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[Blizzard]

Well goddamn, this is a huge bummer.
Only ~5000 DK2s shipped from distribution centers in July? What the hell?
How is this fuckup even possible considering DK2 have been around for a couple of months and them shipping ~100 DK2s last week to certain developers.
They handled this announcement pretty horribly, now I just hope they at least will let us know around what time the first 5000 and 10000 orders were made and some more info.
I mean, is 1000 DK2s of the first batch still allocated to Japan only, meaning only ~4000 to the rest of the world in July?
Guess they're gonna let us speculate and wait another month though as usual, I'm not expecting mine until August regardless of me ordering 2 hours after announcement.

This is why I was skeptical when people were quoting the 30,000 number, but I think I was told that with the lessons learned and Facebook money, Oculus can handle it now. I remain skeptical.

You should've been here for the DK1 shipping. No info about anything until it suddenly came out. The forums over at Oculus were a battle field.

And what's the deal with that extremely cumbersome status page? Why do I have to type in my email and recieve an URL every time I want to check it, when there's a fully functional log in on the site?

At one point, I seem to recall a month or two of no information, followed by the announcement that a huge shipment was held up in customs.

I agree the status page is weirdly cumbersome. By the nature of the project, lots of people are going to be checking it constantly, which means repeatedly hitting two different webpages AND generating emails to themselves? Very odd.

 

[Faith]

Won't they deliver every country in Europe from the UK distribution centre? So it actually doesn't matter where you live?

 

[Canis lupus]

Well goddamn, this is a huge bummer.
Only ~5000 DK2s shipped from distribution centers in July? What the hell?
How is this fuckup even possible considering DK2 have been around for a couple of months and them shipping ~100 DK2s last week to certain developers.
They handled this announcement pretty horribly, now I just hope they at least will let us know around what time the first 5000 and 10000 orders were made and some more info.
I mean, is 1000 DK2s of the first batch still allocated to Japan only, meaning only ~4000 to the rest of the world in July?
Guess they're gonna let us speculate and wait another month though as usual, I'm not expecting mine until August regardless of me ordering 2 hours after announcement.

I ordered 5 hours after the announcement so I'm not expecting mine until september lol, it would've been nice if they upped production capacity after seeing so many preorders.

 

[Throwaway123456789]

Hehe, I wasn't around that time (I've read a lot about it though), not really annoyed that much by the delay either, just by how they handled this whole thing.
Announcing a delay in the actual month where we expected it to be shipped, when they only a few weeks ago estimated 20-30k shipped in July, on top of the lack of information, that's what annoys me.
Otherwise I'm just bummed out, since I'm really looking forward to my first Rift experience.

At least I'd hoped for they'd learnt something from the debacle of DK1.

I hear you. They are starting to rack up an extremely bad track record, and it seems like they won't be able to keep up with the demand this time either. You can't go out and officially say you'll ship 35 000 units in July, then a few weeks later scale it down to 10 000, and possibly 5 000 (the wording in the update is pretty vague). It's like they haven't learned anyhting from the first round. At the very least I hope there won't be a total blackout when it comes to information this time around.

 

[bj00rn_]

Holey fuk.. Didn't expect this.. I was about 100% sure I'd get it in july. But with a Mar 19, 2014 11:48 AM PDT order there's probably no chance in hell

 

[elyetis]

That's quite a bummer, going from something like "no news about it because we are on track with what we announced" to waiting July to announce that they are pretty much shipping between 2 to 4 times less than expected. :/

I mean I hoped that the Facebook thingy would pretty much mean the opposite when it comes to allow them to be in a good position when it comes to dealing with manufacturer.

Oh, well, I'm Mar 19, 2014 09:47 AM PDT so I don't really know what it mean to me anyway, I'm guessing shipped early August ( if they don't make that **** choice of putting priority in shipment per region with europe last ).

 

[Jinroh]

Well I know of at least two others (in Switzerland), beside yours

You can add me to the list too! But I ordered mine on the 21st I really don't know what to expect.

 

[jacksepticeye]

Pretty shitty TBH. They saw how many people ordered them and should have been a bit more prepared. These constant delays with the Rifts is frustrating.

