
Oculus Rift: Available for pre-order - domas
https://shop.oculus.com/
======
mortenjorck
$599 may seem like a perilously steep price to debut at, but right now, Oculus
faces a much bigger risk than low sales volume: Poor reception. If this was
the MSRP required to ensure a comfortable, nausea-free experience, it's far
better to have a killer product at a high price point than a "don't buy the
first generation" product at the price point people were expecting. The former
can lead to a cheaper gen 2, but the latter can lead to ruin.

~~~
rnernento
I would argue that price (and this being a high one) could just as easily lead
to ruin.

The quality of a user's experience with the Oculus is going to be directly
correlated to the quantity and quality of games/experiences available for the
device. Even if it's silky smooth and you can use it for hours on end without
issue if you run out of quality content in two hours there's a problem.
Quantity/quality are even more important to the user after making such a
significant investment.

The problem here is if developers will be able to make money creating quality
experiences for Oculus if the userbase is tiny because no one can afford one.
The user market is already being fractured by the different units available -
if I develop a game for the HTC Vive (which supports room tracking) is it easy
or even possible to port the experience to the Oculus?

Developing a high quality gaming experience is EXPENSIVE, and AAA regularly do
not recoup their costs even when they're being offered to a huge user base
(XBOX/PS4/PC/etc). Due to the nature of VR a quality experience is going to
require a significant investment to build. If companies can't recoup that cost
they'll stop developing and if there aren't any killer experiences people will
stop buying the Rift.

For Oculus (or any of the upcoming units) to be successful they need to walk
the line between quality and price, and I'm not sure they've done it.

I'm starting to think Sony is in a better position even though it's looking
like they have inferior hardware.

~~~
cookiecaper
Oculus claims that the point of the Facebook acquisition was that they'd have
infinity money. As both Oculus and Facebook assert that there's a blank check
there, one would hope they've already also heavily invested in a high-quality
software library. If not, they need to quickly start doing so. They could
start a developer program where devs qualify for free or discounted hardware.
They could even start their own game studio. Most other gaming hardware
manufacturers _do_ have their own studios and release their own games for
exactly the reason you stated (ensuring that there are killer apps on their
platform). Oculus has got to put that Facebook money to work!

~~~
rnernento
I agree 1000%, at $600 we need to see some killer early titles and Facebook is
absolutely in a position to finance them. Let's just hope they're NOTHING like
farmville ;)

------
darkxanthos
In a world where hard core gamers will pay >$500 for a graphics card, this
price will work fine for a 1st gen. It'll be a smaller audience at first but
that will also help them out as they need to focus on their customer support
for issues they find in the wild.

~~~
Wohlf
Except a high quality graphics card will last for years, and has lots of games
that will benefit from it.

~~~
Swannie
I've seen this idea expressed multiple times in this thread, and wonder how it
is that HN users' are so out of touch with the gaming crowd.

Almost all serious PC gamers I've ever known upgrade their graphics cards
every 9 - 18months. Very few serious gamers keep a gaming rig untouched for 2
years.

Also the comments about a screen or a graphics card being used for more than
gaming. Again, sorry, but most hardcore gamers have a gaming rig for gaming,
and will use a phone/tablet/laptop for their more casual usage. They generally
dislike cluttering up their primary machine with office productivity apps,
etc.

It's a false comparison. It's like someone owning a car for track racing, and
saying: "yeah, the seats are expensive, but they will be useful when driving
down to the shops to pick up some milk". Absurd. Sure, people might drive
their road legal track car to a car show, or a garage, or a parts shop, or
their friends, from time to time, but that's part of the hobby experience -
not used as a justification for the parts/modification.

------
vocatus_gate
I think the biggest risk to adoption is real-world interest.

I get that VR is a fun tech, and has some potentially cool possibilities. But
to me and seemingly many other people, it's just not that interesting. I don't
know why, maybe I'm not geek enough, but I just have zero interest. And
frankly it feels kind of like a gimmick. I'm especially averse to the idea of
strapping on a clumsy headset every time I want to use it.

In fact, I wish Carmack and Newell would stop messing around with it and go
back to producing quality games.

Downvote away

~~~
aresant
I literally feel sorry for you, not in an unfriendly way, that you haven't
seen the right demo yet and can't share the insane excitement that I have for
this technology.

This is the FIRST consumer release! This is the Palm Pilot 1 of VR.

Yes most of the content right now is mediocre but there are some mindblowing
experiences too.

For instance Elite Dangerous + DK2 + Motion Sim.

It literally feels like you are piloting a craft in outer space.

Here's a demo -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqr8ee7GORY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqr8ee7GORY)

I have a similar rig and I literally have to fight off the skeptics /
marginally interested after they try it.

The "strap on a clumsy" headset part is going to go away quickly. Every sensor
in there is being miniaturized by the day. Magic Leap (and others) are using
tricks to project imagery directly onto your retina. The form factor will wind
up wireless, probably look similar to google glass.

Oculus + 3D audio + input + eventual tactical is going to completely blur the
lines of reality in ways we can't yet imagine - gaming, training, social
interaction, SEX, therapy, etc, etc - it's all going to be different in 10
years because of VR.

