Basically my reaction too
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Oculus Rift available for preorder for $599.99, shipping in March
- Thread starter War Eagle
- Start date
Basically my reaction too
I would assume some of the bigger Best Buy locations, as Samsung did with the Gear VR.
Here's a potentially accurate chart of when you might expect your rift to ship (from /r/oculus):
It's been put together by a sampling of about 700 orders so far.
My order went through at 8:05am and I'm a 25X order. Apparently doesn't guarantee me in that first March 28 batch, but I guess I'll live with 93% for now lol.
It's been put together by a sampling of about 700 orders so far.
My order went through at 8:05am and I'm a 25X order. Apparently doesn't guarantee me in that first March 28 batch, but I guess I'll live with 93% for now lol.
Thinking more about it, in the end there is nobody else to blame for the false perception but Oculus. They sold the devkits at much cheaper prices (half price and below half) than the final consumer version and they kept somehow the discussion around the $350 mark (even if above it). That's a big part of why $599 seems now too expensive.
It looks like my chance is down to 93% also. I'm a 26X and ordered at 8:05 too.
Sure and Palmer admitted as much in the AMA. I don't really think that means people have to be pissed off about it though. It isn't like anyone has lost anything, there are other VR options and one of them will almost certainly be cheaper.
artsi
Member
Here's a potentially accurate chart of when you might expect your rift to ship (from /r/oculus):
It's been put together by a sampling of about 700 orders so far.
My order went through at 8:05am and I'm a 25X order. Apparently doesn't guarantee me in that first March 28 batch, but I guess I'll live with 93% for now lol.
I'm 32 and got May, which feels quite bad as I was refreshing the page right when it opened it up but the CC processing didn't work until an hour later for me.
Hopefully they will bump my shipment to April after all the cancellations.
The Elite
BOSS
Here's a potentially accurate chart of when you might expect your rift to ship (from /r/oculus):
It's been put together by a sampling of about 700 orders so far.
My order went through at 8:05am and I'm a 25X order. Apparently doesn't guarantee me in that first March 28 batch, but I guess I'll live with 93% for now lol.
I am 26 and feel confident about March or early April.
Don't let me down Lucky.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Never got my confirmation email for the order, got in touch with Oculus support but haven't heard back yet.
At least the order is visible in my orders history and according to the number it should be in April, I'm okay with that.
Same, but I don't see the order # in my history. I definitely had one on my confirmation page though.
Here's a potentially accurate chart of when you might expect your rift to ship (from /r/oculus):
It's been put together by a sampling of about 700 orders so far.
My order went through at 8:05am and I'm a 25X order. Apparently doesn't guarantee me in that first March 28 batch, but I guess I'll live with 93% for now lol.
Mine is a 24 order, made within the first minute and confirmed via email a minute later, and have March window.
I'm not really convinced that the chart/poll is going to be accurate, but that could just be the part of me hoping that I get mine the 28th...
I'm a 27 and it said March as well at 8:06am. Going to be sad if I miss the first batch because the page wouldn't load for me.
You can see your order number in the address bar when you open up the order in your order history
GamingArena
Member
March 28 is more like April for everyone, until everyone's get shipped
So i'm sure its more like 10% for march (29-30) and rest is all April when people start receiving them.
Unless they do Fedex overnight for everyone just so that it shows March.
So i'm sure its more like 10% for march (29-30) and rest is all April when people start receiving them.
Unless they do Fedex overnight for everyone just so that it shows March.
Yea it took the from 8:00 to 8:05 for the pre-order page to finally show up for me. But thankfully from that moment on everything went through smoothly with the order. However it took me a hell of a long time to get through the Touch spot signup page. That finally went through at like 8:30 for me.
I'm hoping those of us who were right near the cutoff get bumped up when people with March ship dates inevitably cancel or have payment methods fail.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Ah sweet thanks. I'm a 30 so that matches up to what the confirmation page told me.
Stabby McSter
Member
I'm gonna try to hop on a retail preorder whenever they go up. Only a 70% chance to get it in May isn't very... reassuring. D:
mugurumakensei
Member
Shipping eventually.
Turin Turambar
Member
The other two impressions I found for now
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3zwld1/ces_thoughts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3zsa69/i_just_tried_the_ces_rift_cv1_demos/
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
You probably won't see this but...after seeing your explanations over personal experience with pre built pcs, basically I have the same response as the other fellow that replied, sorry you had a bad experience, but if done right PC gaming can, and usually is, a stable and smooth end user thing. If cost is an issue this probably won't apply to you, but if you're ever interested there's oodles of good how to vids on youtube for building your own pc. Also, sites like newegg and amazon have plenty of reputable product reviews to make sure what you're getting is good for modern gaming, and reliable. It seems complex at first but it isn't nearly the hurdle some make it out to be, but if that's not your thing and price barrier is a problem I understand.