 

[Astral/H3X]

Pretty shitty TBH. They saw how many people ordered them and should have been a bit more prepared. These constant delays with the Rifts is frustrating.

I never understand this idea that if a company sees demand coming, that they need to be "prepared" for it... Do people not get that it's financially infeasible to to set everything up with the highest possible load as your baseline? It's just like with servers. "They knew christmas was coming! They should have bought even more servers!" It just doesn't work like that.

And hell we're talking about actual factories here. They have a certain capacity to build Rifts. Let them build them at that capacity, instead of naively demand that they just "build faster".

 

[Soi-Fong]

I never understand this idea that if a company sees demand coming, that they need to be "prepared" for it... Do people not get that it's financially infeasible to to set everything up with the highest possible load as your baseline? It's just like with servers. "They knew christmas was coming! They should have bought even more servers!" It just doesn't work like that.

And hell we're talking about actual factories here. They have a certain capacity to build Rifts. Let them build them at that capacity, instead of naively demand that they just "build faster".

I think people have the right to be a little bit disappointed. After all, at E3 Palmer and Oculus stated that they were "on track" and manufacturing was going smoothly and they had guys "down in China."

It's hard to spin. Going from 20 - 30k to only 5k shipped in a month. I can understand things happening, but they should have given an update way sooner. They would have known about this earlier, but chose to remain tight-lipped.

Also, when people saw "shipping in July" they expect it to ship in July. Nothing wrong with that from a consumer perspective. They should have never put that or taken it down immediately after hitting these numbers.

If anything, this situation tells me they haven't learned much from DK1 launch.

 

[Zeknurn]

They shouldn't take preorders if they can't deliver what they kept promising. Simple as that.

 

[ido]

Ahhh, here we are again. Comparing order times and frantically hoping we get ours first. I love times like these, because they are about as close to feeling like Christmas as a child that I can ever hope to reproduce.

March 19th, 08:18AM PDT for me.

Also got a second order in before 9, but I don't remember the exact time stamp.

 

[friday]

Man, you guys have never worked in production have you? It is not easy to start production on a new product, especially one as complex as the Rift. Getting it right is a long and detailed process, so to me them shipping 5000 this month is quite an achievement.

 

[Soi-Fong]

Man, you guys have never worked in production have you? It is not easy to start production on a new product, especially one as complex as the Rift. Getting it right is a long and detailed process, so to me them shipping 5000 this month is quite an achievement.

People really have got to stop saying this and giving Oculus an excuse. They would have known about ths weeks beforehand, but CHOSE to remain quiet. Add to that, it's DK1 all over again when they specifically said they were better prepared this time in the manufacturing end. In E3, they said they were "on track" and even on interviews afterwards they said the same thing.

Like I said, it's hard to see it any other way. Slashing your estimates from 20 - 30k to just 5k shipped.. Something went wrong, but Oculus didn't communicate this to the community earlier on.

 

[jacksepticeye]

I never understand this idea that if a company sees demand coming, that they need to be "prepared" for it... Do people not get that it's financially infeasible to to set everything up with the highest possible load as your baseline? It's just like with servers. "They knew christmas was coming! They should have bought even more servers!" It just doesn't work like that.

And hell we're talking about actual factories here. They have a certain capacity to build Rifts. Let them build them at that capacity, instead of naively demand that they just "build faster".

While I would normally agree and maybe I'm just a little peeved but they stated before that they had planned to ship FAR more than what they actually are. It seemed like they actually were prepared and were ready for at least a good chunk of demand.

Though yeah it is actual factories making them and they can't exactly make more at any one time than their capacity, I agree with that. It's just disappointing. The Crystal Cove design was designed quite a while ago and judging by sales of DK1 they should have pre-emptively had a couple thousand made at least.

 

[GeoGonzo]

I'd gladly take a late but reliable DK2 over a rushed and possibly defective one. What I'm saying here is that I'd bet Oculus did all they could to avoid delays, and if they felt they couldn't make them any faster there probably was a good reason for it.

 

[Soi-Fong]

Also, I think we need to give more props to Sony and MS regarding production of any console since some guys are here are willing to give Oculus a pass.

