Oculus Rift Catch-All

The passthrough camera is something I've imagined as necessary for VR eventually. Im happy to see one starting up with it and I hope eventually all VR systems allow for some visual awareness of the outside world while you have the kit on. I'd love to be able to pick up my beer without peeking out of the headset or breaking immersion. I think the best case scenario will be letting games map objects to correspond with real world space. It may not make SENSE to have a potion following me around everywhere, standing in for where my beer bottle is sitting (dont try to drink from a mug or glass with a headset on) but at least I won't knock it over onto my PC.

So wow, $689 after taxes and shipping. Expected to ship in March.

polypusher wrote:

So wow, $689 after taxes and shipping. Expected to ship in March.

That price point is insane, no way this sells well. Just translating to CA, thats almost 850$ before the shipping etc...

polypusher wrote:

So wow, $689 after taxes and shipping.

I had a hunch it would be much more expensive than people were hoping once they announced the pre-order date without any pricing information. Plus, Sony was making noise a few months ago that Sony VR pricing would be comparable to a new console. Also, displays are expensive!

There must be some regional pricing going on, I just preordered for $629. There was shipping, but no taxes.

ukickmydog wrote:

http://fortune.com/2016/01/05/htc-in...

New details on the Vive today at CES. I'd been accumulating money in my steam wallet to get this and it appears it is going to be the most powerful of the VR competition, so good move by me selling off virtual TF2 items so I can buy this guy with "free" money.

What about the new pc hardware your going to need to run it?

Aaaaand I've just gone from potential early adopter to full "wait and see" mode.

UK pricing is £499 plus shipping (or the equivalent of either 2 Xbox One's or 2 Playstation 4s).

At $350, or even $450 (ie one console equivalent) I would have been tempted - at $600 - nope, I don't want it *that* badly.

Time to see what the competition does and, most likely, wait for the second generation. Hopefully better hardware, lower prices and the bugs shaken out.

On the plus side, I guess that gives me a few months on the hype train!

I pre-ordered, but that CDN price was hard to swallow. They aren't charging until the actual shipment (March), so I have time to cancel. Of course this leaves me a few months to stew about the cost.

Hm. That's a little higher than I expected given what the DK2 cost. It will be interesting to see if the Vive is priced similarly, or triggers a little price war.

I'm really tempted to pick it up, but I suppose the smart thing to do would be to wait and see which of the two products comes out ahead.

Too much for me. Had the DK2, and the screen door effect was really distracting. Not worth $600+ to me.

shoptroll wrote:
polypusher wrote:

So wow, $689 after taxes and shipping.

I had a hunch it would be much more expensive than people were hoping once they announced the pre-order date without any pricing information. Plus, Sony was making noise a few months ago that Sony VR pricing would be comparable to a new console. Also, displays are expensive!

Displays aren't that expensive. A retina iPad Mini screen ~320dpi is approximately $50 retail.

Wow, i didn't see that coming. Now i'm waiting. Price drop before the end of the year predicted.

ChrisLTD wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
polypusher wrote:

So wow, $689 after taxes and shipping.

I had a hunch it would be much more expensive than people were hoping once they announced the pre-order date without any pricing information. Plus, Sony was making noise a few months ago that Sony VR pricing would be comparable to a new console. Also, displays are expensive!

Displays aren't that expensive. A retina iPad Mini screen ~320dpi is approximately $50 retail.

That was still $400 at launch for the cheapest model. $269 starting price if you look at the Apple Store listing.

Wow, that's way too rich for my blood. Good luck to all the early adopters! Make sure to work out all the kinks for when the price comes down!

jonnypolite wrote:

Wow, i didn't see that coming. Now i'm waiting. Price drop before the end of the year predicted.

I think I agree with that. There are some people that are going to buy this regardless of what $ amount is charged upon release. Seems like this first offering is aimed at that.

I'm still wait and see.

Came in about $100 over what I was hoping after they said it'd be more than $350. It's been a long time since I hopped on something early, so I may as well at this point.

