Oculus Will Give Free Retail-Edition Rifts To Kickstarter Backers

[Fanghawk]

Oculus Will Give Free Retail-Edition Rifts To Kickstarter Backers

If you backed the original Oculus Rift Kickstarer, you can receive a free limited edition consumer edition at launch.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is finally coming out this year, even if <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165721-Oculus-Rift-Preorders-BeginJanuary-6>the final price is a mystery. Actually, there's one exception to that point: If you backed the original Rift Dev Kit on Kickstarter, you'll get one for free. Oculus announced this morning that anyone who contributed to the DK1 reward tier during its campaign will receive a limited Kickstarter edition consumer model at launch.

"As a small token of our appreciation for your support, all Kickstarter backers who pledged for a Rift development kit will get a free Kickstarter Edition Oculus Rift," Oculus announced via Kickstarter. "And like all Rift pre-order purchasers, you'll receive a bundled copy of Lucky's Tale and EVE: Valkyrie."

If you're a Rift backer who contributed enough for the DK1 model, all you have to do is complete an emailed survey by Feb. 1, 2016. You'll also have to provide a shipping address to any of the 20 countries the consumer Rift will be launching in. Anyone outside those countries can still get a free consumer model, but Oculus is still working on an alternative delivery system.

All told, this is an impressive move on Oculus' part. Roughly 7500 backers contributed enough for DK1s, so giving away finished versions means a huge audience will get excited for (and hopefully promote) the Rift in advance. That might give the Oculus Rift a renewed marketing edge that had softened <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142418-PlayStation-VR-Is-Sonys-Renamed-Project-Morpheus-Virtual-Reality-Headset#&gid=gallery_2224&pid=1>as competitors rolled out VR headsets of their own. The question is whether the Rift can make the impact fans hoped for back in 2012, which we'll find out in the coming months.

Source: <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game/posts/1458224?ref=backer_project_update>Kickstarter, via <a href=http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/5/10714554/oculus-rift-kickstarter-backers-free-consumer-headset-ces-2016>The Verge

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[Vigormortis]

I'm not surprised. Oculus needs something to get a leg up in the VR race.

I'll be blunt: Now that HTC is showing off (and shipping to developers) the new, surprisingly improved, VIVE PRE system, Oculus's only advantage seems to be backer goodwill.

With HTC offering the more immersive and more advanced VR experience, and other competitors like Sony and Google offering the 'cheaper' alternatives, I honestly fail to see what Oculus has left to offer.

Unless Oculus manages to 'pull a rabbit out of their hat' and offer something their competitors can not, then I just don't see them doing well in the consumer market.[footnote]This, of course, assumes ANY of the VR devices do well.[/footnote]

Maybe they can aim for the middle of the road solution. Good, but not great, VR experiences for reasonable, but not cheap, prices. At this point it might be their only option.

That said, good on them for giving consumer models to early backers. I'm not naive enough to buy that it's out of the goodness of their hearts, but it's still a generous gesture.

 

[Smooth Operator]

That is quite surprising since they actually delivered all the old hardware already, I guess they got the money to spend some on good will, coming into this new market in good standing is a smart move.

"Oh but everyone else does it better now...", they have yet to prove that. Oculus is sending their hardware to market, has been doing it for a while actually, everyone else however is still sitting on their stuff with no real release dates or prices.

 

[josemlopes]

Good move, it kind of brings some trust to the company. The people that backed way back then did it simply expecting to get the old ones so, yeah, cool move

 

[Vigormortis]

"Oh but everyone else does it better now...", they have yet to prove that. Oculus is sending their hardware to market, has been doing it for a while actually, everyone else however is still sitting on their stuff with no real release dates or prices.

HTC has been doing a showcase tour for months, allowing anyone to come try the hardware. And that doesn't include their showings at conference events and tech shows.
http://blog.htc.com/2015/07/the-htc-vive-world-tour-is-here/

They shipped early dev kits months ago and are now shipping 7000 new kits to devs and 3rd parties. Their public launch date is in early April.

Not sure where you got the idea that only Oculus has been showing off and shipping their tech to the public, or the idea that Oculus has announced a price point. (they haven't)

As for the last bit, what proof are we looking for? Something that can be measured with hard numbers? User testimonials?