I think this situation is different, iirc Sony was still losing a good chunk on what it cost to manufacture the cell+ps3, it was an overly complex architecture that was never really fully utilized. The Rift is a high end consumer vr hmd in which every penny put into the msrp is based on high quality components that they know will improve the end user experience. You will see where that extra money went with the custom oled screens and hq lenses the second you put it on, no tweaking necessary on the devs' part. You'll hear where your money went when hearing audio piping through the high end cans and audio drivers built into the headset. This isn't like some gold iphone being sold to whales for the hell of it, the added cost and value will give you a superior experience day 1, something that has been part of Oculus' vision for awhile, to create the best consumer hmd for where the tech and consumer hardware can drive it in 2016.
FullMetalx117
Member
Some thoughts on why the Oculus $599.99 is a smart/fair price and why some are missing the bigger picture here
-First the justification of why including the xbox one controller: Including the xbox one controller and adapter hardly cost anything due to a partnership with Microsoft. Oculus runs on Windows so that's one point. Oculus also has xbox one game steaming option. Microsoft may be getting serious about tapping into the pc gaming market, since supposedly consoles are expected to die in next few generations, according to some analysts. So why not try to make the xbox controller the dominant controller in the future PC gaming market by increasing it's exposure with VR? I mean if VR is really the "future" then why not make a small investment in it by including controllers, and making the Xbox controller THE controller to have with the PC and VR? You have no idea the amount of friends I have that say they "like using consoles more because I don't like using the keyboard/mouse." This move will solidify that controllers can indeed work on PCs. Win win for both companies
-If VR does take off, people will be more willing to upgrade and get high end PCs. Which is only a good thing for PC Gamers. The GTX 970 is NOT a mainstream card to buy no matter what people say. Hell even building a PC can't be considered mainstream. So many PC games will benefit by upgrading the quality of ports through optimization, due to a wider audience of people having these better cards. Ultimately, I think the costs of these high ends cards will go down as well due to better technology (pascal), and more computer manufacturers not wanting to miss out by labeling their PCs as VR ready. Imagine when your basic over the counter laptop/desktops will be labeled VR Ready down the line.
-If Oculus is really that great, the public will notice. They have the money - they pay for $500 ipads, $700 phones, $1000 laptops, $1000 tvs, Xbox one elite controllers, etc. every year. This will fly with word of mouth if this is really that amazing. You had people willing to pay $1000 for the Wii on ebay for a while just because they absolutely had to have that new technology. Personally I think the price hate is coming from the stigma that game consoles and game related peripherals should be cheap. The Oculus VR is trying to be more than a niche gaming item though. I wouldn't doubt that we see more general PC related functionality of oculus in the future (i.e Facebook). VR has the potential to tap into other sectors such as health care, education, etc. So yes they started with a niche, enthusiast gaming marketing, but for good reason. Enthusiasts are pretty vocal about "breakthrough" products, which will be great for marketing and the spread of word of mouth.
Ultimately I see Oculus is trying to expand the "enthusiast" market. I believe they want the new norm for PC costs to be around $1000. They want people to get out of the mindset that cheap laptops/pcs are the way to go. Again, I hate bringing up the example, but apple managed to convince the public a $500 iPad ("an oversized ipod" at the time) was worth it. Even now, with cheaper tablets flooding the market, the Ipad is still the king in that market due to the quality, market penetration, support, etc. Hell, all the public schools have them now, because they're supposedly replacements for textbooks! The Oculus is still in it's infancy and probably won't really shine until the 2nd or 3rd iteration. But they are not being unreasonable with the $600 price tag. Especially since it's not a mass market product yet, making the manufacturing cost actually really high. I believe the PS3 cost around $800 (mainly due to blu ray) to make but sony sold at a loss for $600 at launch. But then blu ray won the format war, everyone adopted to blu ray, and costs went down for the PS3 over time. Hopefully costs will go down over time for Oculus as well, but as of right now $600 is perfectly reasonable and has the potential to become the "norm" price.
Facebook is the one of the highest valued companies in the world. Worth about $300 billion dollars...There couldn't have been a better company to buy OCULUS because Zukerburg is a pretty good CEO, allowing OCULUS to run freely, not interfering significantly with their current goals. Whatever people may say about the company, Facebook actually has a vision and the resources available to fund that vision. They know the future of VR is not in gaming but other sectors, clearly they're just testing the waters with this inital launch. HTC... well it's on it's last legs. For them the VIVE is a make it or break it or it's time for bankruptcy (if you follow HTC earnings). It's hard to a clear vision when you're stuggling to simply stay afloat. So there's a chance there won't be a vive 2 or updates. Sony...they seem to be inclined with keeping VR in gaming for now.
