@matatat: It's really unlikely that removing the controller would save them $60. Chances are that Oculus has a major deal with Microsoft (and manufacturing partners) that reduces the wholesale price, allowing them to include the controllers at a lower cost. Same for the game inclusions.

Not too surprising. I salute the early adopters willing to ride this first wave out. Wish I could join you.

Don't pre-order hardware, people.

Before you commit a shitload of cash to a VR headset, you owe it to yourself to wait for all the major players to get their consumer versions out and reviewed. You want to make sure you don't go Betamax while the rest of the world goes VHS.

Sure it's important, you as a consumer can hear this information ("it's sold at cost") and in one way be pleased! They aren't making any money off you! Now, whether you actually think the price is worth it is another matter and completely up to your opinion.

Lets not compare this to an iphone...

iphones are generally bought over 2/3 year contracts!

PSVR will be VR on a $400 2013 launched box, focusing on framerate, immersion and gameplay rather than graphics. That's as simple as it gets.

The required specifications for Rift makes me wonder if photorealistic VR is the goal. Got friends of the kind who'll invest and build computers for this.

Until VR comes packaged with a console as a must have or something, I'll continue to not consider a purchase.

@fishwitheadphones: Yes but a smartphone has a multitude of uses that people use all the time, everyday. Can't really compare the two.

I wish em the best, but it's not for me. I get the price, but it is just to much for me to invest in.

I hope concerns like these don't end up making affordable knock-off versions of VR the industry norm. In turn, causing the bulk of the content to be developed for sub-par platforms.

The way I look at it, Oculus Rift (VR viewer) is comparable to a TV/monitor. Devices that don't do much on there own, but rather need to be hooked up to something to used to its full extent, i.e., a dvd player, blu-ray player, 3D blu-ray player, a computer, or a more powerful computer.

$599 for a good TV/monitor is not an ungodly sum. Albeit, it can only be used by one person at a time (which will not matter to some), and currently has a lack of content (which I suspect won't last. Especially, if movie studios start adapting content to it). And, I'm sure someone will develop software to allow you to play regular movies and project them on to a screen as large as you'd like. 80"? 120"? 100 ft.?

Cheap? No. Within the realm of affordability? How much did you pay for your TV/monitor? That should give you a good answer.

@marblez3: High end smart phones are actually a pretty good comparison. Both use similar screens and sensors. VR head sets are going to have a multitude of uses that grow as more people use them. Smartphones evolved as more people got them and people experimented with what they could do.

@fishwitheadphones: You do realize a phone, as it stands now, has a lot more use than a VR headset right? Yes, it's more expensive. But it also justifies that price point with what it can do. A VR headset is just that, a VR headset. I can't access the internet on it, or play games on it without needing outside hardware, or text message on it, or phone people on it.

You want to get technical, a computer that can run Oculus Rift will be about 1500 dollars or there abouts. I just priced one out that was incredibly reasonable on PCPartPicker, and that's without keyboard, mouse, or monitor if people need that. Minimum total investment will be about 2100 dollars not including tax.

Furthermore that comparison was foolish as well. Incredibly foolish.

@sil3n7: As long as the consumer isn't being swindled it isn't important information at all. I can see the argument but it isn't a good sign when someone has to say "hey we're not ripping you off".

Palmer Luckey seems like a cool guy but I think he's made this just ahead of its time. It'll be a long time before this is affordable and that's not a good thing.

I truly think that this product would have been better if it didn't have the clout it does now that it is attached to a big name. He shouldn't have sold it. If Oculus could have stayed small, stayed at it's $350 price range, and worked out the kinks until all of the components to make it went down in price that could have provided the time for

A. the games to be there

B. the thing to prove its more than just a concept

C. the cost to not be a deal breaker for a huge portion of the people that will want to use it

Facebook buying this allowed them the monetary ability to go a lot further than they probably should have.

All of this still remains to be seen but that is a hefty price tag and, to me, shows that the tech isn't where it needs to be at the right cost.

I don't know that I would pay that much but that price seems reasonable in a weird way. Like technology is at a crazy point right now and I see high price tags for all sorts of insane dumb shit. Like those smart scales or high tech heart rate monitors, both in the $200 area. Hell aren't there high fidelity headphones in the 2 hundo range? Plus the higher end of tablets are expensive as shit. So if I consider that there's some sort of rendering hardware involved, plus a unique display with a reasonable level of fidelity, plus some sort of audio output, and then the games and a controller. Hell man, it's hard to say for me because I'm a dum dum when it comes to PC specs. Even as a dum dum those system requirements seem crazy.

Ahahahahaha! Burn! BURRN!!

I'm sure they'll offer a non-bundled version, though I doubt it'll drop $60 off the price. The $599 price is preparing people for everything they'll need to enjoy its content (assuming they have the computer to support it.)

There are high fidelity headphones that cost well north of a grand, my headphones cost £400 and there are still option far north of that, but these high end devices don't really require 3rd party support to be of value... they just premium versions of popular devices.

New technology is always expensive, and people always think that the new expensive thing they have never needed before is too expensive and pointless.

Then a few generations in, the use cases are obvious and the product matures and the price either comes down, or seems reasonable.

See: Computers, Cell Phones, Tablets, etc.

Canadian dollar being incredibly low right now (last i checked 69 cents to the dollar), I'm waiting. I also want to see the other VR options before committing.

SIX HUNDO!!!! Thats not gonna happen. Guess its google cardboard for me!

I wonder if sony will pull the same thing they did when they announced the price of the PS4. make it $100 less than the competition.

