Oculus Rift Will Cost More Than $350, Says Founder

[Steven Bogos]

Oculus Rift Will Cost More Than $350, Says Founder

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey says that the Rift going to cost more than $350.

2016 will finally see the long-awaited consumer version of the Connect event [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/oculus%20rift?os=oculus+rift], founder Palmer Luckey stated that the device will cost more than $350 at launch.

When asked if the Rift would be coming in at the $350 ballpark that was initially discussed back in the Kickstarter days, Luckey responded that "You know, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. We're roughly in that ballpark... but it's going to cost more than that."

He explained that "The reason for that is that we've added a lot of technology to this thing beyond what existed in the DK1 and DK2 days."

"Are you going to optimize for absolute lowest price possible, even if it's gonna be a lower quality experience? Or do you try to say 'you know what, this is the first consumer VR headset that were going to be pushing out to people. We need to put a stake in the ground and say: this is the best possible experience that we were able to make. No compromises were made in terms of quality.'"

Luckey stopped short of actually announcing how much the device will cost, but his comments do suggest we're looking at at least $400.

This is somewhat disappointing, as I feel that the Rift can only really be successful if it is incredibly widespread, and becomes a device that a huge majority of gamers use. At $400, its likely to become another expensive PC gaming niche gimmick.

Source: Road to VR [http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-founder-palmer-luckey-explains-oculus-rift-cost-price-350/]

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[crimson5pheonix]

Understandable. It's the route Tesla went with their cars, start high and go low.

 

[BayouStalker]

You know, I was hoping it would be at a more reasonable price, like about 200... That price will in all likelihood outright tank the sales of it. It will have a burst in the beginning and then it would fall into the category of, "Damn that thing looks awesome! Wish I could get it." Hopefully it will drop quickly.

 

[Skip Bittman]

So much for that whole selling at cost thing.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Just say it will only be for YouTubers, Lets Players and Gaming critics.
Its a lot simpler than making it seem like the consumer's fault for wanting "too much"

 

[ex951753]

If the consoles were any indication, never buy the first gen of anything.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

I don't think it's at all an unreasonable price. You're looking at at least that much for a high quality HOTAS + pedal peripherals. This is virtual reality we're talking about here. As much as I'd like it to not be over a couple hundred dollars, I'm more than happy to save for the best system they can put together.

To add, there won't be any shortage of affordable VR systems available. The way I see it, the approach is no different than it was to me when I got my first gaming PC. I didn't want to break the bank, but I understood that if I wanted a powerful, lasting machine, I was gonna have to plan on a bigger budget.

 

[ron1n]

So accounting for the Australia TAX and terrible aud-usd conversion, I figure it will be at least $600 in Aus. Maybe $700.

They really need great launch titles, some well known beloved franchises to offer full support alongside some new games designed specifically for it. If there's some great experiences to be had with a popular franchise like say: Fallout, then I don't think the pricetag will matter much at all in the long run.

Either way, think I'll be waiting until all the competing companies bring out their take on VR and possibly even wait until a second generation has been released before throwing down that much cash.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

I'll get the v.2 after we have useful things to do with them that isn't Xbone wank. GIVE IDE

 

[Ishigami]

For me the funny thing about this statement is hat he says it's the best experience possible yet with a 2k resolution CV1 will still have some screen door effect that only CV2 with 4k will solve.

Another thing is that he basically excuses the increase in price with feature creep. I'm rather mehhh about that.
Doesn't the CV1 come with an Xbox One controller? Cut that, there saved you 30$.
Why does it need headphones? I'm sure most people got better gear already. I for example will still use my home theater and I'm sure a lot of people got good headphones already e.g. from Bose or Sennheiser, which are probably leaps and bounds better than whatever the rift has. Cut it, there saved another 10$.

 

[09philj]

$400 is roughly £260 in local currency. That's quite pricey, but not product-cripplingly expensive. There's hope for it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

This was clear to anyone sensible from the very start, if you want cheap VR there is always Google Cardboard, Gear VR and a billion other joke products like them. Responsive and accurate hardware that will make a solid experience on the other hand is expensive.

It's the same product space as force feedback wheels/flight sticks. If you wanted the good shit you forked over a good deal of cash and the experience they delivered was immense, if you wanted to go cheap you stuck with controllers/keyboards and pretended it's good enough, if you went somewhere in between it was simply a waste of money.
And much like flight sticks this VR thing will have a limited use, at launch I doubt there will be a good selection of games and I doubt they will be very refined for the VR experience. Even console launches have very poor starting points and that is with conglomerates shovelling billions into devs pockets to get shit done for them.

 

[Juan Regular]

Hmm, lets see what the Vive sans Lighthouse is going to cost. Might actually switch to Valve on the VR front.

 

[Remus]

So it's the cost of a new console. Figured as much. Since I already have a rig that far outpaces the consoles, this is still a maybe, but if Playstation's VR set has a lower pricepoint, it will be awfully tempting.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Understandable. It's the route Tesla went with their cars, start high and go low.

Yup. The first round is really going to be for the enthusiasts, developers, and so on. And really, unless you are into vehicle sims, there's not going to be all that much compelling content for a while anyway. I'm planning on getting one, but then again, even if it were $600 that would still be cheaper than building a multimonitor simpit, so for me this is still quite reasonable.

 

[number2301]

Yeah $400 is far too much if they want to build an eco-system. They really need to be pushing these things out as a loss leader if they want to get any traction. At that price point I'll have a look at the Vive instead, or at the very least, wait for the 4k version.

$400 is roughly £260 in local currency. That's quite pricey, but not product-cripplingly expensive. There's hope for it.

Plus VAT, remember Americans quote prices without tax for some reason, so you can pretty much map the $ price to £.

 

[Saltyk]

So it's the cost of a new console. Figured as much. Since I already have a rig that far outpaces the consoles, this is still a maybe, but if Playstation's VR set has a lower pricepoint, it will be awfully tempting.

I'm actually quite curious what the Playstation VR will be priced at. I'm sort of afraid it will be $400, too and this made that price point all the more likely in my mind.

Which is unfortunate. I could see some games, like No Man's Sky, being amazing in VR. On the other hand, I can't see too many games using VR in the immediate future, and expect many that do won't use it well. So that makes buying it seem a little unwise. That goes for Oculus, too.

 

[fix-the-spade]

All Rift V1 has to do is survive the first two years while mid price graphics cards and PCs catch up to what is required of them. Right now the only people buying rift have monster machines anyway, so £300-ish here won't be much issue.

Once mid range hardware (and whisper it, new consoles) can run it properly it needs to get down to half that price, which it will the way hardware prices go over time. Then we'll see if it's doomed to be forever niche or a real revolution.

Plus VAT, remember Americans quote prices without tax for some reason, so you can pretty much map the $ price to £.

That's because sales tax in the US is calculated based on your state and some other factors known only to the Elder Gods, it's not like us Europeans with our weird unified rules across countries.

 

[Mikeybb]

Well, I'm expecting it to land in the uk for slice more than three hundred pounds.

A little outside of my price range for the moment.
That's probably for the best.
It'll give me time to decide whether I'm tempted by any of the alternate versions being offered.

Valve's take seems quite tempting, but I have a feeling it's going to be responsible for an epidemic of bruised ankles and broken furniture.

 

[Keoul]

So what's stopping people just buying the dev kits now for 350?
I think anyone buying it at 400+ on launch day just has to be someone that hasn't done their research.