Manufacturing and distribution ain't easy, but those two sure do make it look easy. Just something you gotta appreciate regarding logistics and such.

 

[Astral/H3X]

I mean it's fine to be disappointed, but all the time I see people calling for heads to drop when something ever goes over capacity. Less that I think any extremes are happening right now, than that it made me think of them.

 

[jacksepticeye]

I mean it's fine to be disappointed, but all the time I see people calling for heads to drop when something ever goes over capacity. Less that I think any extremes are happening right now, than that it made me think of them.

It's still weird to see them slash estimates dramatically. They seemed to think they had the capacity or man power to get a lot out and something drastic seems to have halted that

 

[friday]

People really have got to stop saying this and giving Oculus an excuse. They would have known about ths weeks beforehand, but CHOSE to remain quiet. Add to that, it's DK1 all over again when they specifically said they were better prepared this time in the manufacturing end. In E3, they said they were "on track" and even on interviews afterwards they said the same thing.

Like I said, it's hard to see it any other way. Slashing your estimates from 20 - 30k to just 5k shipped.. Something went wrong, but Oculus didn't communicate this to the community earlier on.

It is not an excuse, it is the reality of limited resources. Oculus is not a company producing a consumer product yet, so we should not treat it like that. I know everyone feels entitled to get their stuff NOW and to be informed of all insider information, but that is never going to happen.

Also, I think we need to give more props to Sony and MS regarding production of any console since some guys are here are willing to give Oculus a pass.

Manufacturing and distribution ain't easy, but those two sure do make it look easy. Just something you gotta appreciate regarding logistics and such.

They are good at it, but they have been doing it for a long time and are much larger companies than Oculus.

 

[elyetis]

People really have got to stop saying this and giving Oculus an excuse. They would have known about ths weeks beforehand, but CHOSE to remain quiet. Add to that, it's DK1 all over again when they specifically said they were better prepared this time in the manufacturing end. In E3, they said they were "on track" and even on interviews afterwards they said the same thing.

Like I said, it's hard to see it any other way. Slashing your estimates from 20 - 30k to just 5k shipped.. Something went wrong, but Oculus didn't communicate this to the community earlier on.

I totally understand that they probably couldn't do anything about the fact that the production is slower than expected/started later than expected, but yeah, it does is quite 'shity' to wait the last moment to tell us about it.

 

[Soi-Fong]

I mean it's fine to be disappointed, but all the time I see people calling for heads to drop when something ever goes over capacity. Less that I think any extremes are happening right now, than that it made me think of them.

People aren't calling for heads to be dropped though, I'm sure a minority are. People are just wondering why we did not get informed of this earlier. Like I said, this would have been known weeks before the announcement yesterday. Hell this should have been known around the time of E3 in the Oculus offices! Yet you had Palmer and the rest of Oculus stating the 30k number.

Just some stuff aren't adding up. Like I really want to know when exactly they started production because I have a strong feeling, it's really only recently. In which case, it was a mistake for Oculus to say that number.

They saw the Pre order numbers. They should have been able to estimate how much components and such they'd need early on. Especially with the 12500 preorders during the first 36 hours that they mentioned.

I can only imagine that something held up production, but again chose not to tell us.

They mentioned transparency in a Twitter post, but this isn't really being "transparent" at all in any way shape or form.

 

[plagiarize]

People aren't calling for heads to be dropped though, I'm sure a minority are. People are just wondering why we did not get informed of this earlier. Like I said, this would have been known weeks before the announcement yesterday. Hell this should have been known around the time of E3 in the Oculus offices! Yet you had Palmer and the rest of Oculus stating the 30k number.

Just some stuff aren't adding up. Like I really want to know when exactly they started production because I have a strong feeling, it's really only recently. In which case, it was a mistake for Oculus to say that number.

They saw the Pre order numbers. They should have been able to estimate how much components and such they'd need early on. Especially with the 12500 preorders during the first 36 hours that they mentioned.

I can only imagine that something held up production, but again chose not to tell us.

They mentioned transparency in a Twitter post, but this isn't really being "transparent" at all in any way shape or form.