@aiurflux: VR head sets have a lot of uses that phones aren't capable as well(Even with the Gear its VR uses are limited.) The comparison is on the components and its ability as a disruptive technology.

It doesn't replace a monitor though. A VR device is an additional cost, not an alternative.

£529 is a whole lot of money to put down when it'll be obsoleted in short order.

I wish them luck. I don't see this taking off super quickly with a price like that but I do think Palmer Luckey deserves the success he's gotten so far.

We'll see, this news is certainly interesting to speculate on, but no one knows how this will all turn out.

The only people I can see buying this are those with a 980 TI or multiple 980 TIs in SLI, or people waiting for whatever will soon be more powerful than a 980 TI. That last point in the Storify is the most important. When you compare the price of the Rift to what you could get instead, the Rift looks less attractive. But for those that already have a super beefy gaming PC, this peripheral makes a lot of sense.

Obscenely cheap??? Mr. Luckey, I know things in the Bay Area are a bat shit insane Bizarro world (I went to UC Berkeley), but WTF? I'm sure $600 is about what the %1 of SF pay for a haircut or cup of civet coffee, but you could build a good gaming PC for that.

If you're the US Military or some Oligarch, then $600 is obscenely cheap for a face-mounted view screen.

Good point. A machine I used almost solely for 3D blu-rays. Metal Gear was the only game I ever bought for it, and never finished it.

I suspect I'll do more with Oculus Rift.

My PC is ready, but I set myself the limit of $750 AUD for this headset ($499 USD roughly).

Not only are they charging $919 AUD (post a $50USD price hike for Australians which I assume is to account for GST), but after shipping it comes to a grand total of $1105AUD.

Nope. NOPE.

I think I'll get a 4k curvey TV instead and see how the Vive stacks up in real post-release reviews. Can't get a Rift before May now anyway (est. shipping date - Vive is due in April).

yeah, i doubt the graphics will be all that great in VR, but i haven't seen it for myself yet. But game makers will be targeting the minimum with VR so I bet games will run well and look as good as they can on that hardware.

I'm sort of surprised to see how many people were blindsided by the price. What's worse, with the $600 number out there now. I don't see any of these headsets going below $400. Sony has that box that comes with their headset, and the Vive now has another camera built into their headset. Might be awhile before VR hits the average consumer.

I don't think thats a very good comparison. You cant just take your personal experience and apply it to everyone else either...

I mean yeah, I do have enough money spare to buy one, but damn... as much as I'd love to get on board early with this stuff I just can't see myself parting with 600 BUCKS for the privilege. That's a lot of money and I might need it if I suddenly need to flee the country or something.

HAHAHAHAHA! No thanks.

I gots me one comin! (I think)

Its a little on the pricey side obviously but not surprising considering what it is.

My login isn't working on their site though and I can't get the order info to come up anymore.. Not sure if broken or what.

I do have the confirmation email and order number though so I assume that means it went through.

I'm PSYCHED for this. Can't get here soon enough. Got back into Elite this past week and excited to see it in VR. Plus all the other weird stuff out there. And to freak out my mother.

Oh and does it really need that many USB slots? Wtf?

Was 100% planning to buy one, but with the Canadian dollar being so junk at the moment I just can't justify it. I think unless the dollar bounces back we're looking at a next year purchase, after I buy my first house.

Damn being an adult.

PS3 at 599 was a massive fumble. But the PS3 was a platform. VR is just a peripheral. This is an order of magnitude worse than the PS3 launch.

The DK2 was $350 I think. I'm with you in thinking that it'll probably be a while before VR hits the average consumer.

Oculus should have stayed small in my opinion. They should have built their brand up before (if ever) selling.

This would be good. A 3D interface you could pluck and command from would be great. Perhaps it would finally get people off their asses in front of a screen (like me. The standing desk thing didn't do much for me. Turning and looking around would be much healthier.)

Call me when it has unique games worth playing, isn't an absurdly expensive boondoggle and I have a half-decent gaming PC. So... 2021.

An oculus haiku

I want one, but wait!

Six hundred dollars? Too much!

Playstation VR.

The canuck price is painful to look at.

With my pc on the fritz I'm not in the market for one of these but this makes me very curious about what the Morpheus will cost and how it will compare tech wise (outside PC/console limitations - just the headset).

That is a lot then I expected.

Thats just way too much, I have a hard time seeing how VR gaming can ever fly at that pricepoint in this economy the world is in now, but have to see what Sony will charge for theirs, the bar is set way high now so Sony doesn't have to do much to stay "competitive" sadly.

Guess I'll have to stick to watching a torrented copy of "Lawnmower Man" for a bit longer.

The importance of having this device available at stores to test it out with be vital for me. That said, Rift probably won't be for me since i am not rocking a good PC either. PSVR will most likely be closer choice to me.

its a good point Austin made in his article though about one company maybe not wanting to set their price much lower than the competition. They are all in this VR boat together...so I can't see the Hive or PSVR being much lower

Stepping around the price point for a moment, I'd be more curious as to which way Oculus is going to convince people that this is the way to go for playing new games. Even if I had the capability of ordering it today, never having used a VR set, I literally have no idea what I'd be getting into. I'd be willing to eat the price if they had a way to show it off, or a clear way of telling me that their platform is better than the other... Two? Three?

hey do you guys remember how much DVD players first cost? and flat screen TVs? this is just how tech works, it just turns out we're more invested in this particular piece of tech

Comes to over $900 canadian...

Booooo

I want free stuff