600 dollars is a Seriously. Bad. Mistake.

[thornfoot]

Although you will surely get 600 dollars out of me and the other early tech adopters, that price point is truly short sighted.

The general public is not going to want to buy a CV1 at that price -- and they are where the real money is at. You will grab an extra few million dollars profit out of the hardware while losing hundreds of millions in software sales.

That is where the people that have spent their time and effort making programs for the rift expect to make their money. You just cut their user base down significantly. That kind of pisses me off.

Oculus, you all but just handed the VR race to the Vive'. That just blows my mind.

The bad press you are about to receive is frightening to contemplate. It will definitely hurt if not outright destroy Oculus's reputation. It may even put a damper the whole VR revolution.

[ThreeDeeVision]

"nedo" wrote:

"whoa182" wrote:

I think the worst thing Oculus could have done is to cut the cost of the device by cutting corners and lowering the quality. In order for VR to stand a chance, people need to have great experiences and be convinced. Oculus wants as few people as possible to have issues or walk away from VR and be disappointed and having a bad experience, because enough of that happening and VR will be setback yet again. It's better to have a slightly expensive product now, than have a not-so-good one and be stuck with it for the next couple of years. Oculus absolutely made the right decision to go with quality, even if that meant a slower growth rate initially. Bad VR will turn people away more.

You are absolutely right!
But people would still complain,
a cheap HMD = This VR sucks, not worth

Not only that, but due to the high minimum PC spec, people with sub-par PC's will have bad VR experiences due to bad performance and blame the equipment. This was always going to be adopted by the enthusiasts first, anyone who thought or said otherwise were just wishful thinking or blowing smoke.

[McTurbo]

Well i went away for a few days to let myself think about how i was dealing with the disappointment. It comes down to expectations. As a father, husband and taking care of my sick mom and uncle.. i make good money.. but theres not alot of slush in there. even 450.00 range is something i could have squeeked by affording if i managed things right.. but at 600+ tax + shipping.. it slipped out of range into a next year type thinking.. and i think my reaction to that was anger at being misled or even annoyance at not knowing better than to believe better..

they did make the right choice choosing quality. But i think there was a large contingent here that wants VR to launch for everyone.. they see the potential of this platform and cant wait to see it mainstream and everyone trying it.. that 600.00 price tag dashed those expectations which is what led to my own negative post.

In the end i do believe that Oculus made the right choice premium VR showing people what it could be is going to be better in the long run than substandard VR with blurry screens and unreadable text ... even if suddenly i have to calm down and act like an adult then come to the realization that when i do get it.. its gonna be that much better.

[nosys70]

yes, especially people getting an headset (whatever brand it is) will not get a second one.
so oculus could have flooded market with their hardware and then capture devloppers interest and investor to
get the returns on long term application sales.
apple/google/samsung understood that since a long time.
that is strange oculus did not take that route, since they got also the GEAR in mind.
Could be a clue they don't give a fuck about pc VR, and CV1 could be the last model oculus will ever do.

And this is particularly important since HTC is not far behind and oculus will really deliver only late this year.
So they could have better lowering the price, really get the cash from purchaser (and get interest on it between the delivery time) than getting lots of reservations that could vanish the day HTC/sony/whatever release their product and finally just
be one provider of hardware among other.
When DuPont looked back about the Nylon and the Lycra strategy, their only regret was to not have produced enough
plants to flood the market with their product.
Because demand was not totally fulfilled and demand still high , so competitors took their chance to produce and sale the same product. Especially when competitor can just skip the development phase by producing a similar/clone product.
If Dupont would have flooded the market, nobody would have been able to launch a competitive product, because it would not be worth to invest a huge amount of money to produce something that is already available.
Oculus just created their own nightmare by creating the hype about VR, and at the same time creating the need for a cheap/alternative to their product. Expect chinese (AntVR ?) to come back very soon.

[CharlieHobbes]

At the end of the day we won't know if it was a mistake until after the first units ship.

Will it scare off developers thinking there's not enough userbase?
Will it not impress enough to generate more buzz?
Will it lead to tons of negative media when people have less than stellar experiences? (because they don't have the gear to run it properly)
Will all the other vendors come out with substantially cheaper alternatives?

