JimJamJones
Member
I got pushed from April to late May.
I think the worst part is seeing people who ordered after me with earlier shipping dates.
I think the worst part is seeing people who ordered after me with earlier shipping dates.
Oculus Rift shipments delayed by a month or more due to unexpected component shortage
- Thread starter XiaNaphryz
- Start date
LordOfChaos
Member
if only they had a way on kickstarter to gauge how many people were interested in a Rift prior to trying to launch them
Stabby McSter
Member
Late May to late June here.
OH WELL.
OH WELL.
Wowfunhappy
Member
but they have the guy that did the guitar hero controllers working with factories in China. What could go wrong?
I was saying they are much simpler devices than the headset.
The super-sensitive motion sensing capability is mainly from an IMU that costs in the low single digit dollars. The other tracking component is a bunch of LEDs that just blink in a specific pattern.
Designing a good motion controller has to be extremely expensive and difficult. Once the design is set I don't see why it would be difficult to make, especially compared to the rift itself.
I have a drone that is about 1.5 inches wide drone that can fly with great stability using an onboard 6 axis gyro. It can stream live video from 100 feet in the air to my phone. It can also be be controlled with my phone or the included controller. It cost $35. It is an absolutely incredible device, but it costs almost nothing to make.
Looks like ordering now hits almost PSVR timetable..... That's a hell of a delay for August delivery.
The Elite
BOSS
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Added to the OP.
Not confirmed but someone on reddit is saying that the component shortage was actually Microsoft's fault.
https://m.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4ei5vx/this_is_what_went_wrong_with_the_launch_insider/
https://m.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4ei5vx/this_is_what_went_wrong_with_the_launch_insider/
Wowfunhappy
Member
i don't quite understand. If the delays everyone was told about TODAY are the result of shortages from BEFORE, how did they not know about the shortage until today?
I mean, in a way I guess it makes no difference; people would have been annoyed about the delay regardless of when it was announced, but...
j_k_redtail
Member
Came here to post this. Curiouser and curiouser. Right now I'm wondering how many XBO controllers Amazon has in stock.
Adding some coincidental straws to the haystack:
The wireless dongle is out of stock everywhere on Amazon until April 19 - May 4.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZB7W4QU/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Betta Lines
Member
It's almost... too well explained, like the poster has crafted the post very carefully to cover all the bases. My initial thought was that a real insider would not bother to give such a lengthy description.
But if legit, it sounds like the right decision.
WoolyNinja
Member
Maybe I'm missing something or maybe Oculus is just this inexperienced, but shouldn't they have known months ago how many of everything they'd have available at this point? How could a component shortage have just popped up now? These things are planned months if not years in advance.
The Elite
BOSS
They were probably promised an allocation from a third party and that third party under delivered, leaving them with a shortage issue.
It happens but I do think Oculus' inexperience played a part.
There is a person on reddit who claims to be an insider saying it was the Xbox One Controller and wireless adapter.
tim_pkmn89
Member
Shit happens
Yautja_Warrior
Member
These delays are not a great start for Rift and Vive, hopefully it won't hurt VR too much, I've seen a lot of people complaining about having to wait a month or longer to get their VR. I always thought with how late pre-orders went up, they might have some problems.
i think Sony made a good choice to get pre-orders up now but delay until October, to give them enough time to make more units for launch, or they might have seen similar problems.
Not that problems couldn't happen with PS-VR but 6 months from pre-order to launch is much safer than 2 months.
i think Sony made a good choice to get pre-orders up now but delay until October, to give them enough time to make more units for launch, or they might have seen similar problems.
Not that problems couldn't happen with PS-VR but 6 months from pre-order to launch is much safer than 2 months.
mugurumakensei
Member
No, a lot of things are contracted out to other firms. If the vendor fails to notify Oculus of any problems. Oculus goes ahead. Backlog fills. Oculus is notified by vendor that they cannot meet projected demand close or after release, and the vendor states their only contractual obligations are 'x' quantity. Nothing Oculus can do. Nor could Oculus have been aware of the problem since the vendor did not notify them.
It does kind of make sense to me if only for the fact that MS would be one of the only third parties with enough clout to get away with forcing non-disclosure clauses where Oculus can't publicly release details about the issues. Also, parts coming from MS would probably be easier to take for granted because "hey, it's MS, a huge company with incredible resources so why wouldn't they deliver?"
It's not helping, but I don't think it will kill VR or anything like that. Because it really is a high quality, well made device once you get it in your hands and it really works. There is nothing snake oil-y about this. Once it gets out there it will undoubtedly take off.
artsi
Member
mugurumakensei
Member
Only other third party with that clout would be Samsung with the display.
