Oculus temporarily slashes Rift + Touch bundle to $399

[Jos]

For the second time this year is slashing, Facebook is temporarily dropping the price of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and Touch motion controllers bundle, this time pricing the entire package at $399 — matching Sony’s PlayStation VR unit. The discount will be available for the next six weeks as part of Oculus’ “Summer of Rift” event, which also includes up to 60% discounts on more than 30 VR titles available for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.

Aside from quality content, getting the cost down is key to the long term success of virtual reality and Oculus is well aware of that, but the recent price drops suggest that sales have been sluggish.

According to Jason Rubin, head of content at Oculus, the average number of Rift headsets sold each week went up after the first price cut and now that are temporarily lowering the price again to capitalize on a dramatic increase of content in recent month. The company says there are more than 700 apps and games for Oculus today, up from roughly 400 in March.

“From AAA games like Batman: Arkham VR, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Robo Recall, and Wilson’s Heart to interactive films, immersive experiences, and beyond, there’s a ton to explore in VR. Thanks to multiplayer games like Echo Arena and social apps like Facebook Spaces, you can compete or connect with virtually anyone, anywhere.”

Oculus hasn't disclosed sales for the Rift but research firm IDC estimates the device has sold about 520,000 units world-wide to date, compared with 770,000 of HTC's Vive headsets and 1.6 million PlayStation VR headsets.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/70052-oculus-temporarily-slashes-rift-touch-bundle-399.html

 

[Panda218]

This is great for VR as a whole, but I'm curious why they are cutting the cost again. I'm guessing they are hurting for more sales. I love my Vive to death, but it'd be hard to pass up this deal if I was just getting into VR. I may pick one up for the GF now that we have 2 RIGS in the house. It'd be fun to play Rec Room together.

 

[Uncle Al]

Competition .... plain and simple .... slash it down to $200 and I'm going to start paying more attention .....

 

[TomSEA]

What Uncle Al said - $200 and I'll bite.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Does this include the motion tracking sensor?

 

[Panda218]

Does this include the motion tracking sensor?

You'll need to add a 3rd sensor to the package in order to fully support 360 room scale. I tried it with just 2 sensors and it was far from ideal for my play space.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

You'll need to add a 3rd sensor to the package in order to fully support 360 room scale. I tried it with just 2 sensors and it was far from ideal for my play space.

So it comes with two? I'm confused...

Will the $400 deal work well in a seated position, like for racing or flight sims?

 

[Panda218]

So it comes with two? I'm confused...

Will the $400 deal work well in a seated position, like for racing or flight sims?

It will work perfectly for that. It will also work great for standing VR experiences, but for full 360 room scale you'll want to invest in at least 1 more sensor ( I think they are like 60 bucks now a piece)

The base Rift comes with 1 sensor and the touch controllers comes with another.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

It will work perfectly for that. It will also work great for standing VR experiences, but for full 360 room scale you'll want to invest in at least 1 more sensor ( I think they are like 60 bucks now a piece)

The base Rift comes with 1 sensor and the touch controllers comes with another.

Awesome... thanks for the info. This seems like a pretty good deal. May hold me over until we can get some higher res VR displays.

 

[Jamlad]

I don't care if it's free; Facebook affiliated/owned? I'll pass.

 

[Evernessince]

I would buy into VR if there were more games for it. Right now it's essentially a porn helmet and that's not worth $400.

 

[Bubbajim]

I would buy into VR if there were more games for it. Right now it's essentially a porn helmet and that's not worth $400.

I'd suggest you look again at the catalogues available, there are absolutely tons of games for both the Rift and Vive. And Rift can play almost all Vive games natively, while Vive can - with a tiny mod program - play almost all Rift games.

T'is a great time to be aVive!

 

[Panda218]

I would buy into VR if there were more games for it. Right now it's essentially a porn helmet and that's not worth $400.

I've owned a Vive since launch and have yet to even look for VR porn. My point is there are plenty of games to play

 

[Evernessince]

I'd suggest you look again at the catalogues available, there are absolutely tons of games for both the Rift and Vive. And Rift can play almost all Vive games natively, while Vive can - with a tiny mod program - play almost all Rift games.

T'is a great time to be aVive!

No, there's not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_Oculus_Rift_support

I've looked at other lists and they tell the same story. I have a vive and the room scale demo is fun but the lack of games kills it. Let's be honest here too, most of the games that are on the list are POS as well.

Tis a good time to wait, because nothing good is out until at least fallout VR and even that is Vive only.

 

[Bubbajim]

... Tis a good time to wait, because nothing good is out until at least fallout VR and even that is Vive only.

Ahh Evernissince, normally we agree on so much! That wiki list is so far from exhaustive that it's basically redundant. Also, your first post didn't suggest you owned a Vive ("I'd buy into VR if..."), so knowing that, there's obviously no reason to try and convert you.

But for any other lurkers on the fence, there definitely are tons of great games to sink hours into. If your definition of "game" is limited to "is made by a huge developer/publisher for a mega budget", then perhaps no. If your definition of game includes "something I can play for hours of enjoyment", then yes, there are loads: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?vrsupport=401