Was excited to pre-order this today expecting it in the £250-£300 area as had been speculated. Logged in to find it was going to cost £529 including shipping!! I don;t know how they can justify that price. Is it really worth it for the first release of VR? Looks like I am going to have to wait :'(
Oculus Rift
- Thread starter jerpers
- Start date
Everon
Enthusiast
Thats the price you pay for being an early adopter.
Personally I think anyone who buys one of these right now must have more money than sense and I for one will be waiting for at least the second generation of Vr if in fact it gets that far.
My issues with VR right now are that there is no real big developers coming out and saying what is being developed for VR in the next 12 months or how that plan to release games for VR users and those without for the same titles. Also having two different VR systems on the PC scene will be a disaster for consumers as fragmenting PC gamers between two different headsets that are not compaitible whilst both have mutually exclusive games just plain sucks.
Also just how am I to get prescription lenses for my VR headset bearing in mind i wear glasses? who will supply them and for what cost? No one has answered that or at least I cannot find concrete info on it.
This is all forgetting the overiding point that current gen graphics cards are unable to output AAA quality graphics at VR level right now, meaning that all we will see in the next 12 to 18 months are "technical showcases" and bland low gen graphic games and interactive movies. It will not be until we see AMD's Polaris and Nvidia's Pascal that will enable developers to really start to push into what is needed to power games sufficiently in VR. Until those cards are out and we start to see benchmarks of what they are capable of we will not know how just what to expect from VR in the future.
Sorry to sound negative on VR but It really does seem that not only FB oculus but also Valve Vive are deliberately keeping us in the dark hoping we will jump on board early, which I for one am not willing to do.
edit: If there are spelling mistakes I blame the Jack Daniels and I dont care.
edit 2: why the hell does this site sign me out half way through posting my reply!!
Personally I think anyone who buys one of these right now must have more money than sense and I for one will be waiting for at least the second generation of Vr if in fact it gets that far.
My issues with VR right now are that there is no real big developers coming out and saying what is being developed for VR in the next 12 months or how that plan to release games for VR users and those without for the same titles. Also having two different VR systems on the PC scene will be a disaster for consumers as fragmenting PC gamers between two different headsets that are not compaitible whilst both have mutually exclusive games just plain sucks.
Also just how am I to get prescription lenses for my VR headset bearing in mind i wear glasses? who will supply them and for what cost? No one has answered that or at least I cannot find concrete info on it.
This is all forgetting the overiding point that current gen graphics cards are unable to output AAA quality graphics at VR level right now, meaning that all we will see in the next 12 to 18 months are "technical showcases" and bland low gen graphic games and interactive movies. It will not be until we see AMD's Polaris and Nvidia's Pascal that will enable developers to really start to push into what is needed to power games sufficiently in VR. Until those cards are out and we start to see benchmarks of what they are capable of we will not know how just what to expect from VR in the future.
Sorry to sound negative on VR but It really does seem that not only FB oculus but also Valve Vive are deliberately keeping us in the dark hoping we will jump on board early, which I for one am not willing to do.
edit: If there are spelling mistakes I blame the Jack Daniels and I dont care.
edit 2: why the hell does this site sign me out half way through posting my reply!!
Last edited:
They say it's fully designed to be able to accommodate the wearing of glasses, and you can adjust it all about to get comfortable.
I wear glasses and am quite short sighted, but the Rift screens I think will be within the distance my eyes can focus unaided.
One of the things I look forward to about VR is that for the first time in 35 years I will be able to see a sharp semblance of a presented world without wearing any visual aid (although I'll be wearing a head enveloping headset).
Last edited:
''To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware. High end VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is.''
says Palmer Luckey.
They say not making money, but they need to make something to pay wages, rent, R&D, manufacturing. And I bet those staff don't get minimum wage.
