Oculus Rift pre-orders start January 6, here's everything you need to know

Shawn Knight

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Oculus VR is now accepting pre-orders for the final, consumer version of the Oculus Rift. Each pre-order will come bundled with an Xbox One controller, the Oculus Remote (not to be confused with the Touch controllers) and two games, Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale. The first shipments are expected to go out on late March.

Ealier this week the company wrote this was going to be an exciting week for virtual reality. Oculus VR teased that founder Palmer Luckey would conduct a Reddit AMA, but failed to disclose how much the Rift would sell for until today when pre-orders went live.

Given the anticipation that's built up over the years, it's almost a given that pre-orders will be scooped up at a blistering pace. If you really want one, I'd recommend checking Oculus VR's website in advance and becoming very familiar with F5 (refresh) to give yourself the best chance of getting your order in. As of writing, shortly after the pre-orders opened the Rift was still shown as available but the shipping date had slipped to May.

Oculus also announced today the Rift will also be available in limited locations at select retailers starting in April. Current pre-orders are available to be shipped to the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States.

Lucky's Tale is a third-person platform adventure game that we first saw at E3 in 2014. It follows a furry protagonist named Lucky that runs, jumps, spins and climbs his way through a colorful and unique world. Some have likened it to Super Mario 64, Nintendo's landmark adventure game that launched alongside the Nintendo 64.

Eve: Valkyrie broke cover at an Oculus event last June. Built from the ground up for virtual reality, Eve: Valkyrie from CCP Games is a multiplayer dogfighting shooter within the Eve Online universe that's also expected to be a launch title for Sony's PlayStation VR headset.

Virtual reality has been a dream of technology enthusiasts for decades. Although it has been tried in years past, the Rift's debut on Kickstarter in the summer of 2012 singlehandedly kicked off the modern virtual reality movement which now includes a number of major players such as HTC, Samsung, Sony and Facebook of course, current owner of Oculus.

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Techspot, the price is absolutely something I need to know. You might retitle this "Here's everything WE know". Funny that this is the second Oculus article today that wasn't up to snuff in everyone's opinion.
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Edit: Now we know the price.

I would have put down 300 or 350 for one of those, but no way am I spending $600 having never touched one before. Not saying I won't pay 600, but it'll be at least 6 months after launch, and then, only if the content and support is there.
 
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Techspot, the price is absolutely something I need to know. You might retitle this "Here's everything WE know". Funny that this is the second Oculus article today that wasn't up to snuff in everyone's opinion.
Far as I can tell, no one knows the price since they have not released it yet. The most anyone says is that it will cost more than $350, that is it and that info was available back in October.
 
Techspot, the price is absolutely something I need to know. You might retitle this "Here's everything WE know". Funny that this is the second Oculus article today that wasn't up to snuff in everyone's opinion.
Far as I can tell, no one knows the price since they have not released it yet.

You are correct, no one knows. I was merely pointing our that the title "everything you need to know" is not exactly accurate, unless I'm in the minority on wanting to know the price. But I don't think I am.
 
Techspot, the price is absolutely something I need to know. You might retitle this "Here's everything WE know". Funny that this is the second Oculus article today that wasn't up to snuff in everyone's opinion.
Far as I can tell, no one knows the price since they have not released it yet.

You are correct, no one knows. I was merely pointing our that the title "everything you need to know" is not exactly accurate, unless I'm in the minority on wanting to know the price. But I don't think I am.
I haven't given the price a thought yet but that's probably because I don't intend buying one for a long while yet. I'll wait until things settle down and it becomes mainstream. I'm more than happy to let others throw their money at this fetus tech that's going to suffer a lot of birth pains still.
 
All this hype and they couldn't even arrange to bundle it with an existing or recent game? Won't give a firm price this close to pre-ordering? You know, this is starting to smell a lot like one of those crowd funded, guaranteed to fail, projects where they run off with the cash and leave everyone standing around looking stupid.

This is definitely one I'm taking a back seat, way in the back of the financial bus ... or make that train and I'm going to be in the caboose! ..... (I'll explain what that is for those that are too young to have ever seen a caboose at a later time ... but you'll have to pre-order the explanation and we expect to crowd fund it at $100 a pop, assuming I live long enough to explain from my future bahama's beach home ....)
 
Nope. Not touching this or any other VR device until they've been released and out for public consumption for several months, I can see both professional and user reviews, have all the bugs worked out and a reasonable software library to choose from.

In other words, about 3-5 years from now.
 
All this hype and they couldn't even arrange to bundle it with an existing or recent game? Won't give a firm price this close to pre-ordering? You know, this is starting to smell a lot like one of those crowd funded, guaranteed to fail, projects where they run off with the cash and leave everyone standing around looking stupid.

