Oculus Rift Pre-Orders Now Open, First Shipments March 28

[king3pj]

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/

The Oculus Rift is now available for pre-order. It costs $599 and starts shipping on March 28th.

A year ago I thought these headsets were ridiculous but as I heard more and more people in the games industry describe how awesome VR is I started to really want to see it for myself. I'm very interested in VR now. I'm just not $600 interested. I think they are going to have a tough time with any kind of mass market adoption at that starting price.

For now I'm going to wait and see what happens with Valve's partnership with HTC on the Vive VR headset. I was hoping to get one of these headsets for $300-$350 but after seeing the Oculus price I doubt they are going to be able to undercut them by that much.

For $600 I'm going to need to see real games that take advantage of VR in awesome ways instead of just cool experiences. Even then it's a tough sell. I don't think Sony would have the balls to ask $600 for the Playstation VR headset but even if theirs is cheaper I'm less interested in a console headset.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Don't forget the fact that you need a damn beefy system to properly use it. They're recommending having at LEAST a GTX 970. So unless you already have a great system, when it's all said and done you'll likely be shelling out well over $1,000..

 

[king3pj]

Don't forget the fact that you need a damn beefy system to properly use it. They're recommending having at LEAST a GTX 970. So unless you already have a great system, when it's all said and done you'll likely be shelling out well over $1,000..

That is one of the reasons I'm not interested in the PlayStation VR. The GPU built into the PS4 is not even in the same ballpark as a GTX 970. I don't see how the PS4 is going to be a good VR system if Oculus and Vive are both asking for over 2 times the processing power of the PS4.

I also have a harder time buying an expensive headset dedicated to a console that's going to be replaced by something newer in a couple years. I think the Oculus and Vive will stay relevant much longer because they are basically just fancy PC monitors. On top of that I just play more games on PC than either console.

 

[yourbeliefs]

The owner of Oculus has released a statement about the price

 

[king3pj]

That may very well be true but the average gamer isn't going to buy a $600 peripheral. We are talking $200 more than a PS4/Xbox One for an add-on that won't even be featured in every game.

I still have hope that Valve and/or Sony will be able to drive the price down. If not I see this becoming a niche product and niche products don't get a ton of support from developers.

I would like to see something around $300 but even $400 is much more palatable than $600.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I would like to see something around $300 but even $400 is much more palatable than $600.

Apparently you're not the only one..

 

[king3pj]

Funny but in reality he could probably afford to buy one for every person that has a PC that meets the system requirements in the world.

 

[Ilya]

New Virtual Reality headset Oculus Rift is now available to pre-order for $599 USD* on Oculus.com and it will ship to 20 countries** starting March 28.
Rift will also be available in limited locations at select retailers starting in April.
Rift includes the headset with built-in headphones and mic, sensor, and an Xbox One controller. The controller is perfect for a variety of games, including Lucky’s Tale, the amazing VR platformer developed by Playful, that we’re including free with every Rift. Rift also includes the Oculus Remote.

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-now-open-first-shipments-march-28/

 

[king3pj]

We have some discussion going about this in the Personal Computer Game News thread.

 

[Ilya]

We have some discussion going about this in the Personal Computer Game News thread.

Merged.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Another instance of "Don't say it if you don't really mean it"..

http://kotaku.com/whoops-i-found-this-quote-thanks-to-this-tweet-it-s-f-1751441651

 

[king3pj]

Another instance of "Don't say it if you don't really mean it"..

http://kotaku.com/whoops-i-found-this-quote-thanks-to-this-tweet-it-s-f-1751441651

Well from what I heard on Giant Bomb's podcast it sounds like they bought their first Oculus Rift dev kit for $350. The actual shipping model is apparently a huge upgrade from dev kit 1 so that may be where the price increase came from. He may have been expecting to ship to the general public for that same $350 back when he made this quote.

Actually I totally agree with his quote though. It just doesn't put his product in a very good light when even the creator said it may as well not exist if it's going to be $600.

 

[jevans64]

The PS4 can do VR... at 800x600 with everything turned off. It is at best a Radeon HD 7850/70 or nVidia GTX 660. I put cards faster than that in the closet as backups when my REAL video cards fail.

 

[king3pj]

The PS4 can do VR... at 800x600 with everything turned off. It is at best a Radeon HD 7850/70 or nVidia GTX 660. I put cards faster than that in the closet as backups when my REAL video cards fail.

People who have tried PlayStation VR seem to like it. I just think something is a little off if the same games are supposed to be able to run in VR on a PS4 when the Oculus requires a minimum of a 970. Something just doesn't quite line up there.

The only way I can see that working is if the PlayStation VR comes with an additional external GPU like you can get with an Alienware laptop. I haven't heard anything about that being the case though.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Extra Creditz did a pretty good video about why we still need to be skeptical of the success of VR, and why it looks like it may end up suffering a similar fate as the Kinect.

 

[yourbeliefs]

So a Japanese Morning show tried out the Oculus..

 

[king3pj]

Well, I gotta say that was pretty predictable. Who thought it was a good idea to let her hold a $600 headset instead of strapping it on and then trick her into a jump scare?

 

[yourbeliefs]

Looks like VR can be pretty scary....

 

[lakebum431]

Looks like VR can be pretty scary....

That is actually a fantastic "commercial" for the technology. If it felt real enough to elicit that reaction then it must be pretty good.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Oculus headsets will be demoed in Best Buy stores across the country starting May 7. Bad news is that its only 48 stores. In some instances you'll be SOL. None in my state have them and the closest one is over 130 miles away. Still, if you're near one you may as well check it out.

http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/02/...8-best-buy-stores-may-7th/?sr_source=Facebook