Funny how now he is apologising for the price, claiming that he always knew it was going to be higher...smh. What a bunch if BS. Ialso like the claims that it was consumers assuming it would be a similar price point to the developers kit which had much lower quality and standard components. The kickstarter campaign clearly stated that the the rift would be a much higher specc'd product at the same or very similar price to the DK. I wouldn't mind so much if they gave justified reasons but to make up a bunch of rubbish just infuriates me further.
I too was hoping for the ~300 price tag. Possibly being low enough for me to pre-order. Unlike 3D, VR is definitely less of a gimmick. At least I think so. I've only ever used my phone in a Google Cardboard and it was still very impressive. I can only imagine how good it is with a proper headset and not having to hold the headset up to your head. The problem with VR is that all of a sudden, the market looks like its going to get crowded with every man and his dog releasing a VR headset. What will that mean for VR games? Will headsets get "exclusives" like a console would? At which point, will we need a Rift, Vive, GearVR and whatever else there is now?
I'll be keeping a close eye on this part of the industry although I won't be spending any money (yet). Look forward to seeing how it develops and hope that it doesn't die before it really takes off like 3D (although I don't really like 3D much).
I'll be keeping a close eye on this part of the industry although I won't be spending any money (yet). Look forward to seeing how it develops and hope that it doesn't die before it really takes off like 3D (although I don't really like 3D much).
He's a human being, it was one person making comments about price.
And they can charge what they like for it, it's not an existential necessity. And if you have evidence that Palmer Luckey's latest comments are lies, and what the true cost of the features present in the product are, I'd like to know what that is.
You may or may not believe that the lenses are 'essentially hybrid lenses that combine the best of traditional optics and fresnel lenses into a single element'. How much does one of those cost - do you know?
Last edited:
Making money would mean making a profit. Paying staff and R&D would be considered an expense.
Everon
Enthusiast
Regarding the price, they could cut the cost to consumers by selling it without the included XboxOne controller and the cheap as ass headset that comes in the basic bundle. Those two things alone would slice off around sixty pounds at least. Most PC gamers already have a decent controller and a bloody good headset anyhow.
Just for laughs, here is Francis raging about the Oculus Rift announcment: (WARNING: Swearing and man crying)
[video=youtube;ykVubb2_SvQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykVubb2_SvQ[/video]
Just for laughs, here is Francis raging about the Oculus Rift announcment: (WARNING: Swearing and man crying)
[video=youtube;ykVubb2_SvQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykVubb2_SvQ[/video]
''The Xbox controller costs us almost nothing to bundle, and people can easily resell it for profit. A lot of people wish we would sell a bundle without “useless extras” like high-end audio, a carrying case, the bundled games, etc, but those just don’t significantly impact the cost.''
Palmer Luckey - 06/01/16
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3zt7ul/i_am_palmer_luckey_founder_of_oculus_and_designer/
Without knowing what those things are costing Occulus Rift, you can't possibly say it would take £60 off the price if not included.
Last edited:
He's probably just saying that as an excuse.
It was a terrible move to add so much stuff with it. Almost everyone will have a controller and almost everyone will have a headset. The remote is also an optional feature that not everyone would make use of, and the people that use their PC as a media station will already have some kind of remote that is probably compatible. Think they probably could have saved $100. At the very least $50 for stuff 90% of their buyers don't need.
I don't need or want to use an Xbox controller, but I can sell that, apparently for more than what it added to the Rift price.
I don't want to have to wear another strap across my head in addition to the Rift so am glad about the ear pieces.
The remote may or may not be useful, but a bit of plastic with some simple electronics inside probably does cost next to nothing to produce in mass. I do use my PC as a 'media station' and I don't have a remote. Also any existing remote is probably not designed to be used without being able to see it. If you were to have to buy the remote separately the delivery cost alone would probably be more than what cost it adds to the Rift package.
I don't want to have to wear another strap across my head in addition to the Rift so am glad about the ear pieces.
