Oculus Rift Goes On Sale; Virtual Reality Headset Costs $599

By Lynn Palec, | January 07, 2016

Top VR headsets generating maximum heat so far are HTC's Vive, Facebook's Oculus Rift and Sony's PlayStation VR.

Top VR headsets generating maximum heat so far are HTC's Vive, Facebook's Oculus Rift and Sony's PlayStation VR.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset finally goes on sale after it was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016. Oculus VR, the Facebook-owned virtual reality startup, announced on Wednesday that the virtual reality headset will cost $599.

Oculus VR is the first major company to release a consumer-grade virtual reality headset into the market. According to BBC, the company edged out the HTC Vive whose supposed December 2015 release was rescheduled to April this year and the Sony PlayStation VR is expected to hit the market within the first quarter of 2016.

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While it is an exciting news to hear that a virtual reality headset is already up for grabs, some experts are somewhat skeptical whether the device will sell especially with the price tag that it is carrying. Oculus VR previously announced that the company is expecting the gaming community to be the first batch of customers to purchase the headset.

However, some gamers said that they are expecting the Oculus Rift price tag to be somewhere around $350 in order for it to appeal to a bigger audience. Market experts believe that the high price tag will cause some price-conscious gamers to skip the Oculus Rift for now and wait for other products to hit the market, expecting that competition will cause the headset's price to fall.

A significant portion of the gaming community was frustrated with the price tag of the Rift despite the fact that Facebook and Oculus had hinted in the past how much the device will cost once it hits the market.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said that the first batch of Rift will be more expensive since they are produced in limited quantities. The first batch of the Rift also sports high-end components that are not heavily subsidized.

On the other hand, the release of the highly-anticipated HTC Vive was postponed to April. According to the Los Angeles Times, HTC can use the remaining months to decide how much its virtual reality gear will cost now that the price of the Oculus Rift is revealed.

Market analysts are positive that the upcoming Sony PlayStation VR is most likely to end up as the most affordable device of the three since it is more of an add-on gear for millions of PlayStation gaming consoles rather than a stand-along device.

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