First of all, disappointment is always justified when someone says one thing and doesn't deliver on it. People would be fine with 5,000, to 10,000 if that's what Oculus had been saying all along. Obviously people who got their orders in later were thinking their Rift would come this month, and they just found out now that it likely won't.

So they have every right to be annoyed... but we don't know when Oculus knew this was going to be the case. I mean, sure, they knew before yesterday. We know that but at E3 I thought they were saying they'd just done a test run of 100 units or so and that had gone well, so I don't think they necessarily knew at the time.

They've still done better than the DK1 by shipping on time (and I think shipping more units). So there's that, but yeah, it's justified for people to be upset.

It's easy for people like me that will be getting theirs this month, who jumped on the pre-orders as quick as they could, to feel like... well I knew to pre-order as soon as possible after the DK1 situation... but it's not really a fair stance to take.

And it's not like I preordered later with the DK1 because of any fault of my own.

Everyone is going to be okay, and everyone will get theirs (and the later you get it, the more stuff there will actually be to do with it) but Oculus clearly still have some more lessons to learn about this whole process, and communicating to people who have pre-ordered before the consumer release.

 

[Tain]

how early did you order? I was looking at the order data they are collecting over at Reddit, and it suggests (I know it is a non random/biased set of data) that there were about ~3000 orders in the first hour, and ~3000 in the second hour, and then another 6,500 over the next 34 hours. So if they ship 5000 in July, people who ordered in the first 90 minutes will probably get one, and anything after that, who knows. I ordered at 9:57, and I doubt I'll get it in the first.

edit: updating my math, based on reports of 12,500 sold in the first 36 hours, and an estimate of 6,000 in the first two hours based on the reddit spreadsheet.

First day, 8:25 AM.

 

[Mr.Green]

This is why dev kits aren't usually publicly available.

The Oculus guys have been candid and pretty transparent so far but you can bet this is about to end. Nate says "we hope to ship between 20k and 30k units in july" and when something happens and this number goes down to 10k, the internet is all "ZOMG THEY PROMISED THEY'D SHIP 35k!!! LIARS!!!"

 

[dark10x]

Hmm, if I were to order one right now might it arrive by the end of the year? Don't want to deal with European shipping. I'd rather just have it ship to my parents home in the States and pick it up on holiday.

 

[Azure Dream]

I didn't find out DK2s were open to preorder until later that day. Guess that translates into a month or two more of waiting.

 

[Zeth]

I'm not expecting mine this month but I just checked my order time out of curiosity - 10:21am. Oh well - I'm just happy the thing exists

 

[bj00rn_]

It is not an excuse, it is the reality of limited resources. Oculus is not a company producing a consumer product yet, so we should not treat it like that. I know everyone feels entitled to get their stuff NOW and to be informed of all insider information, but that is never going to happen.



They are good at it, but they have been doing it for a long time and are much larger companies than Oculus.

This is not the end of the world of course, and we all root for Oculus VR, even after they stumble. However, you are apologetic where it doesn't really make any sense. They promised to not fuck up this time, but they did it again, and it's perfectly ok that it's not ok, and to say so.

This is why dev kits aren't usually publicly available.

The Oculus guys have been candid and pretty transparent so far but you can bet this is about to end. Nate says "we hope to ship between 20k and 30k units in july" and when something happens and this number goes down to 10k, the internet is all "ZOMG THEY PROMISED THEY'D SHIP 35k!!! LIARS!!!"

This is a forum to discuss..things, to point out things is what we do. We still love Oculus, but ffs it must be ok to discuss a deviation without the condescending exaggerations.

 

[shuri]

hay guyz, development kits. not final retail version. These things take time. Unless you are going to use them for legitimate dev work, your unit is not really a priority

It took forever to get the first DK1 units too.

 

[Soi-Fong]

This is why dev kits aren't usually publicly available.

The Oculus guys have been candid and pretty transparent so far but you can bet this is about to end. Nate says "we hope to ship between 20k and 30k units in july" and when something happens and this number goes down to 10k, the internet is all "ZOMG THEY PROMISED THEY'D SHIP 35k!!! LIARS!!!"

