The Oculus Rift is looking like an extremely expensive prospect for the future of gaming. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stated that he believes that the Oculus Rift will cost over $350 (about RM1500), mainly to ensure that there are no compromises made on the hardware.
Luckey told RoadToVR.com that the price of the Oculus Rift is “roughly in that ballpark … but it’s going to cost more than that.” The consumer release of the Rift will apparently have more technology than the currently available DK1 and DK2. Luckey did not explain what kind of technology this would be, but it does not appear to include the Touch controllers that were previewed at E3 and Gamescom earlier this year.
Oculus has also been working on the Samsung Gear VR, which has made its debut at a much more affordable $99 (about RM430); although the device does not include the smartphone needed to make it work. The competition from Valve and HTC, who have joined forced to make the HTC Vive, have not announced any pricing yet; although it has made it clear that the Vive will ship with its own controller.
At the moment, Oculus has a slight advantage over the competition as it will hit the market first. That is not to say that this will mean much if the asking price is so absurdly high. The Oculus Rift is scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2016, which isn’t too far off at this point.
[Source: Ars Technica]
