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Oculus Rift available for preorder for $599.99, shipping in March

Can someone explain to me why they thought that a top of the line VR system which essentially uses better-than-high-end phone parts would cost less than a high-end phone?
 
Surprised and a little disappointed given their "in the ballpark" of the $350 DK2, but still in. Early adoption is expensive and I'm ok with that ultimately.
 
Hawk269 said:
History has shown that "add-on's" for consoles have been a failure. The original Kinect was however very successful initially and sold amazing numbers, but it also did not cost the same as the console itself.

If the PSVR is just as expensive or more than the console itself, how many people would really "jump in"? I think that the PSVR will be a neat and fun product, but I also believe the user experience will be drastically lower than what you get with the OC.

To your point you need a beefy PC, but the device is not costing more than the PC itself, which in the PSVR if we assume the price is equal to the console itself, that imho would cause people to think before buying. We are talking a peripheral that is as much as ore more than the console itself, you really think that will equal mass adoption?
Click to expand...

Exactly. Kinect sold 25M units at a price that was half of the console cost and targeted the casual audience which is much larger than the hard core adopters looking for VR. Aggregate adoption will be a much lower percentage than the 25% for the Kinect.
 
low-G said:
There was no risk with HDTVs. It was TV, but better. VR is something completely different, which can either be really good or really bad in the market. However, the sticker shock + an unknown isn't great for mainstream appeal.
Click to expand...

Not if you're one of those that shelled out extra to get a 3D HDTV.

VR doesn't need to have great mainstream appeal right now. It needs to work out the kinks and devs need to figure out the best way to maximize the experience using this new tech. When a couple years from now we have a much better version of Oculus of PSVR ready to hit the market at a cheaper cost, that's when you market the product to the mainstream.
 
Uh oh... Definitely sharing the bad feeling with lots of people.
This will make them lots of money but won't help VR go mainstream, I guess it's not going to be their first intention with this release. There's people starved to own these things and this is the gap price some might be able to pay up just to experience VR. Haven't tried these new headsets but with DK2 experience my opinion is that VR definitely isn't worth this much.
Was not going to buy first customer Oculus anyway though, amazing how they can still use that goggle design.

After DK2 souring up VR for me I have no problem waiting for PSVR or more gently priced headsets.
 
CarbonFire said:
Technically yes, but at this point I think I'll wait to see how VIVE and PSVR shake out before dropping the big bucks ;) I honestly like the elegance of HTC's headset tracking more than Oculus, just worried about the price of that headset if this is coming in at $600
Click to expand...

At this point i wouldn't be surprised to see the Vive be like 1100$.
 
Somebody help me out maybe I'm stupid but why aren't these things being sold in stores so you don't have to do this ridiculous shipping stuff? I'm sure is Sony's PlayStation VR will be sold in Best Buy GameStop everywhere to avoid this type of stupidity
 
EviLore said:
Don't shed any tears for early adopters. Anyone with a March or April arrival can probably profit $1k on eBay. And I doubt many people will even be willing to flip theirs, since the consumer rift is legit Goodbye Real World.
Click to expand...
Welp, I guess now I know what I'll do with mine
 
I bet that who is getting it now, is paying also for the ones that are going to get it "free".
 
Do we have a list of games that will be available on launch? I think that will be a big factor in people's decision whether or not to buy. I'm hoping there will be at least 10 compatible, good-looking games.
 
gamechanger87 said:
You are missing the point. The market is too small for this product for them to make it all back on licensing fees. They also need to make back the cash on R&D. If you throw a ton of money into R&D on a first generation product, you try and make a massive dent in it out of the gate. You do that via a high early adopter price not through a low entry. A low entry price also removes your ability to lower prices to drive sales in the future.

This isn't a console like scenario. The market is really small.

Also, people do have a sense of how big the VR market is and its not big. I swear some people think that these VR headsets are going to sell tens of millions out of the gate. How many people are going to more than double the price of their console? Let's say the PS4 sells 100M units. How many of those users are actually going to go down the VR path and buy a headset? It will not be large
Click to expand...

I am not missing the point since we both don't know how big the market for VR is .
Sony says there going to price it like a new platform and i am sure they have a better idea of the market than us both .
I don't expect PSVR to sells tens of million out the game but you don't have to sell huge amounts to make money off software .
 
Expected as much, but frankly this is enthusiast only at the moment..
Will become consumer in a bit more time Hopefully, when the price becomes consumer friendly as well (as in 300 euro MAX)..
I'll skip till the sweet 300 eur tagline, not One second before
 
Hyperbole said:
The hints they keep dropping say around a console price. 349. Though that could be for just the headset and box and not including camera and motion controller. Do we have a likely 'killer app' for VR yet? I mean a real killer app that all demographics will want to spend hours on? Spaceship, driving, adult entertainment are all niche IMO.

(Yay me 1st Gaf post!)
Click to expand...
Nothing i have seen, has given me that last of us thirst. I like new tech most of all. Welcome.
 
Higher than I expected. My ceiling is $400 (for any of the three headsets), so I'll jump on the Rift once the price comes down.

mauaus said:
so, realistically if i dont have a gaming PC and wanted to jump on the Oculus train, how much would I be looking at?
Click to expand...