You mean 5k or about 16% of what they originally stated. People aren't calling for heads to be dropped. They're just wondering why we weren't informed of this sooner.

Understand that that's a huge drop from their previous estimation. Also, people have a right to be disappointed when some like myself who've already paid fully (via Paypal at checkout) to get a fair few updates since it did say in the order page July.

They haven't been as transparent as you think since this is very late to be announcing this. At the latest, this should have been announced two or three weeks ago.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

It is not an excuse, it is the reality of limited resources. Oculus is not a company producing a consumer product yet, so we should not treat it like that. I know everyone feels entitled to get their stuff NOW and to be informed of all insider information, but that is never going to happen.



They are good at it, but they have been doing it for a long time and are much larger companies than Oculus.

10k for a first-month shipment is sad no matter how you slice it -- mostly because it doesn't even fully cover their day 1 orders. These preorders happened months ago, and they completely dropped the ball on even meeting the bare minimum.

It took forever to get the first DK1 units too.

And, that's exactly why people are upset. They talked a big, big game about being better prepared, but they're really not at all.

Keep in mind, I'm a super late order, so I didn't expect mine til Aug/Sept. However, for those that got in early, I think they're justifiable annoyed.

 

[plagiarize]

hay guyz, development kits. not final retail version. These things take time. Unless you are going to use them for legitimate dev work, your unit is not really a priority

It took forever to get the first DK1 units too.

They said they were expecting to ship 20,000 to 30,000 this month. They're shipping a lot less than that.

So people are justifiably disappointed. The product being labelled a dev kit has nothing to do with it.

 

[Soi-Fong]

It took forever to get the first DK1 units too.

Yeah, let's just keep on giving them a free pass. You know, because they didn't know they had 12500 orders within 36 hours.
And let's just forget about them saying they learned hard lessons from DK1. Let's just forget about all that.

People seriously need to understand that not everyone is after heads, but that companies aren't perfect and they can make mistakes like this. Even still, we shouldn't give them a free pass just because their Oculus. The company isn't on some high pedestal where they're free from criticism regarding communication, manufacturing and distribution.

Stop acting like they are.

 

[Krejlooc]

All the hand wringing about shipping dates... every time I see my order time, this is me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKvnh0ZoHcM

 

[Mr.Green]

You mean 5k or about 16% of what they originally stated. People aren't calling for heads to be dropped. They're just wondering why we weren't informed of this sooner.

Understand that that's a huge drop from their previous estimation. Also, people have a right to be disappointed when some like myself who've already paid fully (via Paypal at checkout) to get a fair few updates since it did say in the order page July.

They haven't been as transparent as you think since this is very late to be announcing this. At the latest, this should have been announced two or three weeks ago.

Oh sure people have a right to post whatever the fuck they want to, but please allow me to at least verbally roll my eyes when I see people twisting the facts for more drama. The original estimate was to ship between 20-30K, and now you see people saying they promised 35K.

It's not just here though. Reddit and the official forums are in full meltdown mode.

I don't wanna be some fucking corporate apologist and I would sing a different tune if this was a consumer product. I wish I'd also get mine sooner, but this is only a dev kit meant for developers and they've been very clear about that. Delays are to be expected at this point of their roadmap imho. It sucks but I'm sure they've done the best they could.

Also, after DK1, a one month delay looks pretty fucking good! :lol

 

[Lucario]

Man, you guys have never worked in production have you? It is not easy to start production on a new product, especially one as complex as the Rift. Getting it right is a long and detailed process, so to me them shipping 5000 this month is quite an achievement.

People are worried because of what happened last time, and rightfully so.

Multiple orders got caught up in customs (apparently preventably), and the Oculus Rift Team completely neglected to communicate this to their backers for well over a month. We ended up waiting for multiple months past the estimated delivery date, and no emails were responded to.

It ended up being a multiple month delay, with very little communication to customers. Most importantly, there was no apology. Extremely unprofessional.

 

[YuShtink]

People really have got to stop saying this and giving Oculus an excuse. They would have known about ths weeks beforehand, but CHOSE to remain quiet. Add to that, it's DK1 all over again when they specifically said they were better prepared this time in the manufacturing end. In E3, they said they were "on track" and even on interviews afterwards they said the same thing.

