Virtual Reality will soon land in people's homes likely by the first quarter of 2016. Oculus Rift, Facebook's virtual reality headset - although it still doesn't have a release date - may cost over $350, admits Oculus founder Palmer Luckey.
In May, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe hinted at the price tag of the VR headset, saying Oculus Rift is a $1,500 experience. However, Iribe was referring to the overall cost of the Rift along with a computer capable of running the software and game.
During the Oculus Connect developer conference in late September, Luckey made the situation clearer.
When he was asked by a journalist if the final consumer version of the Oculus Rift would be priced at $350, he stated the Rift will cost more than $350.
"You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. We’re roughly in that ballpark … but it’s going to cost more than that," Luckey responded. "And the reason for that is that we’ve added a lot of technology to this thing beyond what existed in the DK1 and DK2 days."
Luckey was confident, though, that folks will probably be pleased with what they will get for the tag price of the Oculus Rift. He also guaranteed that it will be the best VR headset anyone can buy.
Interestingly, key members of the teams responsible for developing and designing the Rift revealed during the conference that the first headset has rolled off the production line.
“Our hardware teams are pouring our hearts and souls to get it just right for the experience and for manufacturability so that we can get this out to as many people as possible," said the head of Product Design Engineering at Oculus, Caitlin Kalinowski. "It’s definitely worth the wait.”
Presently, two of Rift's strongest rivals consist of the HTC Vice and the Sony PlayStation VR.
Based on earlier reports, the PlaySation VR, which is exclusive to PS4, is anticipated to be priced "as a new gaming platform." This implies, according to reports, that one will have to fork out around $400 for the base kit. But, obviously, this does not include the supplemental peripheral devices as well as the powerful computer for it to work properly.