Tech specifics aside, VR is very much a subjective thing when you get down to it. Some people will have a different experience than others. I've talked with a lot of people; gamers, tech enthusiasts, and developers; who have almost all unanimously agreed that the Vive offers a more immersive and robost VR experience because of the combination of the display, hand controls, and the room-scale tech. I've talked with others who felt the Rift was the better option because they, to put it bluntly, "just want a screen they can strap to their face." I've also heard some say they prefer the Rift's controllers, while others say they prefer the Vive's.

I guess what I'm wondering is: What has Oculus shown that proves they have the better VR experience? Until we try them ourselves we have only what each respective company has shown for comparison to each competing product. By that metric, the one offering more options is the winner.

Until we all get to try them, we really can't know.

 

[Ishigami]

I'll be blunt: Now that HTC is showing off (and shipping to developers) the new, surprisingly improved, VIVE PRE system, Oculus's only advantage seems to be backer goodwill.

With HTC offering the more immersive and more advanced VR experience, and other competitors like Sony and Google offering the 'cheaper' alternatives, I honestly fail to see what Oculus has left to offer.

Sony Morpheus does not have a price tag nor PC support for that matter. So I don't see how you can gauge Sony vs. Oculus.
If you want to use VR on the PS4 you have to use Sony, if you want it on PC you can't use Sony. Not much of a competition there.

I don't know about you but seeing the current prototype of the HTC Vive I would assume that it will be considerable more expensive than the Oculus Rift.
As far as I know it always comes with those two VR controllers and Steam VR base stations. On top of that I would assume the base headset to be already more expensive than the Rift Headset due to their camera and laser sensor equipment.
Compare that to the Rift where you only get the headset, a MS sponsored controller and one sensor.
I will go on a limb and say that I expect the Rift to be about 500$ and the Vive about 800$.

Not quite sure about Google VR Cardboard. It depends on your smart phones performance and I would assume that the tracking sucks compared to the proper headsets. After all it lacks exterior sensors to verify the position in the room?
And it lacks wearing comfort.

Anyway the way I imagine it atm I say they seem to have their markets cut for them.

 

[Czann]

Of all options available Oculus is still the best.

Why? Latency. The thing that makes you go sick from using inferior VR solutions.

Their tech to combat it is still the best.

 

[Ishigami]

Okay Rift is 599$.
I guess Vive for 800$ might still be realistic. But maybe it will charge even more.

P.S.: 599$ translate to 699?... nice...

 

[Vigormortis]

Sony Morpheus does not have a price tag nor PC support for that matter. So I don't see how you can gauge Sony vs. Oculus.
If you want to use VR on the PS4 you have to use Sony, if you want it on PC you can't use Sony. Not much of a competition there.

The point isn't which one is on which platform, it's which platform offers the best VR experience. In that regard, they are direct competitors in the VR race. If PSVR offers the better experience, then the go-to platform for making use of it is a Sony platform. (i.e. PS4)

I don't know about you but seeing the current prototype of the HTC Vive I would assume that it will be considerable more expensive than the Oculus Rift.
As far as I know it always comes with those two VR controllers and Steam VR base stations. On top of that I would assume the base headset to be already more expensive than the Rift Headset due to their camera and laser sensor equipment.
Compare that to the Rift where you only get the headset, a MS sponsored controller and one sensor.
I will go on a limb and say that I expect the Rift to be about 500$ and the Vive about 800$.

I never argued otherwise. From the get-go HTC has said their set will almost assuredly be in the upper tier of VR experiences and price. Which is why I've started wondering what Oculus has to offer over it's other competitors. Since the Vive is aiming for the "top of the line, best VR experience", the Rift has to aim for the middle of the road. And right now, it's not the only horse in that race.

Not quite sure about Google VR Cardboard. It depends on your smart phones performance and I would assume that the tracking sucks compared to the proper headsets. After all it lacks exterior sensors to verify the position in the room?
And it lacks wearing comfort.

Google Cardboard is a novelty, at best. It's a neat concept but, in practice, is nothing more than strapping your phone to your face. Literally.

It's barely what one could consider a beginners level introduction to what VR is.

Anyway the way I imagine it atm I say they seem to have their markets cut for them.

Maybe. But again, Rift isn't the only horse in the race. Sure, they have a set market already, but I'm wondering if they'll still achieve their goal as being the "definitive VR experience".

Of all options available Oculus is still the best.

Why? Latency. The thing that makes you go sick from using inferior VR solutions.

Their tech to combat it is still the best.

How so?

 

[Czann]

It was their priority to combat any feeling of sickness that could happen due to lag.

There are articles that explain how they did it. Or at least tried to.