The veil on Oculus Rift’s price has been finally lifted – it costs $599. With most speculations hinting towards a price tag of something more than $350, VR fanatics are certainly not happy with the price. Moreover, the headset also requires a powerful computer to run which will further add to the cost.
Oculus Co-Founder and VP of Product Nate Mitchell revealed to TechCrunch’s Jordan Crook that the company is selling the hardware at cost in order to kickstart the VR ecosystem.
“It’s about getting the Rift into as many hands as possible,” Mitchell said. “We want the Rift to be in the hands of millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people and to bring them into VR. That’s ultimately the goal. Pricing the Rift farther and farther away from people is not what we want”.
Mitchell agreed that the pricing is high. He told Tech Insider that "$600 is a higher price point than we [and the community] would love to be at." However, he is confident that the cost of VR will come down eventually as it becomes more mainstream, and components become less expensive to manufacture.
Tech Insider reported that the company is teaming with Asus, Dell, and Alienware (Dell's gaming hardware division) to make "Oculus-ready computers". Users will be able to get their hand on the whole Rift package that includes the headset, an Xbox One gamepad, a camera for tracking the headset, an Oculus Remote and a computer that can run it, all for $1,499. Bundles that include an Oculus Ready PC and a Rift will be available for pre-order in February, the company said in a blog post.
Oculus VR founder, Palmer Luckey, tweeted, “To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware. High end VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is”.
TechCrunch reported that the Rift is facing overwhelming demand as Oculus sold out of its initial pre-order run in a matter of hours. It starts shipping on March 28 with two games, "EVE Valkyrie" and "Lucky's Tale."
