" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133325-Oculus-Rift-Selling-Just-Fine-After-Facebook-Buyout-Claims-Company].

Oculus stresses that the current Rift hardware is simply a "preview" meant for developers only and "not a consumer product." Indeed, while 25,000 units in one month is impressive for a developer kit, it falls rather short of what you'd expect from a consumer product. For comparison, Microsoft and Sony said sales of the XBOX One and PS4 reached approximately 3 million and 4 million, respectively, last year.

Have you bought an Oculus dev kit? Did the Facebook buyout affect your decision in any way? I'm waiting for the consumer product, as while it's a neat idea, I'd rather wait for them to iron out all the kinks before committing to it.

Source: Tech Crunch [http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/oculus-rift-shares-developer-hardware-sales-data/]

Permalink

 

[Middle_Index]

am still looking forward to the rift.

 

[NLS]

Ordered mine before the FB aquisition, looking forward to july when it starts shipping. No reason to jump on the hate-train because of the big Facebook deal, I've got better things to do.

 

[Saulkar]

I am extremely excited for this technology, especially to see if it can be used to improve my spacial awareness in 3DS Max, Blender, and Zbrush so I do not need to fiddle around the damn model to ensure that things line up. That and Call of Pripyat: Misery 2.1+!

Do not fuck this up footbook or I will kick your ass so hard out of orbit you will make Voyager 2 blush!

 

[LosButcher]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

 

[RoonMian]

The Time Magazine just had an article about Oculus. It was an interesting read and I greatly recommend it. Especially to the people still riding the hate train over Facebook's aquisition of Oculus.

 

[Sol_HSA]

I wonder if they actually have any incentive to get that consumer device out, as their devkits seem to sell pretty well.. =)

 

[AldUK]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Sorry, I'm having some trouble understanding this statement. You wanted to buy one to support the team and play around with it, but because they have money, you're now not going to buy one? What kind of crazy convoluted logic is that?

I too, am waiting for the consumer release, with baited breath. It's going to be an amazing experience.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Sorry, I'm having some trouble understanding this statement. You wanted to buy one to support the team and play around with it, but because they have money, you're now not going to buy one? What kind of crazy convoluted logic is that?

I too, am waiting for the consumer release, with baited breath. It's going to be an amazing experience.

Nothing convoluted about it. With Facebook backing, the Oculus Rift no longer requires crowd funding, so "supporting the project" is no longer a reason to buy the dev kit. Because "playing around" was his other stated motive, and because that apparently isn't sufficient justification for him to spend $300, he chose not to buy dev kit version 2. Logical.

 

[LosButcher]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Sorry, I'm having some trouble understanding this statement. You wanted to buy one to support the team and play around with it, but because they have money, you're now not going to buy one? What kind of crazy convoluted logic is that?

I too, am waiting for the consumer release, with baited breath. It's going to be an amazing experience.

Nothing convoluted about it. With Facebook backing, the Oculus Rift no longer requires crowd funding, so "supporting the project" is no longer a reason to buy the dev kit. Because "playing around" was his other stated motive, and because that apparently isn't sufficient justification for him to spend $300, he chose not to buy dev kit version 2. Logical.

Thanks, exactly that
I have become a lot more aware of who gets my money in the last couple of years. That is why I subscribe to The Escapist, but if Facebook bought them, I would unsubscribe immediately.

 

[Alterego-X]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Oculus will certainly benefit from your choice, I can't imagine that they would have been much helped by non-developers wasting their time by stretching their backlog on devkit distribution.

Devkit production was never a charity, it was an efficient way to increase dev support, and they were in fact troubled by too many non-devs "playing around" where the same scarce resources could have been spent on getting units in the hands of more developers.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Oculus will certainly benefit from your choice, I can't imagine that they would have been much helped by non-developers wasting their time by stretching their backlog on devkit distribution.

Let's be fair: while the devkits will certainly see use in designing or adapting games for use with the Rift, the primary purposes for selling them is to generate funding(now no longer necessary) and to generate hype. If this were not the case, they would not be sold publicly, but rather distributed to licensed partners. Indeed, I would not be the least bit surprised to find that major developers who asked could get their devkits ahead of the rest of the list.

Oculus Rift needs these devices in people's homes just as much as in the hands of developers because without that, the only people telling you that it's an amazing addition to your gaming rig are trying to sell you something.

 

[The Lunatic]

Whilst they've obviously felt the need to report this given the recent facebook thing.

I still can't say I'm convinced. I'll wait it out, but, the whole thing has definitely shaken my interest in the product.

 

[Alterego-X]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Oculus will certainly benefit from your choice, I can't imagine that they would have been much helped by non-developers wasting their time by stretching their backlog on devkit distribution.

Let's be fair: while the devkits will certainly see use in designing or adapting games for use with the Rift, the primary purposes for selling them is to generate funding(now no longer necessary) and to generate hype.

That's why Palmer went on record saying "If you're not a developer DO NOT buy a DK2"?

Or maybe it's reverse psychology?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I believe it would be wiser to wait to see what games actually have Rift support (I have read that list, but there's a difference between support for and actually being able to play). I mean it could very well be the next Wii U for all we know.

 

[LosButcher]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Oculus will certainly benefit from your choice, I can't imagine that they would have been much helped by non-developers wasting their time by stretching their backlog on devkit distribution.

Devkit production was never a charity, it was an efficient way to increase dev support, and they were in fact troubled by too many non-devs "playing around" where the same scarce resources could have been spent on getting units in the hands of more developers.

I am a developer, only doing gaming stuff as a hobby on the side. But again, Im one person, not like it matters with 25K units sold already.

 

[SpinFusor]

I'm really tempted to buy one, but with the huge influx of money/resources, it's possible the consumer version won't be tooo far behind the new dev kit. Might just put the money towards some PC upgrades.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Oculus will certainly benefit from your choice, I can't imagine that they would have been much helped by non-developers wasting their time by stretching their backlog on devkit distribution.

Let's be fair: while the devkits will certainly see use in designing or adapting games for use with the Rift, the primary purposes for selling them is to generate funding(now no longer necessary) and to generate hype.

That's why Palmer went on record saying "If you're not a developer DO NOT buy a DK2"?

Or maybe it's reverse psychology?

Again, if they really only wanted developers to get one, only developers would be able to get one. How many non-developers get development kits for the major consoles? The devkit 2 is on public sale, and the people at Oculus Rift aren't stupid. When you put something on sale to the public, the public usually buys it(if it's worth buying).

 

[SpinFusor]

Wanted to buy one firstly to support the project and secondly to play around with it. No reason to support the project anymore, they have all the money they need. So no Oculus for me.

Oculus will certainly benefit from your choice, I can't imagine that they would have been much helped by non-developers wasting their time by stretching their backlog on devkit distribution.

Let's be fair: while the devkits will certainly see use in designing or adapting games for use with the Rift, the primary purposes for selling them is to generate funding(now no longer necessary) and to generate hype.

That's why Palmer went on record saying "If you're not a developer DO NOT buy a DK2"?

Or maybe it's reverse psychology?

Again, if they really only wanted developers to get one, only developers would be able to get one. How many non-developers get development kits for the major consoles? The devkit 2 is on public sale, and the people at Oculus Rift aren't stupid. When you put something on sale to the public, the public usually buys it(if it's worth buying).

Yeah, I think they were just lightly discouraging consumers from buying it so that devs could get their hands on a it a bit quicker.