Oculus VR will be shipping the second development kit of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset soon. But those who preordered the development kit 2 and then posted those preorders for sale are about to be disappointed after months of waiting. Oculus has started canceling the preorders of those who are just looking to make a quick buck.
Preorders for the development kit 2 began in March 2014, for $350. The actual shipping of the virtual reality headsets is supposed to begin sometime this month. Some people who preordered this early version of the Oculus Rift decided to sell the preorder on eBay. One man was selling the preorder for $5,000. Unfortunately, selling the preorder is against the terms of sales buyers must agree to when they preorder the development kit 2.
Oculus VR has taken over 45,000 preorders for development kit 2, with about 10,000 expected to ship this month and the rest to follow in August and September. Any preorders made now wouldn't likely ship until September.
The first development kit, though technically inferior to the upcoming second kit, can be bought online from users, often with a hefty profit over the original $300 price.
The first development kit was released in March 2013. The first units went to people who ordered them through the original Kickstarter project for the Oculus Rift. Later batches were shipped to those who preordered via the Oculus VR website.
Both the first development kit and the new second development kit are intended for game developers to use in the creation of games compatible for the upcoming consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset. There are enthusiasts and early adopters who bought the development kits because they were not willing to wait for the consumer version to spend some time in virtual reality. There are a handful of games of dozens of demos and test software currently available for the Rift.
The second development kit version of the Oculus Rift improves on the first development kit in terms of comfort, screen resolution, motion tracking and realism of movement conveyed by the image. Oculus VR has stated that the consumer version will improve upon the second development kit in every way.
Oculus VR will be holding a developer conference in September called Oculus Connect. News about the consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset's features and possibly the release date is expected then. Considering the development kit 2 hasn't even shipped yet and no announcements of the consumer version has come out, it is suspected that the consumer version will not hit stores until 2015.
