High-End VR Just Got A Whole Lot Cheaper: Oculus Slashed The Price Of The Rift

It’s been a little less than a year since Oculus started shipping the Rift CV1. After years of anticipation, hype, and Oculus executives telling us the Rift would be an affordable (sub-$400) device, Oculus dropped a bombshell on its fans and released its VR headset--with motion controllers--for $600.

The initial sticker shock undoubtedly stopped some people from buying Rift HMDs, but Oculus didn’t have any trouble overselling its production capacity, though it certainly didn’t help that production problems shortly after the Rift's launch caused shipment delays that lasted for several months.

On top of dealing with a problematic hardware launch, Oculus was busy trying to bring the Oculus Touch controllers to market. The controllers were supposed to ship in Q2 on 2016, but in December 2015, Oculus revealed that it would be delaying the release until later in the year. Oculus spent most of 2016 working on the Touch controllers and curating a lineup of content to complement them. The company finally launched Touch in early December, but again, the price was a bit higher than people had hoped.

The Touch controller package launched at $199, which gives you a pair of tracked controllers and an extra Constellation camera to track them. Considering the price of a single Xbox One or PlayStation DualShock 4 controller, the price of the Touch controllers shouldn’t be a surprise, but it was enough to deter some people from upgrading.

Now that the Rift has an install base of at least a couple hundred thousand units (no official numbers have been released, but analyst estimates peg the Rift at north of 200,000 units sold) and the Touch controllers have been available for three months, Oculus is moving to make buying into VR more affordable.

You can now buy a Rift headset with Touch controllers for the same price that just a Rift would have set you back yesterday. Oculus is now selling the Rift + Touch bundle for $600. The company also slashed the price of the standalone Touch controllers in half to $99 and dropped the price of the extra Constellation cameras from $79 to $59.  

Curiously, Oculus appears to have dropped the standalone Rift as an option. Instead of dropping the price of entry by $100, the company is offering a better package for the same price. Last year, Oculus stood by the merits of seated VR experiences played with a gamepad, and now it almost feels like the company is moving towards a future of motion control games.

“We know this from responses to hundreds of thousands of surveys taken at our retail demo locations, as well as from empirical evidence before us: Console VR is less expensive and currently outselling PC VR, and even less expensive Mobile VR headsets, like our Gear VR device, are outselling Console VR,” said Jason Rubin, Oculus VP Content. “Bringing the higher quality of PC VR toward these lower price points is an obvious win for both consumers and PC VR. This price drop was as inevitable as it is beneficial. This is how the technology business works.”

We agree with Rubin, at least to some extent. Tom’s Hardware did a survey of our readers last year to determine what, if anything, was holding people back from investing in VR. Overwhelmingly, the results indicated that price was a primary factor keeping people from joining the VR revolution. And he's not wrong about console VR. The PSVR hit the market in October 2016, and its software lineup is sparse, but that didn't stop Sony from selling almost a million units already. The price of entry undoubtedly played a considerable role in the PSVR's early success. 

Gabe Newell disagrees, though. He believes that content is the key factor holding people back from buying a VR system. “If you took the existing VR systems and made them 80% cheaper, there’s still not a huge market,” Newell said in a recent interview. “There’s still not a compelling reason for people to spend 20 hours a day in VR.”

Fortunately, Oculus is looking at the software side of the equation too. The company is doubling down on quality content for 2017. Oculus plans to launch new in-house developed titles from Oculus Studios on almost a monthly basis.

The Oculus platform already has several excellent games, such as Superhot, The Climb, Chronos, and The Unspoken. And let’s not forget about Arizona Sunshine. But you would be hard pressed to argue that VR’s killer app is here already.

“I can’t say for sure that this year’s line-up is going to have VR’s World of Warcraft or GTA, but with every new release, and with every new discovery, VR gets closer to finding its killer app,” said Rubin.

Building a AAA game takes time, and most VR developers haven’t had enough time to make that kind of game. VR developers are still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and VR locomotion is not yet a solved problem (not for lack of trying, mind). Thankfully, solutions for those problems are becoming clearer all them time.

“We have to remember that as of this GDC, our developer community has had dev kits in their hands for less than two years and has only been able to get feedback from consumers about what they’re doing for a year,” said Rubin. “With that frontier style development behind us, and with second-generation development and informed design taking place, the sweet spot for developers to create breakout hits opens. Some of these titles will become perpetually loved VR series that are with us for generations.”

Things are looking up in the VR industry. Price cuts and better content can only be good for everyone. Who's ready to join me in the metaverse?

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

  • bit_user
    A cynic might say they're trying to unload their inventory before Zenimax's injunction is sustained.

    Speaking of Zenimax, if you assume the $500M award sticks and the injunction is sustained, then each of the 200k units sold would have an effective cost of about $14,000. And you thought the Vive was expensive.
    Reply
  • littlelostlinden
    Holy Moly! Even at this low price, it still isn't worth the risk of catching the eye herpies and showing off the infamous OcuFace.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    This is a bit closer to how the Oculus Rift originally should have been priced, although if the previously-overpriced Touch controllers now retail for a much more reasonable $100, that still means the headset itself costs $500. A 25% price cut on the whole package isn't bad though. And I do see that the Xbone controller is still included as well, however unnecessary it might be.

    I imagine that we'll soon see a price cut on the Vive to match. Or maybe there will be a package with some new pack-ins like a Vive Tracker for a bit more, and perhaps a wireless version of the Vive will take over the $800 price point. Either way, I wouldn't doubt if we saw these companies preview their next-generation headsets before long.
    Reply
  • Supporter
    someone needs to learn to use a spellchecker
    Reply
  • Supporter
    It all depends on what you consider reasonable. (cost wise) VR still wont see prime time until it is in sub 199 tag for the full set. It IS just a toy.
    Reply
  • Jim90
    Once they sort our foveated rendering (i.e. the absolute requirement for very expensive gfx card+PC for high end rendering) then we will eventually see prices fall significantly. Eventually. As things are, one does need the other. Oh yes, they'll also need to recover initial development costs for the VR system itself. Of course, unless you're happy with phone-based VR.
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    It can cost 50 dollars... If there are no games that are going to be interesting to play for longer than 20 minutes... I still dont see it going mainstream.

    There are so many things that are "not quite there yet" with VR that its no surprise its sales have virtually halted.
    Reply
  • Dosflores
    I think you can still order the Rift without Touch, for its lowest price ever. You just have to add the Rift + Touch bundle to your cart, and then remove the Touch. I'm not going to proceed any further to check it, though :D
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    Seriously!!!??
    I just paid $200 for the controllers less than 30 days ago!
    Reply
  • Sakkura
    19368801 said:
    It can cost 50 dollars... If there are no games that are going to be interesting to play for longer than 20 minutes... I still dont see it going mainstream.

    There are so many things that are "not quite there yet" with VR that its no surprise its sales have virtually halted.

    There are plenty of games that'll hold your interest for more than 20 minutes. Robo Recall just released, and it's an absolute blast.

    Oculus has also confirmed that there will be AT LEAST one game released from Oculus Studios each month this year. Those are the major titles developed by third parties but published (and funded) by Oculus.

    19369265 said:
    Seriously!!!??
    I just paid $200 for the controllers less than 30 days ago!

    In that case you'll get $50 store credit.
    Reply