Wowfunhappy
Member
What do people make of this poster's claim at the end?
The bolded seems like something that should be verifiable--is this in fact how manufacturing works? That is to say, under normal circumstances, would we expect all Xbox controllers included in this type of hardware bundle to have similar serial numbers?
One thing that is suspicious is him saying to use the serial numbers as proof. I'm not sure what method MS uses for serial number batches these days, but at least in the Xbox 360 days I'm fairly sure they used serial numbers for their hardware that were generated using algorithms that were definitely not uniform.
Betta Lines
Member
It's possible, but if they're all jumbled up I don't think that proves anything tbh.
I have such a hard time believing that they wouldn't just opt to ship without the XB1 controllers (which I'd bet a lot of money that most early adopters could give a shit about) until they could clear up any allocation woes. Seems like an awfully bad reason to flub their launch and get all this backlash over.
bmcphail2008
Member
Honestly, while I know people are already calling BS on the Xbox One controller as being the reason, it does make sense. After all, like most people here, Oculus probably assumed that of all the components making up the Oculus Rift package that the common as dirt controller and dongle wouldn't be something that would be hard to source (especially if Microsoft promised them they would make a specific allocation available).
mugurumakensei
Member
If that Reddit post is true, Rifts preorder count has exceeded my expectations. I was expecting 300k over 3-4 months of sales. That much on day one is actually quite good for VR's future.
Wowfunhappy
Member
The explanation in the Reddit post makes sense to me--Oculus doesn't really recommend playing with a KB&M, so shipping without a controller would be shipping with an incomplete product. Plus, it would make it clear that Microsoft was at fault, and they probably want to maintain a good relationship with MS.
As someone impacted by this delay, I'd be a lot more forgiving of them just saying that and shipping without a controller (I'd love to see a show of hands of people that bought on day one that don't have a 360/XB1/PS3/PS4 controller for their PC) with the promise of the controller coming later.
That, and we're already well accustomed to controllers coming later with Oculus.
Oculus is obviously new at this so what likely happened is that they don't have multiple sources for this component that they are short of, so they are pretty much at the mercy of this component supplier. It's even worse if this component that they are short of is customized and is only produced from one source.
I don't think it's either the XBONE controller or receiver that is the shortage since they have months in advance to receive their shipments from MS. It has to be one of the customized parts that makes the HMD.
I don't think it's either the XBONE controller or receiver that is the shortage since they have months in advance to receive their shipments from MS. It has to be one of the customized parts that makes the HMD.
Wowfunhappy
Member
This is a very good point. If it's not a customized part, Oculus should have gotten it ages ago.
Mine was only pushed from late May to mid-June. It kinda sucks it really sucks. I've been steadily getting more and more hyped for it, but I'll manage I guess.
Hopefully the Rift's controllers make it out soon. I saw an article or something about a dev saying they were essentially "almost identical" to the Vive controllers.
oh, it was the Fantastic Contraption devs, and updated the quoted.
Hopefully the Rift's controllers make it out soon. I saw an article or something about a dev saying they were essentially "almost identical" to the Vive controllers.
oh, it was the Fantastic Contraption devs, and updated the quoted.
Oculus don't put together the HMD themselves also. They have outside manufacturer like Foxconn who puts together the HMD for them. Oculus won't know if they are short on components until the manufacturer tells them there is a problem. If the manufacturer is in charge of the logistic of getting component parts from other suppliers, then Oculus themselves probably can't do much except locating another source for that component and cover the possible added cost.
Raonak
Banned
Xbox wireless adapter does make some sense as it would explain why they were caught off guard with it.
MS's production pipeline for wireless adapters must be pretty much nonexistent considering the product is so niche.
And MS being a consumer facing company would be under fire a lot more than random manufacturers.
MS's production pipeline for wireless adapters must be pretty much nonexistent considering the product is so niche.
And MS being a consumer facing company would be under fire a lot more than random manufacturers.
SpikeDaPenguin
Neo Member
Mine got delayed all the way to the beginning of June. At this point I might as well want them to delay it further so that I can purchase the Oculus Touch to ship with it *shrug*.
That being said, the wait doesn't bother me anymore. I'll get it when I get it. I see this as some necessary growing pains so that the Rift 2 will ship more smoothly.
That being said, the wait doesn't bother me anymore. I'll get it when I get it. I see this as some necessary growing pains so that the Rift 2 will ship more smoothly.