-First the justification of why including the xbox one controller: Including the xbox one controller and adapter hardly cost anything due to a partnership with Microsoft. Oculus runs on Windows so that's one point. Oculus also has xbox one game steaming option. Microsoft may be getting serious about tapping into the pc gaming market, since supposedly consoles are expected to die in next few generations, according to some analysts. So why not try to make the xbox controller the dominant controller in the future PC gaming market by increasing it's exposure with VR? I mean if VR is really the "future" then why not make a small investment in it by including controllers, and making the Xbox controller THE controller to have with the PC and VR? You have no idea the amount of friends I have that say they "like using consoles more because I don't like using the keyboard/mouse." This move will solidify that controllers can indeed work on PCs. Win win for both companies
-If VR does take off, people will be more willing to upgrade and get high end PCs. Which is only a good thing for PC Gamers. The GTX 970 is NOT a mainstream card to buy no matter what people say. Hell even building a PC can't be considered mainstream. So many PC games will benefit by upgrading the quality of ports through optimization, due to a wider audience of people having these better cards. Ultimately, I think the costs of these high ends cards will go down as well due to better technology (pascal), and more computer manufacturers not wanting to miss out by labeling their PCs as VR ready. Imagine when your basic over the counter laptop/desktops will be labeled VR Ready down the line.
-If Oculus is really that great, the public will notice. They have the money - they pay for $500 ipads, $700 phones, $1000 laptops, $1000 tvs, Xbox one elite controllers, etc. every year. This will fly with word of mouth if this is really that amazing. You had people willing to pay $1000 for the Wii on ebay for a while just because they absolutely had to have that new technology. Personally I think the price hate is coming from the stigma that game consoles and game related peripherals should be cheap. The Oculus VR is trying to be more than a niche gaming item though. I wouldn't doubt that we see more general PC related functionality of oculus in the future (i.e Facebook). VR has the potential to tap into other sectors such as health care, education, etc. So yes they started with a niche, enthusiast gaming marketing, but for good reason. Enthusiasts are pretty vocal about "breakthrough" products, which will be great for marketing and the spread of word of mouth.
Ultimately I see Oculus is trying to expand the "enthusiast" market. I believe they want the new norm for PC costs to be around $1000. They want people to get out of the mindset that cheap laptops/pcs are the way to go. Again, I hate bringing up the example, but apple managed to convince the public a $500 iPad ("an oversized ipod" at the time) was worth it. Even now, with cheaper tablets flooding the market, the Ipad is still the king in that market due to the quality, market penetration, support, etc. Hell, all the public schools have them now, because they're supposedly replacements for textbooks! The Oculus is still in it's infancy and probably won't really shine until the 2nd or 3rd iteration. But they are not being unreasonable with the $600 price tag. Especially since it's not a mass market product yet, making the manufacturing cost actually really high. I believe the PS3 cost around $800 (mainly due to blu ray) to make but sony sold at a loss for $600 at launch. But then blu ray won the format war, everyone adopted to blu ray, and costs went down for the PS3 over time. Hopefully costs will go down over time for Oculus as well, but as of right now $600 is perfectly reasonable and has the potential to become the "norm" price.
Facebook is the one of the highest valued companies in the world. Worth about $300 billion dollars...There couldn't have been a better company to buy OCULUS because Zukerburg is a pretty good CEO, allowing OCULUS to run freely, not interfering significantly with their current goals. Whatever people may say about the company, Facebook actually has a vision and the resources available to fund that vision. They know the future of VR is not in gaming but other sectors, clearly they're just testing the waters with this inital launch. HTC... well it's on it's last legs. For them the VIVE is a make it or break it or it's time for bankruptcy (if you follow HTC earnings). It's hard to a clear vision when you're stuggling to simply stay afloat. So there's a chance there won't be a vive 2 or updates. Sony...they seem to be inclined with keeping VR in gaming for now.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
PC Magazine also has a brief impressions article up:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2497577,00.asp
Palmer really dropped the ball on this one. He could've been pioneering VR to the mass market, instead he chose to stay niche.
Wired (?) was right about Sony doing the real work of establishing VR.
