Consumers can pick up an Nvidia GTX 970 for about $350, an Intel Core i5-4590 for just over $200, around $100 for a legit copy of Windows 7, about $70 for 8GB of RAM, roughly $200 for a monitor, around $40 for a headset and around $300 to $400 for the case, the motherboard and the power supply unit. Or, for about the same net price, consumers can let Oculus VR build out a gaming and chuck in its long-awaited VR headset for about $1500.
During Re/Code's Code conference, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said his company has been considering an Oculus Rift-station in a box. Oculus VR would eventually like to see the "all-in price" drop to about $1,000, but $1,500 seems doable now.
"We are looking at an all-in price, if you have to go out and actually need to buy a new computer and you're going to buy the Rift ... at most you should be in that $1,500 range," Iribe told the crowd at the event.
The price of the upcoming Oculus Rift, scheduled to arrive early next year, still hasn't been quite established. Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Lucky and Nate Mitchell, in an interview with Eurogamer last year, said the goal was to make the Oculus Rift as affordable as possible.
The developer's versions of the Oculus Rift have sold for about $350, and that price seems comfortably within the range the company has been targeting.
"We want to stay in that $200-$400 price range," said Mitchell last year. "That could slide in either direction depending on scale, pre-orders, the components we end up using, business negotiations..."
Savvy PC gamers may be able to put together a Rift capable gaming PC for about $800, excluding a monitor, and many will only have to step up their upgrade cycle a bit early to ensure their current computers are ready. The price for Rift adoption is expected to decline soon enough, as the recommended specs for the VR headset will stay the same over the course of its life, stated Atman Binstock, Oculus VR's chief architect and technical director of the Rift.
"The goal is for all Rift games and applications to deliver a great experience on this configuration by default," said Binstock. "We believe this 'it just works' experience will be fundamental to VR's success, given that an underperforming system will fail to deliver comfortable presence."