The remote may or may not be useful, but a bit of plastic with some simple electronics inside probably does cost next to nothing to produce in mass. I do use my PC as a 'media station' and I don't have a remote. Also any existing remote is probably not designed to be used without being able to see it. If you were to have to buy the remote separately the delivery cost alone would probably be more than what cost it adds to the Rift package.
Last edited:
StuntmanMike
Member
I owned the DK1 and have been following the development of the rift since Carmack was championing Luckey's first prototype.I have the rig to run it but I'm not paying over £500 for it.How they justify the exchange rate is what I'd like to know.
Personally I agree with Spuff here, although I have all of those extras (except for the remote) but I would still prefer the rift came as a complete package - it guarantee's compatibility and provides a measure of convenience (certainly in the case of the headphones) in my opinion. I'd agree that they didn't have to include the xbox controller but I think its a far cry to say that most of their buyers will already have a suitable PC controller available. Sure some might, but I think a reasonable amount of buyers are going to be first time PC gamers. I'd say that including them in the rift package is good for first time buyers.
TBH it costs what it costs. Doesn't really matter how much everyone gets upset about it. Regardless of what was said in the past and by who, this kind of thing happens all of the time when things are being developed / manufactured. You get a quote (or perhaps speculative future cost I guess in the case of the rift, I'm assuming based on the DK) then during manufacturing/design things change and the cost increases.
Admittedly it sounds as though they (occulus dev's) seem to be doing a poor job of explaining (or perhaps simply placating the masses with their explanations) what the differences were and the reasons for the cost rise.
Just a note - I was interested in this too (been wearing glasses for about 20 years now), however as with all of the other similar types of tech I've ever used (FPV gear for RC drones/planes etc.) you simply need to sort your own out - most companies don't offer that kind of thing from what I've seen - Fat Shark do for their FPV goggles. Easiest option is to get some contacts (which I dislike the idea of) but I doubt anyone else will be paying for them for you. There are plenty of things folk with glasses don't get to use. Like non-prescription sunglasses as a poor example - you don't expect anyone else to pay to get prescription versions do you? I appreciate its a poor analogy but I hope you see my point. I guess some frames might fit within the oculus housing/shroud thing - but I'd doubt that in my case certainly
TL;DR
TBH it costs what it costs. Doesn't really matter how much everyone gets upset about it. Regardless of what was said in the past and by who, this kind of thing happens all of the time when things are being developed / manufactured. You get a quote (or perhaps speculative future cost I guess in the case of the rift, I'm assuming based on the DK) then during manufacturing/design things change and the cost increases.
Admittedly it sounds as though they (occulus dev's) seem to be doing a poor job of explaining (or perhaps simply placating the masses with their explanations) what the differences were and the reasons for the cost rise.
Just a note - I was interested in this too (been wearing glasses for about 20 years now), however as with all of the other similar types of tech I've ever used (FPV gear for RC drones/planes etc.) you simply need to sort your own out - most companies don't offer that kind of thing from what I've seen - Fat Shark do for their FPV goggles. Easiest option is to get some contacts (which I dislike the idea of) but I doubt anyone else will be paying for them for you. There are plenty of things folk with glasses don't get to use. Like non-prescription sunglasses as a poor example - you don't expect anyone else to pay to get prescription versions do you? I appreciate its a poor analogy but I hope you see my point. I guess some frames might fit within the oculus housing/shroud thing - but I'd doubt that in my case certainly
TL;DR
- IMO the peripherals are fine
- It costs what it costs, that's life I'd say (sad but true
) - If you wear glasses (like me) I suspect its going to suck unless you get contacts (or you're lucky and your glasses fit)
If they were selling all the components as extras, people would still be complaining that they had to pay extra and it wasn't included as standard. Not to mention the extra complexity in shipping/distribution to have lots of separate products/versions.
Also it's rather unfair to suggest it's overpriced because the people who worked on it are getting paid more then minimum wage!
Also it's rather unfair to suggest it's overpriced because the people who worked on it are getting paid more then minimum wage!