The Oculus Rift 'CV1' Consumer Edition
One of the key points for virtual reality is its relationship with the general public. Is the technology accessible to the masses? Is it affordable? At the same time those already within the industry have also been patiently waiting for a price point to come along. Now it appears we have our first solid indication as to what price Oculus are looking to set their Oculus Rift Consumer Version (CV1) head-mounted display (HMD).
Speaking at annual Code Conference of technology news portal Re/code, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe when questioned indicated that the cost to run the Oculus Rift would be ‘in the $1,500 (USD) range’. It should be clear that this included the computer needed to use the Oculus Rift not the HMD on its own, and that this was an ‘all-in price’.
Iribe later went on to say he hoped to see that price range would fall in time to possibly below $1,000. Assumedly as the technology becomes more widely produced and prices subsequently fall.
We will continue to bring you news on the Oculus Rift CV1 in the run up to it’s final consumer release.
Story originally written by the author for VRFocus.
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Huh. Dell offers a Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and Windows 8.1 for about $550. Add in a GTX 970 for, call it $330. That's around $900. Even if you bump up to an i7 CPU, it's maybe $730 for the desktop from Dell, so maybe $1100 or so for the PC.
That leaves the Rift CV at around $400. A little disappointing, but that's not a totally surprising figure.
It would be wise to wait a little. As it is now, VR looks to be an imperfect toy experience, especially on the Morpheus. The FOVE already looks to improve specs and will have eyetracking to boot, which will benefit VR a lot. Don't buy VR on impulse!
Although, do bear in mind that FOVE (as far as I know) has just passed the successful kickstarter stage. Product release could be a few years down the road, as they'd either need to partner with a largish manufacturing firm who are willing to take on the financial risk of production and retail, or they'd need very significant capital investment (venture capital or buyout by a company willing to bankroll production).
As with any early-adopter market, the longer you wait the better the solutions available (or, at least, more established), but you could be waiting a long time for the market to settle down.
It all comes down to how eager/well-off/foolish you are :)