I believe that being a student of VR at this point, which I believe will be
the top mechanism to consume content in the future, is akin to being an early
iphone dev.

Plus gave me a good excuse to order the CV1 :)

~~~
drzaiusapelord
>This is the FIRST consumer release! This is the Palm Pilot 1 of VR.

Actually, there were multiple VR technologies released in the 90s and 2000s.
This isn't like being on the groundfloor of some new concept, its like a
revival of something old. I wish Oculus all the luck in the world, but this
technology has failed in the market many times. Yes, maybe more FPS and higher
resolutions is what was needed, but I guess we'll see. Some 90's products:

[http://www.cheatsheet.com/technology/a-trip-down-virtual-
rea...](http://www.cheatsheet.com/technology/a-trip-down-virtual-reality-
road-6-systems-of-the-past.html/?a=viewall)

Its funny how there's this "everything old is new again and we all suddenly
have amnesia" attitude with VR advocates. They talk about the headsets which
are pricey and annoying to use(and no one has solved the motion sickness
problem perfectly yet). They talk about the metaverse, yet we've had Second
Life for a decade and it didn't revolutionize anything and is largely an
online joke.

Whether people think the social and economic cost of strapping a tissue size
box to your face is worth it, is worthy of being skeptical about. 3D TV's came
at a zero premium over regular TV's not too long ago, and no one wanted to
wear those dorky glasses. Many people I know, myself included, avoid the 3D
showings at theaters because of how gimmicky it is and how those glasses wash
out the colors (not a concern with the Rift).

>It literally feels like you are piloting a craft in outer space.

You have no idea what its like to be in outer space. You're getting this
manufactured and fake experience by game devs who also don't know what its
like to be in outer space. That's what really bugs me about this platform, how
incredibly fake everything is, yet somehow the marketing is all about it being
'real.' I would love a hardnosed simulator with all the tactile feedback and
such involved, instead we're just getting Unity3D shovelware with basic 3D
tropes like moving starfields and everyone suddenly thinks this is amazing.
Its not. Its just a lot of hype from gamers obsessed with fake experiences and
general gamer fanboyism, which is almost always unadulterated hype. Remember
the Kinect and all the hype behind it? Its now a dead peripheral:

[http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/5-ways-
xbox...](http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/5-ways-xbox-one-
kinect-failed-microsoft-and-stiffed-early-adopters-1248505)

Hell, even the crowd friendly Wii motion controls have been put on the
"gimmick" shelf after a, maybe, 2 or 3 year period where everyone was raving
it was the future of gaming.

>t's all going to be different in 10 years because of VR.

According to HN/Reddit/Slashdot we'd have jetpacks, space hotels, 500 year
lifespans, cancer cures, and robot servants by now. I'd be very careful with
the old "just wait 10 years guys, then you'll see my questionable premise was
actually right" trope. Ironically, its an antique.

~~~
TulliusCicero
> Actually, there were multiple VR technologies released in the 90s. This
> isn't like being on the groundfloor of some new concept, its like a revival
> of something old.

A better comparison might be the first iPhone. There were smartphones before
the iPhone, but the iPhone is the one we think of today as being the first
REAL smartphone.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I'm really sick of fanboy products always being compared to a iphone. The
Kinect was an iphone. The Ouya was an iphone. The Apple Watch was going to be
the new iphone. Or other high profile kickstarter turkeys like the mprinter,
smarty ring, myIDkey, etc.

Gee, maybe we should stop pretending we can all spot the next iphone from this
far out?

------
bowmessage
Going to have to pass on $599. More than I was expecting.

~~~
interdrift
I can't access the page, is this the official price? Was expecting something
around the 400$-450$ range. This costs as much as a full blown PC.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
_This costs as much as a full blown PC._

Except you'll also need a killer desktop PC that can run it [1]:

    
    
        - NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
        - Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
        - 8GB+ RAM
        - Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
        - 2x USB 3.0 ports
        - Windows 7 SP1 or newer 
    

The Oculus Touch is stated to need 4 USB ports [2], not just two, so better
plan for that as well

So in total you are probably looking at close to $2,000 [3] to use the Rift
not including whatever games or applications cost - of which there are not yet
a lot of titles (I'm sure that will change in short order though).

[1][http://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-rift-pc-requirements-
revealed/](http://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-rift-pc-requirements-revealed/)

[2][http://www.techtimes.com/articles/118068/20151219/excited-
fo...](http://www.techtimes.com/articles/118068/20151219/excited-for-oculus-
rift-youll-need-at-least-four-usb-ports.htm)

[3][https://www.oculus.com/en-us/oculus-ready-pcs/](https://www.oculus.com/en-
us/oculus-ready-pcs/)

~~~
strictnein
Kind of like saying to buy a car you need a $300k house with a garage, when in
fact many of the people buying a car already have a house with a garage.