Also, having the most successful console jump on the VR train is a boon for VR, considering it's very unlikely, that a big Publisher would have ever released any AA or AAA Games for just the crowd that games on PC, has a powerful enough rig to run VR and want to adopt VR ("enthusiast"). Otherwise, Oculus owner would have been stuck with old VR updated games, walking simulators and roller coasters - virtually a $599 paperweight.
Of course everything is IMO, so don't kill me ;-)
Wired (?) was right about Sony doing the real work of establishing VR.
Also, having the most successful console jump on the VR train is a boon for VR, considering it's very unlikely, that a big Publisher would have ever released any AA or AAA Games for just the crowd that games on PC, has a powerful enough rig to run VR and want to adopt VR ("enthusiast"). Otherwise, Oculus owner would have been stuck with old VR updated games, walking simulators and roller coasters - virtually a $599 paperweight.
Of course everything is IMO, so don't kill me ;-)
Dusktildawn48
Member
Legit question. If I can get a dk2 for $300 would it really be worth the extra $330 for the cv1?
metareferential
Member
According to previews and tech improvements?
Worth every single penny.
(long time DK1-DK2 user here).
Dusktildawn48
Member
What's the difference
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
From the impressions so far, it seems like yes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3zwld1/ces_thoughts/
Sleeping Lesson
Member
DK2 was a cool proof of concept, but I would discourage anyone from getting one at this point. It's such a compromised experience in many ways, definitely not a consumer product.
metareferential
Member
Given the rate these things are selling at, you'll be waiting quite some time for the price to drop, even with the second-hand market.
Pre-orders queue is already huge.
It can work and when it does it's amazing, but more often than not it just leaves a bad "if only" taste in your mouth.
I would expect systems to be sold third party at a premium for awhile.
Here's a potentially accurate chart of when you might expect your rift to ship (from /r/oculus):
It's been put together by a sampling of about 700 orders so far.
My order went through at 8:05am and I'm a 25X order. Apparently doesn't guarantee me in that first March 28 batch, but I guess I'll live with 93% for now lol.
How about kickstarter backers? Have they said anything?
Dusktildawn48
Member
Is it able to do anything the dk2 cant? Would I be able to use all the same peripherals?
They're March as far as we know, and they'll be given a reserved spot for touch preorders as well.
metareferential
Member
We don't know.
Assume that anything made for the consumer model won't work with the DK2.
Like the motion controllers and new games.
Dreamwriter
Member
Well, for me I have a DK2 and use it all the time to play Elite Dangerous with my friends, and I'm getting a CV1. Just the comfort is a big deal - DK2 is strapped to your face, feels like poorly fitting ski goggles. Not comfortable for long periods of time. And the built-in headphones and microphone in CV1 are another big deal for me, it's a pain wearing my big headphone/mic headset on top of the DK2. After an hour of that my ears are getting hot, face is getting sweaty, DK2 or my glasses lenses are fogging up. And if I want to take them off to look at something, I have to take off the headphones, then the DK2, then put back on the DK2, then the headphones,
These issues are solved in CV1, and that's not counting the better screen resolution, refresh, optics, 3D sound, physically adjustable IPD. To me those are nice but a bonus.
Dusktildawn48
Member
Darn. Was hoping to save me money but comfort is a big plus to me.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
The camera has a much narrower field of view so positional tracking is much more limited. The headset only has sensors on the front and side so you can't do a full 360 turn without it losing you. The Touch controllers will also not work unless you buy the new camera (which might not work with DK2, I don't know). That aside, every single aspect of the experience would be significantly worse with a DK2. It has a cheap but relatively heavy plastic frame with straps that need quite frequent adjustment. The screen and lenses are far inferior. I owned a DK2 for a year, and it was a mindblowing experience for what it is, but I'd never choose one or ever recommend one over what the CV1 offers just to save a couple hundred bucks. Don't do it.
DirtyLarry
Member
Preordered. Expected Ship Date of June.
I have been saying for almost 2 years now I was not going to build my new gaming PC (originally built 7 years ago with a GPU upgrade once) until VR was officially released, and it is now finally happening.
I will put aside $400 a month until June and build a beast of a rig, and finally get to experience the hype for myself.
If I am let down for whatever reason, I still have a new Gaming PC and will sell the Rift itself on eBay so it is not a total loss, but I cannot imagine I am going to be let down enough to do that.
I have been gaming in the comfort of my own home and arcades since 1978. I am 41 years old. I will be damned if I am not going to take the next step, and I fortunately make enough money to do so.
The price is steep yes, but the older I get, the more I feel life is short. I could wait 6 months, a year, and let it drop down a few hundred bucks (possibly), or, I can suck it up and pay for it now and be an early adopter.
