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Mark Zuckerberg wants to price the consumer Oculus Rift at 'the lowest cost possible'

C

ComputerMKII

Banned
Poke if old

Oculus wants to take virtual reality mainstream, but its executives are fully cognizant of the fact that nothing will happen overnight. During an interview with Ars Technica, CEO Brendan Iribe said he envisions the company's first consumer product selling "just north of 1 million units." Out of the gate, "it's not going to be a console-scale market," Iribe admitted. "It always could be, but that's not the goal." Oculus' initial goal is to "set expectations low, get the enthusiasts and early adopters to get into the space," and help push developers to create memorable experiences that you simply can't find elsewhere.

Naturally Facebook was a big part of the discussion, and Iribe was quick to note that the social network's billions won't have much of an impact on the first consumer Rift. The company still isn't saying when that product will be released, only admitting that employees "will be disappointed" if it's not out the door by the end of 2015. But it's apparently too far along now to revisit and revise using Facebook's added resources.

"The Oculus Rift may be sold at or near cost when it reaches consumers"

Facebook will have influence elsewhere, though, and it's the critical area of pricing. Iribe said that Mark Zuckerberg wants to ignore margins wherever possible and drive down the Rift's cost for consumers in the process. "I do too," Iribe noted. "But at the same time, we were planning to run a business, hopefully a break-even [or] profitable business off of this, not a money-losing business. Mark is much more in the mindset of 'Let's get this to scale with the best quality product at the lowest cost possible.'" The goal seems to be selling virtual reality to consumers at cost — or at least awfully close.

Facebook's deep pockets will also make more of a difference when it comes to designing the second commercial Oculus headset. "It is going to allow us to deliver a much better consumer V2, that's for sure," said Iribe. For now, Iribe is eager to see developers move on from the short, demo-like experiences they've produced for the Rift so far and take things to a new level of immersion. "There's a lot of rich content being made, but we need a lot more of it." Once that's taken care of, the rest should more or less fall into place. "As Mark says, as you start to get to race to scale there are a lot of opportunities to monetize that are really great for consumers, because they get a really low-cost product."
Click to expand...

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/11/5...-to-price-oculus-rift-at-lowest-cost-possible
 
Jinfash

Jinfash

needs 2 extra inches
F2P

Pay to extend daily free time.

Resolutions, instagram filters, etc behind paywall.
 
B

BeerSnob

Member
I see VR is in good hands. And by good hands I mean someone who sees it only as a new way to force people to sit through ads and sell all their personal information. Oh goody gum drops.
 
S

Syanimuni

Neo Member
I'm not going to complain about a cheaper CV1 as long as there are absolutely no restrictions on use. And if there's a version for $99 but you have to sign in to facebook with you head each time you put it on, I'll go for the more expensive option.
 
C

CadetMahoney

Member
Unblockable adverts and NSA tracking, archiving of data to see how long you stare at boobs and ass.

7.jpg


1080p? pay extra $$$
60FPS? pay extra $$$

otherwise you get that "cinematic experience", because the fans demanded it!
 
B

border

Member
I think it might be a good idea to follow the Epic UE4 model -- give the SDK to developers for free, then collect a 5% royalty on every Oculus game sold.
 
H

HolyBaikal

Banned
Persona7 said:
Unless it is under 99 dollars I don't see it catching on.
Click to expand...
It's like an IMAX TV, so I'm not so sure that's the case.

It's true that it's only an IMAX TV for one person, but when there's the fact that people spend thousands of dollars for TVs, it doesn't seem too bad.
 
Y

YuShtink

Member
You guys are insane with your demands. It's going to be $250-$400, and it's going to be fucking spectacular and worth every penny. And no you won't have to sign in to fucking Facebook...
 
D

drproton

Member
YuShtink said:
You guys are insane with your demands. It's going to be $250-$400, and it's going to be fucking spectacular and worth every penny. And no you won't have to sign in to fucking Facebook...
Click to expand...

You can compare the component cost to a modern cell phone minus the SoC.

I think $200 is pretty reasonable. Though so would be more depending on how much Facebook wants to eat R&D costs or subsidize whatever their VR platform is going to be..
 
D

DemurOnion

Banned
YuShtink said:
You guys are insane with your demands. It's going to be $250-$400, and it's going to be fucking spectacular and worth every penny. And no you won't have to sign in to fucking Facebook...
Click to expand...

Cuz I'm sure they bought this for 2b to sell at cost with other people's games/
 
Y

YuShtink

Member
drproton said:
You can compare the component cost to a modern cell phone minus the SoC.