That's also not a "killer" desktop. The 290 is a a 2.5 year old card. The GTX
970 is equivalent to a 680 or 780. The 680 came out almost four years ago. If
you had no computer at all, you could build that system for ~$700 - $750 ($200
CPU, $100 Mobo, $200 Used GPU, $50 RAM, $75 SSD, $100 Tower+PSU).

But that's immaterial, as most early buyers of the Rift have hardware that
meets the requirements above. And four USB ports? A $10-$20 powered USB hub
solves that. Wouldn't surprise me if it came with one.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Actually, as an addendum to my other comment, I think a more accurate metaphor
would be like buying a Tesla S.

You have to have a house that you can add a charging station to, in order to
buy it, which most people don't have.

~~~
cloudwalking
Most of the addressable market willing to pay $80k for a car do already own a
house...

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Of course. But again, it's still not everyone. For example I own a house but
not a garage, so I can't get one.

~~~
cloudwalking
Sure, and I do think the Tesla analogy is accurate. This is a first-gen device
aimed towards early adopters who are willing to pay more. Next generations
will be progressively cheaper.

------
ambiate
If you're not an early adopter enthusiast: it may not be a great idea to
purchase this right now. You will probably need a PC upgrade to match your new
$675 toy. The new generation of Intel/Nvidia is right around the corner. Don't
dig yourself into a hole where you buy current flagship and need to upgrade it
9 months down the road from now for Q4's toy.

~~~
Cyphus
They released minimum system requirements specifically so that you wouldn't
have to upgrade 9 months down the road.

~~~
ambiate
2016 Q3/Q4's new fancy toy may not be a RiftV2 and may have a minimum
requirement of a Pascal GPU or Skylake/Broadwell-e CPU. Its just a really
horrible time to buy computer hardware right now.

~~~
soared
Release cycle for VR is not less than a year. I've read anywhere between 1
(mobile) and 10 (console) years.

~~~
kodr
more like 5 years for console.

------
rwmj
Graphics card question: If I wanted to run my own software on this (ie. I
don't care about AAA games), would any old graphics card do, as long as I'm
only rendering very simple, low polygon scenes? Or is there something inherent
in the high end graphics cards that makes them essential?

~~~
apsec112
From the hardware FAQ on /r/oculus:

"Can I use a weaker PC for basic content?

With weaker hardware, it may be possible to run very graphically simplistic
content like virtual desktop, virtual cinema (for watching movies), and 360
videos, however you will be totally on your own without support if you choose
to do this, and it is unlikely that there will be many (or any) games that
support lower specs.

If you do wish to take this non-recommended path, your PC must at least meet
the absolute minimum requirements:

    
    
        Video Card: GTX 650 / AMD 7750 desktop GPU or better and newer
        USB Ports: 2x USB 3.0 ports
        Video Output: free HDMI 1.3 output
        OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer
    

Remember: The Rift will not run on your laptop, this rule does not change!"
[https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/wiki/requirements](https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/wiki/requirements)

~~~
dandanisaur
Sadly, this is what stopped me from considering the Oculus Rift. My
expectations were wrong in thinking this would be more of a mass-consumer
oriented product instead of targeting VR hobbyists'*

Basically, forcing people to shell out ATLEAST 1600$ to be able to use it (not
to mention making them buy a desktop).

Aside: I was always more interested in the potential of Gear VR. Thanks for
the info.

~~~
amock
You don't need to spend anywhere close to $1600. I just put together
[http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p8MjmG](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p8MjmG) with only
a little consideration for price and it's less than $900 while exceeding the
requirements.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
$885 (PC you linked) + $600 (Rift) = $1485

That's pretty close.

------
awurts
599... not to mention I have a very high end computer by today's standard but
it still needs upgrades. I have one of the better AMD processors but it tells
me I need an Intel, which means I will have to buy a new board and rebuild the
entire thing, as well as replace the GPU... right.

~~~
jblow
Kids today.

In the late 1990s-early 2000s a decent gaming PC would cost you between $2500
and $3500, and those numbers represented more money than they do today.

A "very high end computer by today's standard", when it comes to games, would
have a GPU that's substantially faster than what Oculus is requiring ... I
find their requirement shockingly low and wonder if that is a tactical
mistake.

~~~
rconti
I'm not a gamer, but I still get a kick out of people complaining about how
expensive $45 or $50 games are.

Get off my damn lawn, when I was a wee lad, I reserved my copy of Super Mario
3 and was HAPPY to find a store to hold a copy for me on release, of course
full retail price of $65. That's $130 in today's dollars!

------
dandelany
Unlike a lot of people, I don't think $600 is an insane price to pay for a
good piece of good VR kit... The insane part is the fact that they don't even
list basic technical specs on the marketing site?! Am I missing something
obvious? I'm supposed to drop $600 on a piece of hardware that relies on a
high-resolution screen to work well, without knowing the screen's resolution?
They know they're selling mostly to nerds at first, right?

~~~
moron4hire
They give you a validation tool and link to the documentation where they spell
out the specs explicitly.

~~~
dandelany
As I said, I don't see a documentation link with specs anywhere, can you link
us to it? Are you talking about this docs site:
[https://developer.oculus.com/documentation](https://developer.oculus.com/documentation)
? Because I don't see any hardware specs on there either. Are you saying I
have to run the validation tool (.exe) to get it?