Assuming you're not going to buy a monitor and you're looking to future-proof your machine, you're looking at $1700-$1900:

Oculus at $600
PSU at $85 (CORSAIR, 750W)
RAM at $70 (Crucial, 16GB)
Case at $75 (NZXT)
Motherboard at $170 (AsRock)
CPU at $240 (Intel i5-4690K)
CPU cooling fan at $30 (Cooler Master)
Hard drive at $60 (WD, 1TB)
SSD at $90 (Samsung, 250GB)
Mouse and Keyboard at $30 (Cooler Master, wired)
GPU at $390 (Sapphire R9 390X)

Total: $1,840

Apologies for the lack of links (on very slow mobile), but if you go to Newegg you'll find all of the above. You can always go with cheaper parts, but the above prices are for affordable parts with great reviews.
 
Jack cw said:
This is incredible. I really doubt that this will even reach niche status. The beef you need in a proper rig isn't cheap either.
Click to expand...

It will sell good enough, I guess. But the price is just too unreasonable in my mimd and I'm spending money and upgrading my pc regularly (i5/980 atm). But OR won't hit the critical and most important mass market. That's Sonys big chance.
 
gnexus said:
iXDGF8o.jpg


My awesome Paint skills in action. But yeah, I'll be expecting quite a bit back for income tax sometime next month, so that will go to funding my Rift purchase. It's a tough pill to swallow, but I'm hyped.
Click to expand...

Is that virtual money he's looking at?
 
Hard to compare the PSVR to this. If you have the Rift specifications on your PC, you can run games that look way better than what you get on your PS4 for starters. So sure, the PSVR may come in cheaper, but if you think that the PS4 is going to put out games like The Order or The Witcher 3 in VR mode running at 90 - 120 fps you are kidding yourself.
 
And considering you need a very powerful pc to really take advantage of this, it's definitely not designed to be mainstream. Sony might have a better chance if they don't go crazy with the price.
 
The way this seems to be selling, they probably could have charged even more and it still would sell out. Demand is insane for vr right now.
EviLore said:
Imagine night. Then imagine day.
Click to expand...

That big? Jesus.

I mean, I want in cheap and for rez infinite, but it's it's that insane maybe i'll just pass
(or get both)

Can't wait.

TheFrza said:
I think the issue here is that most expected it to be fairly expensive, but we were hoping that they would release at a friendlier price point. Early market penetration can only benefit everyone involved, especially us that want the best game experiences. The more units sold, the more studios will be willing to gamble. As is, the Oculus is niche and it will remain that way until the price comes down, if it can last that long.
Click to expand...

the fact that day 1 shipments sold out in 14 minutes at this price point tells me the demand is high enough for it not to be so niche.

VR will be affordable, just like every other great piece of tech, in a few years time. Be patient. (even so, 600 isn't THAAAAAAAAAAT much for something that is essentially replacing your TV/Monitor in many cases - people still pay 1k+ for tvs)
 
dLMN8R said:
Can someone explain to me why they thought that a top of the line VR system which essentially uses better-than-high-end phone parts would cost less than a high-end phone?
Click to expand...

I think the issue here is that most expected it to be fairly expensive, but we were hoping that they would release at a friendlier price point. Early market penetration can only benefit everyone involved, especially us that want the best game experiences. The more units sold, the more studios will be willing to gamble. As is, the Oculus is niche and it will remain that way until the price comes down, if it can last that long.
 
Feels like the first iPhone launch for better or worse. Only difference being the iPhone had essentially zero competition for years after its launch and still had to drastically slash the price.
 
Hawk269 said:
History has shown that "add-on's" for consoles have been a failure. The original Kinect was however very successful initially and sold amazing numbers, but it also did not cost the same as the console itself.

If the PSVR is just as expensive or more than the console itself, how many people would really "jump in"? I think that the PSVR will be a neat and fun product, but I also believe the user experience will be drastically lower than what you get with the OC.

To your point you need a beefy PC, but the device is not costing more than the PC itself, which in the PSVR if we assume the price is equal to the console itself, that imho would cause people to think before buying. We are talking a peripheral that is as much as ore more than the console itself, you really think that will equal mass adoption?
Click to expand...

I dont think any of these will have mass adoption this early. However, due to the price point and the addressable market being larger, the PS VR has a chance to seel more in a smaller peeriod of time. If 1 to 3% of 40 million gets it by launch date, that will get the ball rolling for them to justify VR a being worth 350 dollars to have.

Remember not even laptops work with OC, you need a high end esktop computer. the niche keeps getting nicher.

It doenst matter that its almost the same price as the console. What matters is these companies justifying that the experience is worth the price point. And a plug and play nice VR experience for 350 dollars is much easier to sell than a 600 dollars + specific configuration.
 
Damn, I was expecting to be able to wake up today and look forward to buying this. When I saw the title of the thread at $599 USD I was like well that's a little steep, but within the realm of what I was willing to accept. Once I realized that it was $850 CAD after conversion and without taxes or shipping I was feeling defeated. I don't know if that's the feeling Oculus should be going for when announcing a new product. I understand that currency conversion is what it is, but charging ~$1000 CAD just isn't viable. I could have understood if they restricted it to the US/UK/European Union to start, and launched it in other markets as the price became more manageable. I guess from their perspective Canada isn't a big enough of a market, so releasing it at ~$1000 to start and getting an extremely limited base started was the way to go.
 
Good god, i just got out of one of my classes of the day to see this been announce. What the hell,hoping that psvr isn't that expensive.
 
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