I think $200 is pretty reasonable. Though so would be more depending on how much Facebook wants to eat R&D costs or subsidize whatever their VR platform is going to be..
Click to expand...

$200 is not impossible but I think it's wishful thinking.

Dev Kit 1 was $300. Dev Kit 2 is $350. I don't really see CV1 being under $250. I'd love to be wrong though...
 
H

HolyBaikal

Banned
Personally, as long as it's not much more than $300, I'll be happy to buy one.

If it were much more, I might wait a little bit until it went down in price. But if it's less than $300, I'll be very happy.
 
D

DemurOnion

Banned
I don't even want VR unless it is totally immersive. Honestly, I'll be into this in ten years. Right now I couldn't care less.
 
$

$h@d0w

Junior Member
YuShtink said:
lol wut
Click to expand...

If they are making it for "the lowest cost possible" then they are compromising quality somewhere.

If VR is the future then I want the best product possible not some piece of shit which approximates the experience all because they wanted to get to market at an affordable price.
 
F

Fried Food

Banned
I don't like that they are talking about consumer version #2. Doesn't make me eager to buy CV1 when I see them talking about it as inferior. ( I have the DK2 preordered lol)
 
Y

YuShtink

Member
DemurOnion said:
Cuz I'm sure they bought this for 2b to sell at cost with other people's games/
Click to expand...

They are making their own games too, and publishing others. They are licensing their own tracking tech to Samsung for their media VR headsets. They want to create an entire new platform. There is tons of money to be made outside of selling the first consumer headsets.
 
G

gdt

Member
FB will absolutely sell it at cost or at a loss. And it will be amazing.

But his talk of using FB money for a much better CV2 is even more interesting....
 
Y

YuShtink

Member
$h@d0w said:
If they are making it for "the lowest cost possible" then they are compromising quality somewhere.

If VR is the future then I want the best product possible not some piece of shit which approximates the experience all because they wanted to get to market at an affordable price.
Click to expand...

They want to SELL it for the lowest cost possible, as in, for no profit. Not MANUFACTURE it for the lowest cost. Basically they are saying that whatever it costs them to make each Rift is what they are going to sell it for, no more. They aren't making the device itself a cheap piece of shit.
 
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syko de4d

Member
gdt said:
FB will absolutely sell it at cost or at a loss. And it will be amazing.

But his talk of using FB money for a much better CV2 is even more interesting....
Click to expand...

i hope super fast and accurate eye tracking is ready for CV2 to make foveated rendering possible, with this even a smartphone could output great graphics :D

And their are even rumors for eye tracking in CV1 but more for stuff like auto-IPD measurement or UI stuff.
 
Y

YuShtink

Member
Fried Food said:
I don't like that they are talking about consumer version #2. Doesn't make me eager to buy CV1 when I see them talking about it as inferior. ( I have the DK2 preordered lol)
Click to expand...

Oculus has stated for a long time now they believe in rapid improvements and quick iterations similar to mobile hardware. We're at a point where VR will still see massive gains from each iterative hardware improvement.
 
M

MrFrankFontaine

Banned
While I certainly wouldn't mind if the CV1 was $200 or less, I want the tech to be the best it can be without comprising for the sake of hitting a price point.

If they can make the tech good enough to allow the "presence" to be felt and still hit an entry level point to allow a good consumer base, then VR is just going to skyrocket.
 
B

Bsigg12

Member
$h@d0w said:
If they are making it for "the lowest cost possible" then they are compromising quality somewhere.

If VR is the future then I want the best product possible not some piece of shit which approximates the experience all because they wanted to get to market at an affordable price.
Click to expand...

Sell, not make. They're looking to build a good install base inside the enthusiast group and expand from there.
 
S

syko de4d

Member
It is already confirmed that the CV1 will have a higher res, fps and fov than DK2(edit: wrote dk1 <.<), which had 1080p@75hz@100-110fov. So CV1 should come with 1440p@90hz@110+Fov. So i wouldnt be so afraid that the oculus will not be good enough because they want a low price.
 
Y

YuShtink

Member
GuitarAtomik said:
Jeez. People hate Facebook enough to spin at-cost hardware as a negative lol.
Click to expand...

I honestly think that in the end Oculus is going to change peoples' perception of Facebook, not the other way around. Mark has a chance to become a truly respected visionary with his acquiring of Oculus if he doesn't meddle with it in the wrong ways.
 
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