~~~
moron4hire
[https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/pcsdk/latest/conc...](https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/pcsdk/latest/concepts/dg-
sdk-setup-requirements/)

~~~
Pfhreak
Parent is looking for the technical specs of the rift itself, not the pc specs
required to power the rift. As far as I'm aware, those specs are not
available.

------
robbies
For all the complaints of $599, consider the prices of graphics cards, gaming
monitors, phones, (4K) TVs, and so on. With this price, they are targeting the
alpha consumer, who (hopefully) will have a great experience, tell their
friends and the world, and prepare the markets for the eventual mass market
version that will be in the $200-$400 range. AAA devs were never going to
participate in this first gen anyway (there was no way they'd recoup their dev
resources, so why would they).

While I think the concern for content is a valid one, I think indies and non-
gaming apps will come through with a few breakthrough experiences that will
drive the first set of sales, paving the way for the AAAs.

------
rm_-rf_slash
Good to see the Oculus Rift is on its way. Early tech will always have
nosebleed prices and growing pains, but after a generation or two we'll be
able to experience high-quality VR without getting a headache or our cars
repossessed for nonpayment.

And it means we will have decent competition to the Rift, for those who don't
want Facebook monitoring our every glance and gesture.

~~~
CaptSpify
> And it means we will have decent competition to the Rift, for those who
> don't want Facebook monitoring our every glance and gesture.

Howso? I was _super_ interested in the Rift, until it was acquired. Now I have
absolutely no interest in it.

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
All it has to do is prove a market exists at a particular price point and it
won't be long until Rift is only one of many games in town.

------
scubasteve
This might be a better URL to link to: [https://www.oculus.com/en-
us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-now...](https://www.oculus.com/en-
us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-now-open-first-shipments-march-28/). Shipping
to 20 countries starting March 28 and in select retailers in April.

~~~
AlphaSite
That's awfully close to the Vive's ship date as well, this should be
interesting...

------
scubasteve
Interesting tweet from Palmer
([https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/684772857625231360](https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/684772857625231360))
on high load and fraud. Always interesting to see large launches not
considering load/security on the web app. Out of curiosity, why is
www.oculus.com not using a CDN (direct to AWS), and shop.oculus.com not using
a CDN with rate control capabilities.

~~~
zeroxfe
The load is from transaction processing, which CDNs don't help with. CDNs are
typically used for cacheable content like static assets.

~~~
scubasteve
I agree, however you can reduce fraud load by rate limiting IPs for a start.
I'm not sure if shop.oculus.com uses the same infrastructure as www.oculus.com
(I'm assuming not). But if it did, caching www would help as well.

------
kross
[http://shop.oculus.com](http://shop.oculus.com) \- blank screen...awesome. It
has been since the moment the pre-order link showed on oculus.com.

~~~
kross
app-bundle-3.15.14.js:50 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'hostname'
of undefined

Some great QA went into this release.

~~~
kross
Site's up, now declining credit cards? I guess I'll have to paypal
it...smooth!

~~~
kross
Paypal and credit cards are both declined with "Something went wrong", console
shows "Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500
(Internal Server Error)"

Watching my ship date go from March to April and now probably May was a bit
disheartening.

Still no success.

------
owenversteeg
Among the giant debate over cost and power, I'm just wondering what would've
happened had they waited, say, two years to release. Suddenly, the cost (of
both the device and of the desktop PC) go way down. With something like this,
a poorly received first launch can torpedo not only the product but the entire
VR industry, and when someone's spent over $2k to get it to work their
expectations will be very high.

I'm sure that there are very viable reasons to release now, but I still have a
feeling that it was more of a "release as soon as it's acceptable" than a
"release as soon as we can be sure the launch will go amazingly."

~~~
bloaf
I think the only thing that could really torpedo the VR industry is if the
Oculus experience isn't pleasant for the early adopters. _If_ their system
requirements are accurate, and they have built a decent piece of hardware,
then I don't think initial pricing is a problem for the entire VR industry.

That being said, there are currently not a lot of options between their
recommended specs (gtx 970) and the current "top of the line" gfx cards (gtx
980 Ti) If their recommended specs are inadequate to get a good experience,
people simply won't have many upgrade options until the next gen GFX cards
start coming out (Q2 2016 at the earliest.)

~~~
LesZedCB
They aren't accepting submissions to the oculus platform unless they are able
to drive 90 FPS on a GTX970.

~~~
bloaf
Yes, but the set of things people expect to do with the Oculus is likely
larger than the set of things in the Oculus platform store.

------
temp
That's $750 (€699) for those of us in Europe.

So much for the "ballpark of $349".

Edit: That's without shipping. With shipping its $800 (€745).

~~~
Raphmedia
As a Canadian, I feel your pain. 844.33 Canadian Dollar.

Ouch.

