Rift V2 - Update for V1 owners

I find that highly unlikely.
The price of the Rift DK was low enough already, i doubt they'd be able to do that without taking a major financial hit.

What i can see happening however would be a DIY part bundle that you could purchase to upgrade your kit yourself.

This is just guessing though and it might also be that they simply will offer an entirely new kit for sale.

I was watching an interview with Palmer, I can't remember which one, I'll see if I can find it.

He said in the interview that they wanted to possibly get the consumer version LOWER than the dev kit price.

I don't know the actual parts cost breakdown, but it seems plausible that if you change the screen and sensors you're already looking at a majority of the cost. I don't know what the lenses cost but they ship with 3 sets so they can't be a huge part of the price. My guess is that if you change the screen you might as well just make a new unit instead of dealing with shipping old dev kits back and forth.

We know for sure they're changing the sensor. If you change the screen you have to change the control hardware too. The only thing left is the lenses and the plastic housing. And if the screen and sensor are shaped differently in any way—which they probably will be—then that means we need to replace the lenses and housing.

So no, they probably won't let you mail in your old one to be upgraded.

If they create a non-7" model for the retail version, they will probably have as similar an updated development kit as possible, and that will incur a different casing (probably) and so it wouldn't necessarily be the same unit.

If they do find a way to refurbish the existing kits to be compatible, then they could just send you a refurbished one and take yours to refurbish for somebody else. They would not need to refurbish and send back your actual kit. That would optimize the shipping pipeline and you would also get your upgrade faster because they will ship on delivery confirmation.

I bought the dev kit to get a head start on developing.

It is worth FAR more than $300 to get advance access to the hardware.

I'll gladly shell out another $300 when rev 2 comes out.

Hoping for a DIY part replacement for the display.

I don't care at all if they do it though. I'd pay another $300. I am never a big spender, but love is love and Rift IS love 8-)

Also, if they offer a DYI panel upgrade wouldn't they still have to buy it in bulk? The bulk would be smaller and price higher. Wonder if it would be worth it.

Even if sending back the V1 is an option, I'll still buy a V2 for the full price for 2 reasons, first the Oculus Rift team are the first guys to pioneer 'proper' VR (others have done it, but these guys are the first to do it properly and with effect!) and second I would like to keep hold of the V1 (the first ever proper VR device) as apart from sentimental value, it may be worth a pretty penny in 10 or 20 years time, when VR is huge (think how much an Apple 2 computer is now, I've seen those go for $25,000 on eBay now adays).

Or even just a nostalgia kick 10 years down the line while I plug in the original to the first demos.