Virtually a reality: Oculus Rift goes on sale for $599 [Updated]

[Update: More details on ship date, international pricing, Oculus Ready PCs, and exclusive games are now in the below story]

After dozens of trade-show demos, two publicly available development kits, a $2 billion buyout, and nearly four years of speculation, Oculus has finally locked down the release details for the first consumer version of the Rift virtual reality headset. The $599 VR unit is now available for preorder ahead of expected shipments starting in March (though the shop page had some major loading problems right after pre-orders went live). Oculus says the headset will be available at “limited retail locations” starting in April.

[Update: Within 15 minutes of pre-orders going up, online orders were being told to expect a ship date of April. After an hour, the expected ship date was back to May. This suggests some combination of either limited initial supplies or very robust sales for the Rift.

Here are the international prices listed on the Oculus Shop: £499 in the UK, €699 in mainland Europe, AUS$649 in Australia, NZ$699 in New Zealand, CDN$849 in Canada, ¥83800 in Japan, KOR$649 in South Korea.]

That price will get users the headset, a head-tracking camera, an Xbox One controller, the media-focused “Oculus remote,” connection cables, a carrying case, and two included games: space shooter Eve Valkyrie and third-person platform game Lucky’s Tale. It does not include tax, roughly $30 in shipping, or the promising Oculus Touch hand-tracking controllers, which were recently delayed to the second half of 2016. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey tweeted yesterday that those who preorder the Rift would also be first in line to preorder the Touch controllers later in the year.

The carrying case.

The Rift package also doesn’t include the relatively powerful Windows PC that will be required to use the device. Oculus recommends a rig with an Nvidia GTX 970 (or equivalent), an Intel i5 processor, and at least 8GB of RAM. Ars commenter chip_1 points out that you can build an extremely bare bones system with those specs for about $655, though more robust components could easily kick that up to $800 or more.

Oculus offers a downloadable compatibility checker to see if your current Windows system is up to the task, and will have an “Oculus Ready” labeling program for pre-built machines that can handle the Rift. The company said it will bundle those Oculus-ready PCs with the Rift starting at $1499, with pre-orders on such bundles going up in February.

Preorders are available in 20 countries where Oculus has been able to achieve certification, and orders will not be charged until the units actually ship. “We won’t lock people into preorders months before reviews come out using our awesome preorder bonuses. We have confidence in our product!” Luckey tweeted.

Those who backed the Rift’s first development kit back in 2012 won’t need to run to preorder the consumer version. Oculus announced yesterday that more than 7,500 backers will get a free unit of the consumer Rift when the device starts shipping.

Oculus is promising hundreds of Rift-compatible titles will be available by the end of 2016, including 20 Rift-exclusive titles released in 2016 by its in-house Oculus Studios publishing label. Rift exclusives include Rockband VR by Harmonix, Edge of Nowhere by Insomniac, and The Climb by Crytek.

A long road to get here

What’s included in the box.

Today’s announcement comes after years of speculation and hints regarding the eventual price for the Rift. In September of 2014, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said to expect a $200 to $400 range for the Rift. Last October, Luckey said the consumer Rift would cost more than the $350 development kit, in order to ensure there were “no compromises.” And in May, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said the Rift would cost $1,500 when paired with a suitable PC.

It’s unclear whether Oculus is making a profit on the Oculus Rift hardware or selling the hardware at a loss in order to increase the market for software sold through Oculus’ own online store (or perhaps to jumpstart the market for virtual reality in general). In June of 2014, Iribe told Ars he was “hopeful we’re not going to be losing money on [the hardware], but I think everybody agrees that if we can do it at cost that would be great for everybody.” Last night, Luckey made a tweet alluding to the “price of the subsidized Rift hardware,” but the context might have been referring to a subsidy for the eventual Touch controllers.