------
RRRA
All I want for christmas is a Portal 3 and a VR headset for Linux (that
actually is using a standrad like VGA was)... ;)

~~~
neuromute
I was surprised to discover that Oculus have dropped support for Linux and
OSX, at least for the time being. I'm sure you can still run the headsets, but
it seems like a somewhat risky purchase as long as there is no official
support.

I'd love to hear about other Linux users' experience with a consumer unit
though. I'm really excited about VR and would love to pick up a headset at
some point soon.

I hope Oculus start to focus on Linux support again soon!

~~~
gtaylor
> I was surprised to discover that Oculus have dropped support for Linux and
> OSX, at least for the time being.

The graphic driver situation is abysmal for both. With Linux, you might as
well not even bother with modern AMD cards. They've done a terrible job the
last few years, often eschewing such things as a change log that shows what
this random update you're downloading does.

NVIDIA is much better on Linux overall, but even they have got a lot of
limitations and quirks. Performance is much better than AMD, as long as you
don't use the open source drivers.

On Mac, the drivers are crazy out of date and seem to be very tied to specific
Mac OS releases. I don't know whether to be irate with Apple or NVIDIA/AMD.
Linux benchmarks better on many games than Mac OS. Phoronix runs these
periodically if you wanted to see some numbers.

~~~
neuromute
I've got a 980 GTX running on Ubuntu 14.04.3 and it's pretty good overall. I
can play most games at a decent framerate in very high quality @ 2560x1440. It
can run Portal at 4K, no problem. The rig I have is pretty new and cost just
over £2000 though. I've had less impressive results with lower spec'd
hardware. As with all things gaming/hardware related, YMMV.

~~~
gtaylor
Yeah, Portal isn't too demanding. I've got similar hardware and even it
strains with the more recent higher end titles, whereas Windows runs it
beautifully.

Until the driver situation improves a bit, it's going to be hit-or-miss on a
per-game basis.

------
jfoutz
Gaming will be neat and all, but how is reading?

I'd really like the infinite space for terminals and docs. Maybe turning my
head to look over at stackoverflow would suck, but my glasses are thick, so
even through the lens vision is blurry at the edges.

I can imagine a goofy hackers style 3d world would be amusing for a while.
Even a really pedestrian window manager would be nice. terminals could be very
tall, so i could look up to see many commands back. heck, i could float docs
where the keyboard is right now.

Full visual field seems neat.

~~~
Lionleaf
At the moment the resolution simply isn't there for multiple virtual high
resolution displays. I did some math a while back, and if I wanted the 1080
display I had at work at the same distance from my eyes in virtual space, I
would need 5k by 5k pixels per eye.

Add a high refresh rate and that's far higher datarate than we can handle
right now. And you'd need display tech that's pretty insane.

While it's not a replacement yet, if you're happy with some oldschool low res
displays it's probably fine. Someone should do the math of the resolution
you'd get in some examples.

~~~
jfoutz
Interesting. i use small fonts just so i can pack more stuff on the screen.
doubling the font size seems like i'd need 4x the area, eyeballing my current
monitor setup, seems like it'd be a wash. Might be worth trying out just for
the novelty though.

------
moron4hire
The deed is done. I guess I have about 2 months to figure out how to
convincingly explain to my wife, just as our baby is born, that it's a
business expense and I neeeeeed it.

~~~
rhokstar
Research and development!

~~~
keeran
That's how I justified the KickStarter.. boy has that paid off! :D

~~~
moron4hire
Might be a small amount of profit in someone finding DK1-backers who have
gotten out of VR and _don 't_ want a CV1 and buying their free devices off of
them.

------
stoffie
linux support was dropped, thank god I have a good reason to not give them all
my money

~~~
e28eta
And it looks like Mac hardware (even with bootcamp) is not supported either,
so I do too.

~~~
jsheard
I can't really blame them for ignoring the Mac, even the absolutely maxed out
27" iMac is nowhere near their minimum GPU requirement.

A Mac Pro is theoretically fast enough but only in games set up to leverage
both GPUs - one of them alone doesn't meet the minimum spec either.

------
bryanlarsen
(my) reasons to wait:

\- touch controllers not available yet

\- Valve/HTC Vive may be considerably better -- wait for solid reviews of
consumer units together with the games we're interested in

\- AMD & NVidia will have card refreshes in a similar time frame. These
refreshes finally move to a new process, from 28nm to 14nm FinFET, so the
performance increase should be quite massive. This means that a mid-range
video card should be enough.

------
sytelus
Pricing and strategy of expensive desktop dependency now looks like a huge
mistake. My guess here is that Apple or Google is going to come up with VR
enhanced phones + cardboard like cheap device that has experience pretty close
to Rift before the end of the year. If that happens, their VR devices would be
under $200 which would be just accessories for the new phones. That would be
far more acceptable to most people then dedicated beefy PCs that fewer and
fewer people want in their houses. So the end result might be that
Apple/Google VR product might become first mass produced and mass accepted
which defines platform, apps and APIs while Rift might slide in to niche for
hardcore gamers who want that extra ounce of oomph. There is Occulus Gear VR
type devices that might be able to compete but here key thing is that they
will really need to control end-to-end experience and this has to be the
strategy from the start instead of future pivot or backup plan.