I can't answer any of these questions with 100% certainty at this point.

And even if I could answer all of these with a firm YES, there is no guarantee this would have been any different with a lower price.
The dice have been cast and we won't know the outcome until they stop rolling.

For every poster with a legitimate concern on how this will harm VR uptake there is at least one that is venting just because the price point put them outside of their immediate range. And we would do well to understand this basic human reaction.

I don't remember the first PDA's or Smartphones to be exactly cheap, but it didn't stop them from becoming a part of daily life. The sky is not falling

[McTurbo]

"CharlieHobbes" wrote:
At the end of the day we won't know if it was a mistake until after the first units ship.

Will it scare off developers thinking there's not enough userbase?
Will it not impress enough to generate more buzz?
Will it lead to tons of negative media when people have less than stellar experiences? (because they don't have the gear to run it properly)
Will all the other vendors come out with substantially cheaper alternatives?

I can't answer any of these questions with 100% certainty at this point.

And even if I could answer all of these with a firm YES, there is no guarantee this would have been any different with a lower price.
The dice have been cast and we won't know the outcome until they stop rolling.

For every poster with a legitimate concern on how this will harm VR uptake there is at least one that is venting just because the price point put them outside of their immediate range. And we would do well to understand this basic human reaction.

I don't remember the first PDA's or Smartphones to be exactly cheap, but it didn't stop them from becoming a part of daily life. The sky is not falling

how do we report a post for obsessive use of logical thinking and over abundance of emotional control? ooh.. i know.. illegal use of common sense.. thats gotta be worth something...

[nosys70]

it is not about being cheap.
Who remembers Palm or Sony's PDA today ?
Whatever for sale and finding a purchaser his at the right price.

[CharlieHobbes]

"McTurbo" wrote:

"CharlieHobbes" wrote:
At the end of the day we won't know if it was a mistake until after the first units ship.

Will it scare off developers thinking there's not enough userbase?
Will it not impress enough to generate more buzz?
Will it lead to tons of negative media when people have less than stellar experiences? (because they don't have the gear to run it properly)
Will all the other vendors come out with substantially cheaper alternatives?

I can't answer any of these questions with 100% certainty at this point.

And even if I could answer all of these with a firm YES, there is no guarantee this would have been any different with a lower price.
The dice have been cast and we won't know the outcome until they stop rolling.

For every poster with a legitimate concern on how this will harm VR uptake there is at least one that is venting just because the price point put them outside of their immediate range. And we would do well to understand this basic human reaction.

I don't remember the first PDA's or Smartphones to be exactly cheap, but it didn't stop them from becoming a part of daily life. The sky is not falling

how do we report a post for obsessive use of logical thinking and over abundance of emotional control? ooh.. i know.. illegal use of common sense.. thats gotta be worth something...

Sorry, I apologise, I'll come back after I had a few drinks and find something to be angry about

[Gigantoad]

Keeping quality high was a good choice. What I expected personally is that the price would still have been kept pretty low, in the ballpark of DK2 and Facebook using their immense capital to pay for the loss they'd make with it. The ultimate goal being market penetration, making sure people not only get quality but also can afford it and so leaving no chance that VR will fail and that Oculus is going to be the dominant force in the field. And obviously assuring developers that there will be a big audience to buy their products, which is essential to the success of any new platform.

And if making a loss on something for a while sounds strange to you, look at Amazon as the extreme example and what they have achieved with that long-term strategy. And really, not too long ago the signals that came out of Oculus concering the FB deal sounded pretty much exactly like that.

[RirtualVeality]

I've sort of been known as a defender of Oculus (READ: Ultra elite fanboy extreme), but I'm with everyone here on the price. It's crazy expensive. I don't care that they're not making money on it. I don't care that it's the latest this or that. $914 is a giant chunk of cash. Cash that I need to pay a mortgage and buy food. My only saving grace is that I can slowly save up some money until it charges my card in May. :?

[GJMOH]

So, at the risk of drawing flames..... If you can afford $450 but can't find $650 in your bank account should you really be buying any of this gear - maybe focus on having 3-6 months of income in the bank before buying toys?