Clearly I opted for the latter.
Cannot wait to float in Zero G's in ADR1FT.
I have been saying for almost 2 years now I was not going to build my new gaming PC (originally built 7 years ago with a GPU upgrade once) until VR was officially released, and it is now finally happening.
I will put aside $400 a month until June and build a beast of a rig, and finally get to experience the hype for myself.
If I am let down for whatever reason, I still have a new Gaming PC and will sell the Rift itself on eBay so it is not a total loss, but I cannot imagine I am going to be let down enough to do that.
I have been gaming in the comfort of my own home and arcades since 1978. I am 41 years old. I will be damned if I am not going to take the next step, and I fortunately make enough money to do so.
The price is steep yes, but the older I get, the more I feel life is short. I could wait 6 months, a year, and let it drop down a few hundred bucks (possibly), or, I can suck it up and pay for it now and be an early adopter.
Clearly I opted for the latter.
Cannot wait to float in Zero G's in ADR1FT.
Dusktildawn48
Member
Yeah I'm not going too. Someone on ebay is selling one for $300 so I offered him $150. Hope he declines (Which 99% chance he will) thanks everyone that replied
Dreamwriter
Member
They haven't announced anything CV1 can do that DK2 can't, aside from the higher quality visuals/audio and physical IPD adjustment (the screens can physically be moved further or closer to each other to match your eyes, DK2 instead changes where the two pictures are rendered on the screen). They did say that software-wise DK2 would still be able to play games made for CV1.
Oculus Touch, the motion-controllers, are a different issue. It's unknown if the new camera sensor that CV1 uses is compatible with DK2, and Oculus Touch is going to use that new camera sensor.
Edit - yeah, forgot about the IR LEDs in the back of CV1's strap allowing full 360 degree position detection, that's something DK2 can't do.
Iced_Eagle
Member
So let's start with the biggest issue, and what will become your instant regret. The lens sweet spot on the DK2 is TINY. I basically always had chromatic abberation when using DK2 due to a variety of other issues mentioned below. Yeah, eventually you can learn to ignore it, but playing a game like Elite: Dangerous, looking at my side panels it was always plain as day to see the color separation. Trust me, the improved lenses on CV1 would already be worth the money.
Moving on from there, CV1 improves:
- Lower weight
- Breathable fabric which means your lenses won't fog up nearly as often
- More comfortable to wear. DK2 still uses a ski goggle setup and it means you'll end up needing to pull DK2 tighter across your face to get it to stay on properly (even more of a problem with the tiny lens sweet spot!). For CV1 they changed this entire mechanism so the headset is more supported by the back of your skull and moves the force to be more on the top of your head, reducing the force needed on the front.
- Higher resolution
- Higher framerate
- Higher Field of View
- Moved from 1 to 2 screen setup, and overall the screens are custom tuned for VR better than DK2
- Big reduction in the Screen Door Effect compared to DK2! As soon as you need to read text in DK2, you will be upset by this since you'll know CV1 is vastly improved
- DK2 does not have tracking on the back of the headset so you can't do any room experiences where you will rotate 360 degrees since you also can't link cameras together like you can in CV1. Even sitting down, I would lose tracking if I looked directly behind me.
- Headset tracking system in CV1 is faster and more precise
- The entire audio system is non-existent in DK2, which is supposedly extremely high-quality and tuned for binaural audio and it will correctly move sound around your skull as you rotate your head since it has all of that data.
- CV1 has better support for the lenses in general in terms of greater IPD support and other adjustments you can make
- You'll need to buy the new camera anyway if you want Oculus Touch, and how that will work when you have both a DK2 camera and Constellation camera active is unknown and probably unsupported.
And then finally... There is no guarantee DK2 will be supported for the life of CV1. For all we know, next year they may drop support for DK2 in which case you would be spending that money on something which would be good for only one year.
As an owner of DK2, people really need to understand that it is a development kit. It has many issues and is NOT a consumer product. Do not view it as some cheap oculus rift, because you will be paying for a sub-par experience in comparison.
If you cannot afford a CV1, then just don't buy one and save up. You will be wasting money by buying a DK2 at this point as a consumer especially since it has an unknown end of life now that CV1 is coming out.
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
Hi Palmer
Great contribution.
Dusktildawn48
Member
Wow thanks man. Yeah im staying away from dk now
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Accusing people of shilling now, cute.
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
So one person can't notice the screen door effect and another says it's much reduced.
Highly doubt its no longer noticeable but that was a big bugbear of dk2.
Will await more feedback.
Highly doubt its no longer noticeable but that was a big bugbear of dk2.
Will await more feedback.