Like I said, it's hard to see it any other way. Slashing your estimates from 20 - 30k to just 5k shipped.. Something went wrong, but Oculus didn't communicate this to the community earlier on.

Listen guys, they didn't "choose" to remain quiet or anything like that. They must have run into issues with their first production runs which set things back a couple weeks. And this all could have happened in the last few weeks since E3. And you can't give people an accurate estimate until you know what the estimate is. Welcome to the bleeding edge of development guys. At least be glad that shipping has started in some capacity. Look at all the devs still waiting to get their hands on a Morpheus dev kit.

 

[VGChampion]

That's quite a bummer, going from something like "no news about it because we are on track with what we announced" to waiting July to announce that they are pretty much shipping between 2 to 4 times less than expected. :/

I mean I hoped that the Facebook thingy would pretty much mean the opposite when it comes to allow them to be in a good position when it comes to dealing with manufacturer.

The Facebook power wouldn't come into play instantly. It's not like this stuff can ramp up that quickly.

 

[YuShtink]

People are worried because of what happened last time, and rightfully so.

Multiple orders got caught up in customs (apparently preventably), and the Oculus Rift Team completely neglected to communicate this to their backers for well over a month. We ended up waiting for multiple months past the estimated delivery date, and no emails were responded to.

It ended up being a multiple month delay, with very little communication to customers. Most importantly, there was no apology. Extremely unprofessional.

This is a bit of an exaggeration. While the customs thing was awful, there were multiple updates along the way and truth be told there wasn't much to communicate during those 3 weeks (not multiple months) other than "Yep, customs is still holding them, sorry."

 

[Lucario]

This is a bit of an exaggeration. While the customs thing was awful, there were multiple updates along the way and truth be told there wasn't much to communicate during those 3 weeks (not multiple months) other than "Yep, customs is still holding them, sorry."

If anything, those were conservative estimates.

My order shipped something like three or four months after the estimated date on the site. It was completely ridiculous, none of my emails were responded to, and it was one hell of a lot more than three weeks without updates while the customs delay was already known.

EDIT: The first communication they gave about the delay was June 11th. My order went into "shipping soon" in May, which is roughly when the customs delays became apparent. So, yes, it was around a month without word. Keep in mind that my estimated delivery date when buying the rift was in early April.

I can put up with delays, but it's hilariously unprofessional to keep your customers in the dark like that.

 

[thomasmahler]

Seriously? They have difficulties with inventory? They're not a small, scrappy startup anymore, they're a facebook backed 2bn dollar company... how the fuck can they have trouble with inventory?

 

[Blizzard]

This is why dev kits aren't usually publicly available.

The Oculus guys have been candid and pretty transparent so far but you can bet this is about to end. Nate says "we hope to ship between 20k and 30k units in july" and when something happens and this number goes down to 10k, the internet is all "ZOMG THEY PROMISED THEY'D SHIP 35k!!! LIARS!!!"

Oh sure people have a right to post whatever the fuck they want to, but please allow me to at least verbally roll my eyes when I see people twisting the facts for more drama. The original estimate was to ship between 20-30K, and now you see people saying they promised 35K.

Can you link to a post on GAF that even suggests they "promised" 35k? I may be completely blind, but search is not turning up anything for me. Sure, somewhere else on the internet someone may be saying it, but I don't see it in this thread.

Aside from that, as many people have pointed out, Oculus indicated they were better prepared this time, indicated they were better funded this time, and knew the demand from the first day. So either:

1. Oculus knew they couldn't meet the demand, but did not want to say anything until July 1. Maybe they hoped against hope that they would be able to do it. This would be especially odd since they suggested the numbers themselves.
2. Oculus analysis indicated they COULD meet a 20k-30k number, but then something changed. If this is the case, then all they needed to do was an update, as soon as the new information became available, that says "Hey preorder peoples, we are being transparent, so we wanted to let you know that (parts aren't available / factory caught on fire / manufacturing country got hit by Godzilla / whatever), so we may not be able to hit our initial estimates. Sorry about that!"
3. A third option could have been giving a 5k-10k estimate originally. If Oculus had chosen to do this, but shipped 25k-30k instead, would ANYONE have complained? Everyone would have been happy! Worst case, they might have met the estimate, and people might have wondered why experience + Facebook didn't help, but that's better than the current situation.

