Oculus Rift Could Have Subsidized Cost, Maybe Free
“The lower the price point, the wider the audience,” Iribe told the magazine. “We have all kinds of fantasy ideas. We’d love it to be free one day, so how do we get it as close to free as possible? Obviously it won’t be that in the beginning. We’re targeting the $300 price point right now but there’s the potential that it could get much less expensive with a few different relationships and strategies."
One of those strategies could be a subsidized structure where customers would pay a small fee up front and make payments on the device over the course of one or two years. That would help offset the total cost for customers who can't afford $300 up front. It would also mean a wider audience for Oculus VR and the developers supporting the Rift specs.
"You can imagine if Microsoft and Sony can go out and subsidize consoles because there’s enough money to be made on software and other areas, then there’s the potential that this, in partnership, could get subsidized," he said. "Let’s say there was some game you played in VR that everybody loved and everybody played and we made $100 a month – or even $10 a month – at some point the hardware’s cheap enough and we’re making enough that we could be giving away the headset."
Right now the Oculus Rift is only available as a $300 dev kit, and so far it's unclear how the VR headset will be offered to consumers when it launches next year. That means the team still has plenty of time to toss around ideas on how to get Rift into the hands of as many gamers as possible.
"We’re not there yet, but we’re sitting there thinking all the time, how can we make this free? You want everybody to play it and the cheaper it is, the more people are going to go out and buy it," he said.
Free is good, but the $300 price tag is worth every penny in my book.
I wish microsoft and sony are like this
I think the end goal should be the widest platform support, this will drive up the size of audience and then bring down cost. If the Rift 10 years from now is a $50 peripheral for PC's and Consoles it will be cheep enough to be a mass market product.
When they say subsidize, it means that someone else is paying for the Rift. For a model like that to work, the Rift has to generate sales somewhere else to off set that cost.
Sony lost $1 billon a year when the PS3 was released to reduce its cost, because they knew in the long run it would help them win the HD format war (blueray vs HD DVD) and they would make that money back later in hardware licensing and media sales.
Still wish it was faster refresh that it was but overall going to be sweet for the masses and I'll use it till my migraine triggers. (I have visual sensitivities and migraines at 60Hz after 30-40 minutes, special setups of 120Hz or more to prevent it. IF they did that, I'd do $300, even at their current lower resolution, without question, no problem.).
I really really want to get my grubby little hands on this.
This is a work in progress, but I think the focus should be on size and weight, more so than price.
If someone cant afford the 300 bucks the stupidest thing to do is stick it on a credit card, the final cost will be much more than just $300. Silly idea
I completely agree. The problem is that there is one thing even stupider. Getting financing from the person selling you the item. Do the calculations. You think 20% interest from the credit card company is bad? Seller supplied financing is often much worse.
The problem is not just the insane interest. The problem is that often times when enough customers take the financing all customers pay for it whether they pay full price or not. My example was cell phone plans. for example, Verizon charges all post-pay customers for financing (through inflated rates) whether they buy a subsidized phone or not. This drives the total cost of ownership up for all customers. Yes, prepaid options exist, but because carriers make less money on prepaid so they discourage it through a variety of means.
Another example is ink jet printers. Most manufacturer's sell the printer near or below cost. They then make the money back in ink. There is not usually a good way to pay full price for the printer and then pay less for ink (without going to a different technology such as laser printing.) This drives the total cost of ownership up for all customers. Yes, you can buy remanufactured ink cartages or refill your own, but there are other draw backs to both of these options.
In other words, I don't think it is the place of the seller or manufacturer to offer financing. Let a separate financing company do that. Those who can't get their act together to save most likely won't look for a good low interest loan. That is why I mentioned credit cards. They are even easier than seller supplied financing.
Jailbreak what?
Now... 300 dollars is not a toy for kids, but then again, this is not a toy anymore.
If its 50% as good as the creators and game devs claim it is, Im getting it even if i have to save up cash for 6 months.
Id say that If the product is very good, price comes secondary, becosue you either can afford it or you cant (taking all options into this).