Going to wait on this. Would of been ok up to $450, but I don't need it bad enough for the price.

YeeeeeeeeeaahNo.

I puckered up and ordered one, but I'm definitely not happy with the price. It's not like they missed the price target they'd been discussing for years -- they lit the target on fire and threw it out the back of a moving truck.

I even upgraded my computer in anticipation, but now i'm holding out for the new GPUs and the VR price wars.

I went for it. I sold my DK2 for this. I didn't buy a console for this generation. Been telling myself for 2 years that this is what I wanted next. The hesitation was only slight.

It makes some sense for them to take some profit on the unit for now. They're first to market with no release dates announced by their competition. They can do a price cut on the Vive's release date now. They can enjoy us early adopters and adjust later for mainstream, but it's a clear signal that we're a few years away from mainstream VR.

polypusher wrote:

It makes some sense for them to take some profit on the unit for now. They're first to market with no release dates announced by their competition. They can do a price cut on the Vive's release date now. They can enjoy us early adopters and adjust later for mainstream, but it's a clear signal that we're a few years away from mainstream VR.

You're probably right on the business strategy. The only counter-argument would be that the Rift could become *the* VR device through sheer sales momentum. However, that was probably out the window considering the beefy PC specs it requires.

If they are going to be somewhat constrained with supply, that price point makes sense to me. I imagine there are enough people with a couple $600 cards in their rig that will want to buy it. I'm waiting for the new Nvidia cards to upgrade and will probably get some sort of SLI setup with the top one or 2nd to top one depending on how they perform. Not sure when that will happen, but I'll probably attempt to grab an Oculus at that point if they're available.

Saw this on reddit earlier. Don't know how true it is but it sounds believable after seeing the $599 price tag

reddit post wrote:

Rift: 300 custom parts, all requiring molds, tooling, materials, created by external companies and assembled on a single line. Absurdly expensive packaging, matte black heavy box with custom molded casing. High Quality IR camera, look up how much it costs to manufacture a GoPro. Tack on an xbox controller (probably not much but it adds) and this little guy again not much but its something. Comes from silicon valley. Results in a cost higher than you're expecting.

Vive: Manufactured with cheaper parts, cheaper materials, manufacturing lines that are owned by the company making it in freaking Taiwan. The lighthouses are just two motors, two lasers, LED board, single photodiode, power cable... they cost almost nothing to make. Controllers are a bit expensive but since they're ambidextrous they only need one set of molds. They don't need to subsidize development costs since that has already been handled for them. They don't need to subsidize software since thats already been done for them. All they have to do is what valve says and what their industrial designers say.

polypusher wrote:

They're first to market with no release dates announced by their competition.

About a month ago, HTC announced that the consumer version of the Vive is releasing in April.

I think that it's at this price point because of manufacturing logistics at the start. I expect that this price is going to go down by the end of the year. Early adopters always pick up the tab so to speak for the rest of us.

chiefsheep wrote:

Aaaaand I've just gone from potential early adopter to full "wait and see" mode.

Yup. I really thought I was going to be "that crazy guy who bought it on day one"... but I can't do it at that price. Not for a brand new piece of hardware (i.e. potential new-product manufacturing errors) that's not reviewed by the pros or tested by the masses. If everything works like it should, I'll probably get one by the end of the year, but that's too much, too early.

Hey, I've still got XCOM 2 though!

MeatMan wrote:
polypusher wrote:

They're first to market with no release dates announced by their competition.

About a month ago, HTC announced that the consumer version of the Vive is releasing in April.

Huh. Well HTC has the advantage now of not having announced a price. Maybe it was a game of chicken. I thought I had heard the Vive wouldnt be available until a nebulous late 2016 but I guess that was something else.

Damn. I really wanted to jump on this from the get go. Even upgraded my GPU in preparation. Just can't do it at that price. Given that price, I'd predict the controllers will probably add another $100. This is really going to hurt it's chances of mainstream VR acceptability.

It should include a VR demo of jumping off a diving board into a vault full of money.