Oculus Rift arrives in March (yay), but it'll cost you £499 (boo)

The headset ain't cheap, but Oculus VR CEO insists it's, "obscenely cheap for what it is."

After much speculation, Oculus VR has finally pulled the curtain off its final price for the commercial version of Oculus Rift and, to no one's surprise, it's not a cheap investment. The rift will set you back a tasty £499 here in the UK and will arrive in stores in waves, with the first scheduled for March and the second a month later in April.

Social media lit up almost immediately, dismay and disgust pouring forth in less than 140 characters, but that didn't stop the first wave of Rifts selling out just like that. For those that do get their hands on a full version, you get the Oculus Rift VR headset, sensors, an Oculus Remote, an Xbox One controller (the official Oculus controllers aren't due out until later in the year and will reportedly cost an additional $100) and copies of EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale.


That is an expensive investment for early adopters (unless of course you're one of those lucky few that pre-ordered the headset during its very first Kickstarter, who will be receiving a free copy in the post in the near future), but considering the potential the technology holds (and the fact Rift represents the top-end of the VR wave) and the price tag doesn't seem so shocking.

And for those sure that Oculus VR are about to sit back, break out the champers and watch the dollar roll in, company CEO Palmer Luckey took to Twitter to dispel the myth, stating: "To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware. High VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is." Well, should the Rift sell out its second and subsequent, we imagine it won't be long before the firm starts making its investment back.

Now that the Oculus Rift entry price has been revealed, attention now turns to Sony's PlayStation VR headset. A key obstacle for Rift is attracting mainstream adopters, but considering users will need to own a PC with the power to even run its VR experience adds a heavy phantom price tag on top of that £499. For PlayStation VR, being able to plug into a console selling as many units as PlayStation 4 is a huge advantage - question is, will Sony do an E3 1995 and undercut Rift with a more attractive entry level price? Let the battle begin...

Source: Oculus

For all the latest news, updates and hands-on previews from CES 2016, T3 has you covered.