~~~
moistgorilla
Samsung Gear VR already exists and the difference between the experiences is
night and day. As for Google Cardboard, the experience is just bad.

~~~
sytelus
Yes, but I think experience can be improved dramatically if industrial design
teams gets on the mission and if phones can have targeted improvements. For
example, iPhone 7 is rumored to have massive increase in resolution which
could be boon for VR. Add on to this a dedicated chip for generating stereo
graphics that stays offline except during VR session to save power. Phones can
also get two cameras to support AR scenarios as well as 3D photo/video
recording. The headset can be equipped with eye gaze and depth sensors with
easy way to slide phones in and out.

------
tallanvor
Has anyone with vision issues been able to try out the hardware? I suppose
it's more of a software issue, but I'm blind in one eye, and if applications
assume you have vision in both eyes, you could end up with usability issues
when controls are only displayed on one screen or the other.

~~~
corysama
You won't have to worry about that. UI on only one eye would be a very bad
idea for everyone. I can speculate about someone using it for an intentionally
weird and distracting ghost effect or to approximate "impossible colors" like
red-and-blue-not-purple. But, otherwise it won't be done.

Also, people with monocular vision have reported that the 3D-ness and presence
of VR headsets works just as well as real life. In fact, it's fairly common
for people with stereo vision to have a hard time noticing when they are
running VR software that intentionally/unintentionally displays in mono.

~~~
tallanvor
Interesting to know. I still won't buy one until I can actually try it out,
but it sounds like it's better than 3D movies, which I cannot watch without
getting a splitting headache (I think it's due to the decreased light levels
that come through the glasses).

------
cheshire137
Excited about getting a free Rift because we backed them for the first
development kit on Kickstarter. :)

------
intrasight
This is for sure too expensive for casual gamers. And probably too expensive
for serious gamers - at least until there are some serious VR games. By the
time that serious VR games arrive, the price of a quality VR headset - with
built-in GPU - will probably be around $400.

This will remain a small niche market until mainstream killer apps arrive -
and those won't be games. The obvious killer apps are a) immersive major
league sports, b) immersive animated movies, c) immersive porn. Then the tech
gets cheap enough that useful killer apps will emerge (education, history,
etc.)

------
nilkn
My biggest fear for VR is that it's going to introduce a much more severe form
of console exclusives. I really don't want to drop $600+ on an Oculus Rift
only to find out that some other killer game from Valve is going to support
VR, but only on the also very expensive Vive.

It's frustrating enough having to own multiple redundant game consoles to play
all AAA titles, but it'll be even worse (and basically unaffordable) having to
own multiple VR headsets.

~~~
zardo
That's very likely. Valve is almost certainly going to release a game that
takes advantage of the "roomscale" capabilities they helped develop for the
Vive. If they make full use of it, the game may be impossible to port to a
headset that doesn't allow you to walk around.

It's not really that different from multiple consoles, what did an Xbox360 and
a PS3 cost in today's dollars?

~~~
LesZedCB
Palmer Luckey tweeted that there is no reason why roomscale won't work on the
Oculus. He set up two cameras in the corners and said it worked acceptably.

------
Animats
It's been available as a "development version" for almost two years.[1] The
price was $1000, and anyone could buy it on Amazon. This is a 40% price cut,
which is nice, but not a mainstream price.

Is there a killer app for this yet? The roller coaster simulators are fun for
about ten minutes. Second Life now works with the Oculus Rift [3] but few
people care.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGIIQf3krMM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGIIQf3krMM)
[2] [http://www.amazon.com/Oculus-Rift-Developers-Kit-
Dk2/dp/B00F...](http://www.amazon.com/Oculus-Rift-Developers-Kit-
Dk2/dp/B00F5CWD0I) [3]
[http://secondlife.com/destinations/oculus](http://secondlife.com/destinations/oculus)

~~~
HCIdivision17
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is pretty damn good. I haven't seen it mentioned here
yet, but people are more than happy to put scores of hours on that game. And
the VR really improves it.

~~~
Animats
The only reason that game needs VR is so you can see your right side mirrors
without changing viewpoint.[1]

(Also, it really needs a steering wheel. Trying to drive a realistic vehicle
with a game pad/joystick is awful.)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56G2jSw4JHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56G2jSw4JHs)

~~~
HCIdivision17
Well, I liked it at least. It enhances the game in the same way jumping from
16bit to 64bit makes a lot of stuff nicer. It doesn't fix fundamental
deficiencies, but it makes the good stuff gooder. Being able to just look at
the mirror instead of pressing a key feels way better and is far more natural.

But you gotta give 'em points for mapping the FOV control to the 'seat
position' (or something close).

------
ageofwant
I regretted cancelling my devkit in righteous rage after the facebook sellout,
but the somewhat tepid uptake of VR2.0 the last 18 months or so sadly makes it
seem like the right decision, if maybe for the wrong reasons.