This is definitely one I'm taking a back seat, way in the back of the financial bus ... or make that train and I'm going to be in the caboose! ..... (I'll explain what that is for those that are too young to have ever seen a caboose at a later time ... but you'll have to pre-order the explanation and we expect to crowd fund it at $100 a pop, assuming I live long enough to explain from my future bahama's beach home ....)

You do realise Facebook bought Oculus in 2014 for $2 billion. Pretty sure Mark Zuckerberg is in this for more than just a Rift shirt and his name in the credits.
 
What ever the price will be I can guarantee us Brits will get ripped off and they will play the usual bullshit exchange rate card. For example the cost maybe $400 weirdly in the UK it will be £400 that is nothing to do with exchange rates that's just "because they can they will"
 
Is this just in the us or will it be available to preorder internationally. I am looking at upgrading my current PC slowly over the next 6 months so knowing some minimum or recommended specs would be nice.
 
I'm excited we are getting closer but disappointing there is still no price. Plus I don't think we know the specifications of the device either, such as display resolution. While I'm a HUGE VR fan and know for sure I will be getting one, this doesn't feel like a great start.
 
Nope. Not touching this or any other VR device until they've been released and out for public consumption for several months, I can see both professional and user reviews, have all the bugs worked out and a reasonable software library to choose from.

In other words, about 3-5 years from now.
I'm leaning into this line of thinking too. I was at first very excited for VR and wanted it NOW! But after a few Samsung Gear VR demo's around the trade show floors, I wasn't impressed with the picture quality. At best, I could focus about 80% of the screen, leaving the edges blurry. Then at it's best setting the screen-door effect was too apparent for my dollars. Finally, controls still need to be worked out. I doubt that all these issues will be fixed at first launch. But I am hopeful that VR technology will take off.
 
I'm on the fence, till reviews from the wide market are here. The price suggests no other option.
 
What ever the price will be I can guarantee us Brits will get ripped off and they will play the usual bullshit exchange rate card. For example the cost maybe $400 weirdly in the UK it will be £400 that is nothing to do with exchange rates that's just "because they can they will"
Nearly $599 and £499
 
Still no specs. I wont buy something without knowing what it is capable of.

$600 seems a little steep... or perhaps it isn't. The VR experience this could potentially offer is probably way more than even a $1,200 monitor.
 
It's about $100 more than I expected. I'll just wait for when there are more games and the price drops a bit.

Still no specs. I wont buy something without knowing what it is capable of.

$600 seems a little steep... or perhaps it isn't. The VR experience this could potentially offer is probably way more than even a $1,200 monitor.

you know the specs already. it's the same as the CV1 with the finished ergonomics, aesthetics and other small changes.
 
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Wow, with VAT its like average monthly net wage in my country. And then I thought my GTX970 was luxury. Have fun rich 'muricans. I'll pass on that toy and wait some 10 years for $200 32" 4K monitor. I'm just curiuous how many devs gonna prepare specialised content for something that prohibitively expensive. Smells like another 3D tech. DOA.
 
Wow, with VAT its like average monthly net wage in my country. And then I thought my GTX970 was luxury. Have fun rich 'muricans. I'll pass on that toy and wait some 10 years for $200 32" 4K monitor. I'm just curiuous how many devs gonna prepare specialised content for something that prohibitively expensive. Smells like another 3D tech. DOA.

Curious where do you live where the average yearly wage is only around $7200 (not sure what you gross is because I don't know you tax etc). That is nothing to do with a rich american that is to do with what ever country you are in having a very poor economy. In the UK the minimum wage (the lowest any worker can earn) works out at about $19,692 (£13,500). Of that total £10,600 is tax free but you still pay national insurance and then you would pay 20% tax on the remaining £2,900 (and 12% national insurance). I feel this is quite a low yearly wage but then apparently the UK have a great economy oh ps our VAT is 20% but the £499 quote price does include VAT
 
you know the specs already. it's the same as the CV1 with the finished ergonomics, aesthetics and other small changes.

So 1080x1200 per eye? I will venture to bet that is not enough and that you'll still see the pixels. Guess I won't know until I try one though.
 
What ever the price will be I can guarantee us Brits will get ripped off and they will play the usual bullshit exchange rate card. For example the cost maybe $400 weirdly in the UK it will be £400 that is nothing to do with exchange rates that's just "because they can they will"

Cry to the queen's taxes.
 
So 1080x1200 per eye? I will venture to bet that is not enough and that you'll still see the pixels. Guess I won't know until I try one though.
The screendoor effect is not the same for everyone, but at it's current resolution it should still be present.
You have to try one if it's a big problem for you. (some get motion sickness faster because of this)
 
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