As of yesterday, anyone that preordered the Oculus Rift should keep an eye out for the delivery man. Pre-orders will start heading out the door starting Monday, March 28.
Chief executive Brendan Iribe revealed the news on Twitter, saying “The first Oculus Rift has shipped, deliveries begin Monday 3.28.2016,” accompanied by a photo of the Rift bundle.
https://mobile.twitter.com/brendaniribe/status/713118956135981056
Some preorders may take time to arrive, especially for customers outside of the United States. For anyone looking to purchase the Oculus Rift now, the waiting list is four months long.
The shipping announcement marks the transition from development to consumer-ready, four years after the original Oculus Rift arrived on Kickstarter and raised $2.4 million. Two years after the successful Kickstarter, Oculus was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion.
Oculus Rift skeptics silenced for now
There was some skepticism about the release of a consumer version of the Oculus Rift, after two years of iterations to the Oculus DK2 and an unlimited amount of money thanks to Facebook. Those skeptics were silenced when Oculus announced the finalized version of the Rift, complete with an Xbox One controller and two games for $599.
Shortly after the announcement of the Oculus Rift and its price, chief executive Palmer Luckey started a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) to calm some of the critics of the final product’s price. The biggest criticism was Luckey’s comment on the Oculus price being “in the ballpark” of $350, which wasn’t true.
See Also: How Virtual Reality Will Democratize Learning
The Oculus Rift isn’t the only virtual reality headset coming this year however, with the widely anticipated HTC Vive VR hopefully launching next month for $799, powered by Valve’s Steam VR. While we don’t have a definite answer to the question “which is best?” some pundits claim the Vive VR offers more value to fans of virtual reality.
We also have PlayStation VR coming in October 2016, costing an impressive $399. On top of the virtual reality market heating up, we also have mixed reality companies like Microsoft, Google, and Magic Leap that might explode onto the market with a new innovative headset.