I kinda hoped that the other vendors would have had something remarkable by
now.

~~~
zardo
The whole HTC/Valve "roomscale" thing with the chaperone system is pretty
remarkable.

------
mdevere
Amusing that they went for $599. The PS3 was launched at $599 during a much-
ridiculed E3 keynote and the price tag was ultimately looked back on as a huge
strategic error.

The Oculus is a different kettle of fish, of course. But $599 seems almost
like a deliberate reference.

------
DIVx0
ouch, I was all set to preorder but $599 is too much for me to buy this
without seeing it in person first.

I will have to wait for retail demo units or something.

~~~
zenir
They don't charge you until they ship, so basically you are just saving the
spot and can cancel before they ship when reviews are available (hopefully?):
[https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/684540696951308288](https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/684540696951308288)

------
transfire
Will wait to see how all the major players compare Oculus, HTC/Steam, PS4's VR
and let's not forget some interesting alternatives like
[http://castar.com/](http://castar.com/).

------
rubicon33
So many people talking about how its 'too expensive'. Obviously expense is
subjective, but if you ask me, purchasing THE premium product of THE emerging
market, means you can expect a high price.

Oculus is the Apple of VR.

------
codeshaman
I see one of the requirements is a Windows computer...

So for a Mac user like myself, that $599 would include a good $1k+ for a
Windows PC ?

Nevertheless I'm very excited about this tech, although I will not jump into
it just yet.

~~~
nardi
If you've got a nice enough Mac, just install Windows on it via BootCamp
([https://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/](https://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/)).

~~~
ptomato
No currently sold Mac meets Oculus minimum requirements, to the best of my
knowledge.

~~~
jsheard
Correct, even the GPUs used in the top end Mac Pro fall short of the minimum
requirement. Both GPUs rendering an eye each would be fast enough but that
configuration isn't widely supported by games yet.

------
bdz
TIL 700 EUR is in the ballpark of 350 USD

------
malka
I refuse to give money to Facebook. I'll wait for SteamVR.

------
JamesBaxter
In the UK it's basically the cost of an Xbox One and PS4 together. I wonder if
PC gamers would prefer one of those consoles for the exclusives.

~~~
Someone1234
Apples and oranges. Oculus is a different experience, not a different gaming
platform. If PS4 or XBone could offer an Oculus-like experience then your
point would absolutely make sense, but they cannot.

The closest comparable console is the Virtual Boy from 1995.

~~~
robin_reala
Playstation VR launches some point this year. Costing obviously remains to be
seen, but the tech is there.

~~~
Someone1234
Sony has hinted that it might cost around $400. And you also need a PS4 (which
is around $300 now).

~~~
schwap
Given the specs required by Oculus I'm not very confident the PS4 will be able
to deliver a meaningful VR experience.

------
herbst
Subtotal: $59900

O_O

~~~
ceejayoz
Font issue? There's a dot in there - $599.00.

~~~
esnard

      document.getElementsByClassName("op-item-info__cost__price")[0].textContent;
      "$59900"
    

Tested on both Firefox & Chromium, so it doesn't seem like a font issue.

------
evo_9
Well I really wanted this to be a huge, consumer hit that turns VR on to the
masses, but like many the price is simply not going to make that possible.

I think it's unwise to target 'hardcore gaming pc users' who will drop 600 on
a new video card enough to not bat an eye at this price. In that context it
might be a hit, but that's hardly going to forward VR into the mass market as
was the original hope of this device, at least for me.

Like other have also touched on, Sony seems to be in a better position now.
They are a consumer product company and have learned the hard way of the
perils of a roughly 600 dollar gaming device and how that works out in actual
sales (the original PS3 was 599 at launch at got pummeled by Xbox360).

This would all be a moot point if there were that one true killer VR app that
made us all want a Rift but it doesn't exist right now either from what I can
tell. This again plays into Sony's hands as they can sit and wait for that one
product to emerge and maybe have already grabbed it (they seem to be holding
the reins now on No Man's Sky, which could very well be the VR killer app we
are all waiting for).

Time will tell but I'm disappointed. VR for the masses will have to wait a bit
longer.

~~~
erikpukinskis
VR thethered to a Windows PC was never going to be for the masses. It's an
awkward form factor. Mobile VR is the thing that will achieve wide adoption.
Look for standalone VR devices under $500 in the five year timeframe. That's
when we'll start to see hundreds of millions of users.

Even iPhone only sold 6 million in the first gen.

------
joshschreuder
The price and hefty GPU requirements make this a no go for me.

I think PSVR, which is already rumoured to be cheaper will be far more
successful, and the install base for the PS4 is already there.

Sony are in a unique position to use the PSVR as a loss leader to sell VR
software, which Oculus can't (currently) compete with - hence the high price.

------
apsec112
$600 is a bit more than people expected, but it doesn't seem "unreasonable"
for a high-end consumer product. When Apple's first computer (the Apple II)
came out, the launch price was ~$5,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars. The
TRS-80 was the "cheap" computer, and it cost ~$2,300.

------
wmil
What's really interesting is that studios may be able to make the first round
of oculus games very cheaply.