The big problem is that they DIDN'T do option 2 as far as I am aware. As was also pointed out, this happened last time with customs. There was this weird silence for a month or two if I recall correctly, no one answered anything except possibly with vague generalities, and eventually they did the "we had a crazy customs problem, and everything was held up" thing. See, that's understandable...but communicating it after you KNEW that for a month or two is not understandable. Just say yo, something came up, we can't do what we thought we could, wanted to let chu know. People be like, cool, we wait, is devkit, stay frosty.

 

[YuShtink]

Can you link to a post on GAF that even suggests they "promised" 35k? I may be completely blind, but search is not turning up anything for me. Sure, somewhere else on the internet someone may be saying it, but I don't see it in this thread.

Aside from that, as many people have pointed out, Oculus indicated they were better prepared this time, indicated they were better funded this time, and knew the demand from the first day. So either:

1. Oculus knew they couldn't meet the demand, but did not want to say anything until July 1. Maybe they hoped against hope that they would be able to do it. This would be especially odd since they suggested the numbers themselves.
2. Oculus analysis indicated they COULD meet a 20k-30k number, but then something changed. If this is the case, then all they needed to do was an update, as soon as the new information became available, that says "Hey preorder peoples, we are being transparent, so we wanted to let you know that (parts aren't available / factory caught on fire / manufacturing country got hit by Godzilla / whatever), so we may not be able to hit our initial estimates. Sorry about that!"
3. A third option could have been giving a 5k-10k estimate originally. If Oculus had chosen to do this, but shipped 25k-30k instead, would ANYONE have complained? Everyone would have been happy! Worst case, they might have met the estimate, and people might have wondered why experience + Facebook didn't help, but that's better than the current situation.

The big problem is that they DIDN'T do option 2 as far as I am aware. As was also pointed out, this happened last time with customs. There was this weird silence for a month or two if I recall correctly, no one answered anything except possibly with vague generalities, and eventually they did the "we had a crazy customs problem, and everything was held up" thing. See, that's understandable...but communicating it after you KNEW that for a month or two is not understandable. Just say yo, something came up, we can't do what we thought we could, wanted to let chu know. People be like, cool, we wait, is devkit, stay frosty.

C'mon man you know you can't divulge information until you know the situation. If they have come out 2 weeks ago and said "Hey some shit's fucked up, we won't be able to reach our target, we don't know how many will be shipping in July, sorry" and just peaced it would have been absolute chaos.

 

[Krejlooc]

 

[Mr.Green]

Can you link to a post on GAF that even suggests they "promised" 35k? I may be completely blind, but search is not turning up anything for me. Sure, somewhere else on the internet someone may be saying it, but I don't see it in this thread.

Ctrl-F - 35 worked for me.

I hear you. They are starting to rack up an extremely bad track record, and it seems like they won't be able to keep up with the demand this time either. You can't go out and officially say you'll ship 35 000 units in July, then a few weeks later scale it down to 10 000, and possibly 5 000 (the wording in the update is pretty vague). It's like they haven't learned anyhting from the first round. At the very least I hope there won't be a total blackout when it comes to information this time around.

Anyway, I rest my case. No point pissing in the wind I guess.

 

[Krejlooc]

Sounds like VireIO should be ready to be updated for DK2 as soon as they get their hands on one. That'll be good for people craving DK2 content.

 

[Canis lupus]

Seriously? They have difficulties with inventory? They're not a small, scrappy startup anymore, they're a facebook backed 2bn dollar company... how the fuck can they have trouble with inventory?

Luckey is busy buying world's largest videogame collections with that money.

 

[Soi-Fong]

Anyway, no point arguing about this really anymore. They've made an announcement and all we can do is hope they go through the orders as quick as possible.

 

[mario_O]

I't doesn't bother me that much not getting DK2 in July. I'm not going to develop anything with it, I just want to try the new features, like most of us here. On day 1 there won't be many demos/games ready with the latest SDK.