PRICE POINT REVEALED....and it's horrible.

I feel the same way about the price. Expected it to be 300 - 400 USD so I'll wait another year. During the mean time the range of supported applications may increase

I think the price is perfectly acceptable. A lot of people spent 300 dollars on steering wheel or more for a hotas....This doesn't seem like that much of a stretch for a Gen 1 product. To some people , anything but free would have likely been too much.

"AHambrick" wrote:
I think the price is perfectly acceptable. A lot of people spent 300 dollars on steering wheel or more for a hotas....This doesn't seem like that much of a stretch for a Gen 1 product.

Yeah, it comes down to how passionate you are for 'insert hobby' such as VR and how much you believe in whichever product you've been following. Don't make much money? Start saving, get one later. When I was 16 I saved up 2 years of $6.50 an hr p.t. to buy all sorts of pro DJ and PA system gear, my passion at the time. Still works 14 yrs later. You'll know if you're passionate enough if you can be patient enough.

I agree with kratzkatz though about waiting even with cash at hand, it might be a good idea to wait a year first. I was initially planning on doing just that, but I didn't! Sorry wallet, my bad, I got a little too excited.

Only obsessive VR enthusiasts will shell out that kind of money for the Rift - not only will the Rift cost you, but also you'd need a high-end rig simply to support it.

Google Cardboard for the masses, Oculus Rift for the exclusive few (with money to burn). Defeats the whole purpose of this ‘new era’ in VR – that is, to wrest it from elitist geeks.

I'm excited for VR but I'm not an enthusiast, I spend to a budget.

I've only got a laptop with some gaming capability. My plan was to do a new desktop build (minus the GPU as I bought that separately off a friend) for £460 and experiment with whatever low level VR the PC could support. I knew the GPU would be below the recommended requirements but that didn't mean VR was inaccessible, I've seen people enjoying all sorts of demos under the recommended spec. I'd then later get a Pascal GPU for the full VR experience, something equivalent to a 970 without the price tag. That was the plan.

Then I saw the $600 price tag... so that's just shy from £500 when you factor VAT, never mind the delivery. So it would cost more than the build I was planning to purchase for VR, just for the headset.

Now I understand this is brand new tech but the Rift has always been promoted as a accessible consumer device, VR for the masses. They even said they'd be selling them at cost, just to make them even more accessible. I've been keeping track of the Rift since early 2013 and was excited for 2016, now it feels like it's going to be more 2017/18 before it's a reasonable price.

It was a big slap in the face. Sure I could save up the £500+ over time, but I cannot justify spending that much on just one item. The desktop has a lot more going for it to justify the spend, it's got all sorts of uses, the Rift is just one thing.

So now I'm thinking if it's worth getting a more posh mobile headset to play with, like the Freefly VR, or waiting to see if a more brand neutral Gear VR equivalent comes out. Most mobile VR is a toy though, it's crude and lacks presence. Maybe sometime after launch Oculus will offer a basic version of the Rift, minus the unnecessary extras and luxury feel. That or some decent competitor will come in and offer a more affordable alternative.

Not everyone wants the latest Iphone/Samsung Galaxy phone, often much cheaper competitors still produce a good product; like my Asus Zenfone 2. I'm hoping that will be the case here, a VR headset for the rest of us...

In my opinion, the price is ok if not already owning a DK2. However, speaking as a DK2 owner, I don't find too much of a advantage over the DK2 for >£500 more (If already owning the DK2). Slightly improved FOV, slightly increased resolution and framerate. Its a similar analogy as to upgrading a i7 2600k to a i7 4770. Increase, but nothing major :-)

If they managed to do the DK2 for $350, they can do a toned down headset for around $400. It won't have that premium experience, but people still enjoy their DK2s.

If there were no competition, they could easily have made a $300 system. However, they changed course to become the best choice, and thus the price increased to include as much groundbreaking technology as possible.

Yeah, i'm also not an enthusiast, I simply tried a friends DK2 for 5 minutes and decided I wanted the official release.

The thing is, if you end up not enjoying it enough, it'll sell instantly on ebay, and you'll hardly lose any money.
There's not much risk when it comes to finding out if it will be personally worth the cash to you. Well, provided you didn't need to also upgrade your pc! :lol: Save your reciepts...