The resolution is lower than typical on PC games, framerate is important, and
the experience is very different.

So I bet they could get away with repurposing a lot of old content into new
oculus games.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Yep. Third person games like Metal Gear and Grand Theft Auto just need a
rewrite to he camera system and the UI and they should be good to go. Racing
sims should be easy ports. FPS's are dead in the water.

------
Torkel
I for one is super excited that the Rift consumer version is finally released!

I experIenced a lot of overload issues: "Something went wrong. Please try
again." in red when I try to pay. I solved it by just keeping on trying. Issue
was oveload, not my credit cards. See followup too.

~~~
Torkel
Ok, I finally got my order through. (If anybody had the same issue: Don't
think I did anything differently than before though so it's probably just some
part of Oculus' payment system that is under dimensioned...)

------
mesozoic
I'm very interested but will wait until the reviews are out and to see what
their long term business model is. Video game consoles don't really make that
much money but rather the software does so I want to know what their plans
are.

------
anonymousab
Ouch. That poor Canadian dollar.

------
kolbe
I thought Samsung has been doing a pretty decent job of integrating VR into
their smartphones. Will there be a substantial improvement to the VR
experiences using Oculus?

~~~
soylentcola
Just comparing my DK2 to stuff like GearVR (or Cardboard at the low end) it
really does make a difference. Without the smoothest of framerates or
positional tracking, it really limits the useful applications of VR. It's OK
for watching a movie on a virtual giant screen or some more limited
experiences but for a real sense of immersion, you really need some level of
positional tracking.

When I got the DK2 I spent way more time grinning that I could stand up and
look around behind my flight chair and around my cockpit in Elite Dangerous
than I'd like to admit. Just having a 3d "surround" image to look around is
cool but positional tracking makes you feel like you're really "there".

------
sebringj
$399 should be an all-in-one price anyway. Not going to be mainstream till
2017-18 even but we'll see some nice kiosks and promotional booths in
businesses.

------
serge2k
599 is more than I am willing to pay right now, maybe once both it and the
vive are out.

The part that really pisses me off is the 30 dollars for shipping. What a
joke.

~~~
draugadrotten
44 euro shipping in Europe. I could literally get Ryanair flight tickets
cheaper, to pick it up in person.

------
yeukhon
Why is Xbox One Controller included? Not PS4 compatible? But hey you'd now
think "why didn't I back Oculus on Kickstarter?"

~~~
namuol
It's a PC peripheral, and always has been.

Sony (PS4) has their own VR tech.

The Xbox controller ensures all Rift users have the same hardware, which is
especially important with VR experiences.

~~~
yeukhon
It seems like you can't take that out of the bundle if you have one yourself,
possibly a modified version? Otherwise that seems like a major disappointment
for those already own an xbox controller, and force them to pay additional $$.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Palmer said that they get the controllers for next to nothing (remember the
deal they made with Microsoft?). If you don't want it you can sell it and come
out ahead of where you would be if they had never included it.

------
tempestn
I assume an overclocked i5-2500k will also work, hopefully. Performance hasn't
changed all that much from Sandy Bridge to Broadwell.

------
mtgx
Aside from this pre-order thing, will you be able to purchase a Rift only from
Oculus directly? What about Amazon or other stores?

------
theklub
Cool, but I don't think I'll buy this first version. Might be worth keeping on
in a box for 30 years though.

------
davidbanham
Shipping to Australia is $132. _ouch_

------
staunch
This reminds me of the 3DFX Voodoo2 release and I think it will be as big a
deal.

------
joeevans1000
I've tried both the Oculus and the HTC Vive in their latest dev kits, and the
Vive is incredibly more awesome. My advice is to wait for the Vive. In
addition to the way better technical experience I had, I think the HTC/Valve
mashup is incredible (and it showed in the demo).

------
ericzawo
Hope that mall booths start popping up where you can use them.

------
mentos
Anyone know what the specs are for the screen?

------
ulam2
Not available in India. :(

------
swang
Oh man, the people complaining in /r/oculus on Reddit. Insane.

------
chrisdbaldwin
$675 after taxes.

~~~
pc86
That's going to be incredibly dependent upon your state and local taxes.

------
wehadfun
Besides gaming and AE is there any reason to get this?

~~~
Sven7
If you are a pro athlete it allows you to practice your swing or your serve.

~~~
ceejayoz
If you're a pro athlete you're going to use the real thing.

~~~
erikpukinskis
VR is the real thing. You still throw the football. You just get to see
exactly what you did, and how it compares with the throws before and after.
And you can get things like realtime audio feedback while you move to give you
information about where your body is relative to where you're trying to train
to. The possibilities are infinite.

------
lossolo
Stop with "Virtual Reality" hype. People feel dizzy after trying this out. You
will see how this hype will decline after the product launch. We see hype
because big companies bet on this product and now want to get their millions
back...

~~~
PretzelPirate
I felt dizzy at first, but quickly got used to it. It was a very fun
experience. I would happily play for hours wearing it.

Its no Virtual Boy, but its the best substitute I can find. :)

