On Wednesday, Oculus VR opened pre-orders for the Oculus Rift’s consumer model. By doing so, they released the price point of the much sought after virtual reality headset, which has long been speculated.
The Oculus Rift’s base pre-order package which will include the Oculus Rift VR Headset, Xbox One Controller, a sensor, along with free copies of Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale will set you back a cool $600. Headsets will ship to those who pre-order on March 28 and there is a limit of 1 per customer.
This price point comes as a shock to many consumers, who believed that the Oculus Rift would be priced more competitively after months of hyped expectations for a “budget friendly” price point.
To perhaps help offset the hefty price tag, Oculus VR confirmed earlier reports that you will not have to pay for anything until the headset ships on March 28th.
Also announced with the pre-orders were the specifications needed for PC users wanting to delve into the world of the Oculus Rift.
The Recommended Specifications are as follows:
· Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
· Processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
· Memory: 8 GB+ RAM
· Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 Video Output
· Input: 3x 3.0 USB ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
· OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer
The specs aren’t too far gone for most gaming PC users, but when you figure in the cost of the Oculus Rift itself, a typical PC gamer will be spending close to $2000 for the PC they would need to run the Oculus plus the Rift VR headset itself. That is not exactly a budget friendly prospect for the average PC gamer.
Here’s hoping that Oculus VR announces a price cut shortly or that they announce versions of the VR that will be more budget friendly and less budget gouging.
What do you think? Is the Oculus Rift priced too high? Too low? Or is it just right? Let us know in the comments!