Is the oculus rift too expensive?

[random guy]

Palmer Luckey, the founder claimed a consumer version would cost $350-400 in the early stages. $600 is a tad ridiculous imo

[Scrub McGrub]

Is the Oculus doomed at $600?

So I've been pretty hyped for VR... but I'm really worried that at this price it's not going to catch on and get the software support it really needs to progress.

It reminds me of all the high priced systems that were too ahead of their time like 3DO, Jaguar, and Neo Geo AES. Also I'm on a 970 and kind of worried about being the in bottom end of performance... so depending on the price of whatever Pascal GPUs are going to go for that's easily a $1000 barrier to entry for me.

I wasn't considering the VIVE... but if HTC can deliver I'm definitely paying attention to them now. Seems like it's going to be an Iphone vs Android kind of situation.

EDIT- oh.... well they already totally sold out of the first shipment pre-orders.

[Doublebow]

I think so, they originaly said it was going to be around the $350 mark but this is a joke, I live in the UK and its going to cost us £500 which is about $730 and then the shipping will probably be about $50 so its an even bigger joke for us, and god only help the Austrailans. What worries me more is that the Vive is supposed to cost alot more than the rift so that will probably be around £800/ $1000 which will be well out of most peoples price range. And on top of the fact you need at least an £800/ $1000 rig just to run it at the bottom end liek you said is going to mean that they have already blocked off the majoratory of the PC gaming scene. If it was £350 it would be about right, but for 500 I think they have killed themselves before they even started.

[˜lokkandload˜™]

I won't be spending 600 bux for them no. There's not enough if any games coded for VR and probably wont be for a while. It's like 3D on HD TVs...it'll die off if it's unaffordable and no content is available fast enough for a demanding market.

[KRAZYD0NUT]

Been following the rift for a long time. I was dead set on getting the consumer version day1. I was expecting $399 usd at most, $600 is just too much. I will wait some more. Do i want this product to fail? NO, not at all. I hope it takes off, which will pave the way and make it mainstream, then again lower price will come. Just look at smart phone and flat panel tv's for example.

[Alchemist79]

According to this they upgraded the screens/optics,
http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/6/10724644/oculus-rift-price-palmer-luckey

[shs]

No. This is PC gaming. Go look at the member builds featured on Pcpartpicker.
For $600 you could add a second 980 ti, or get a completely new experience. Which do you think?

[Scrub McGrub]

Messaggio originale di KRAZYD0NUT:

Been following the rift for a long time. I was dead set on getting the consumer version day1. I was expecting $399 usd at most, $600 is just too much. I will wait some more. Do i want this product to fail? NO, not at all. I hope it takes off, which will pave the way and make it mainstream, then again lower price will come. Just look at smart phone and flat panel tv's for example.

The thing is Flat TVs and Smart Phones still had a use in those early days when there wasn't much HD content or quality apps. You were still using them as your phone and TV. VR headsets aren't a practical monitor replacement... and are going to need some killer apps and content to get off the ground.

If the adoption rate isn't high enough... no dev is going to really put in the effort to sell software on a niche platform. I want to see VR succeed as well... but I really think Oculus shot themselves in the foot here.

[Scrub McGrub]

Messaggio originale di shs:

No. This is PC gaming. Go look at the member builds featured on Pcpartpicker.
For $600 you could add a second 980 ti, or get a completely new experience. Which do you think?

Name me one commercially successful PC game that requires a minimum $600 GPU

[_I_]

at $200-300 they would sell, the price of a good 1080 or cheap 1440p monitor

but at $600 you can buy 3x 1080p monitors or a 4k monitor

[shs]

Messaggio originale di Scrub McGrub:

Messaggio originale di shs:

No. This is PC gaming. Go look at the member builds featured on Pcpartpicker.
For $600 you could add a second 980 ti, or get a completely new experience. Which do you think?

Name me one commercially successful PC game that requires a minimum $600 GPU

None, no game ever has, yet there have always been a concurrent sales between new tech and new software sales, which is what sells the $300-400 range of GPU that isn't really necessary to run the new game either. Likewise, if you have that new GPU you might as well buy the newest most demanding games in order to make some use of it. The Rift is just a slight step up in price, and once supported will probably drop in price.
As I said when you quoted me, a *second* 980 ti.

The real crux is whether it can be made to run on any game without developer involvement, i.e. with Oculus making specific software/patches per game. If it's limited to specialty software a low pricepoint won't help.

@ _l_ ... I don't think Eyefinity or 4k compare to VR. At all.

[_I_]

i know, but just for price point, you can get a very nice display config

[Eric]

Messaggio originale di _I_:

i know, but just for price point, you can get a very nice display config

Agreed! I'd buy a really nice 1440P or 4K monitor for that price (and still have a few bucks left over). There just isn't much there in terms of games to justify the $600 price point. Pretty much any game I currently play would benefit from a nice monitor, but not from a VR headset.

For $400 I would have been sold on the idea. For $600, I'll pass!

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

This and shipping you can almost get 1440p IPS 144 Hz monitor that would be ten times more useful for all things not just few games that are compatible.

[LamboV12]

the financial barrier to entry will be far too high for most needing a gpu upgrade and the headset, i wouldnt even be considering it if i needed to buy both, if oculus wanted to make back the 3.5 billion from the facebook take over they really need mainstream adoption not just enthusiasts and the only way to do that would be with a compelling product which they have but with minimal entry costs even if they lost a little on each unit they could make it back through the gear vr, accessories and liscencing deals which would be far more lucrative if the product was adopted in the mainstream.

[Stedios]

It's not the price of the unit, at $600 i would get it but it's the upgrade of my pc, even though I have a 8core amd it says it's not enough, with a 280x and only one usb3, So I will need a new pc which will probably cost $1000 and that aint gonna happen for a few years. Hopefully HTC will have a lower spec, Or it may be cheaper to get Sonys VR when it launches. But I would still like to try before buy.