Oculus Rift Will Be Affordable For Nearly Everyone
Pretty much everyone will be able to afford Oculus Rift.
In a recent interview, Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey said that the company isn't looking to create a rich person's toy, nor are they looking to create a research tool. The team is striving to create a consumer VR headset that "pretty much" anyone can afford. That's certainly good news for gamers waiting patiently for the headset to make a commercial debut.
"You can't sell an expensive piece of hardware and expect tons of content to show up," he said in an interview. "We're not doing market research around what's the breaking point for people to buy a VR headset; we're just trying to sell it as cheap as we can while still existing as a company."
Right now developers are spending $300 for an Oculus Rift kit. He said that the company isn't in a comfortable point where they can just hand out the hardware to developers for free. Instead Oculus VR is working with developers to produce content, such as EVE Valkyrie.
"We're co-publishing EVE Valkyrie and we're working with a lot of other publishers, and big and very small indies. When very interesting VR software comes up, very often we end up talking to the people. And some of those people may end up with similar deals to the EVE Valkyrie deal where we'll work with them to publish their game because it's hard to get funding for a VR game right now," he said.
Check out our time with Oculus Rift and EVE Valkyrie at CES 2014 here.
The challenge is to make a game that is fully immersive. He indicated that there's no real challenge for devs on the technical side, as the team has tried to make the technical aspect as easy as possible, especially when using the Unreal and Unity gaming engines, which are compatible with the Oculus Rift.
"We don't want developers to have to understand the technical complexities of sensor fusion or motion tracking or stereoscopic 3D rendering," he said. "We want them to be able to focus more on designing a good VR game."
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Oculus VR may have captured the heart of one of the most legendary game developers of all time: John Carmack, the former engine master behind id Software.
Read more: id Software's Loss Was Oculus VR's Gain: Why Carmack Left
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Brainaic ''He said that the company isn't in a comfortable point where they can just hand out the hardware to developers for free''TRANSLATION''We have some money, but we need more.Reply -
Stimpack Glad to hear that they're still sticking with affordability. More expensive models can come out after the device has reached a wide audience. Now is the time for cultivation.Reply -
coolitic The reason I wont buy it is not going to be the price but rather that it's too invasive.Reply -
realibrad Reply''He said that the company isn't in a comfortable point where they can just hand out the hardware to developers for free''TRANSLATION''We have some money, but we need more.
Yeah, I dont understand why companies need money. I mean, the world would be much better off if everything were free. We should sue the earth for not making its resources free to us. -
RCguitarist ReplyThe reason I wont buy it is not going to be the price but rather that it's too invasive.
Huh? Please explain. -
rad666 ReplyThe reason I wont buy it is not going to be the price but rather that it's too invasive.
I won't buy it because it will probably give me migraines like 3D movies do. -
anathema_forever I like the sound of we aren't trying to gouge or customers for as much as we can get away with.Reply -
Datcu Alexandru I won't buy it for one reason and one alone. I wear glasses and it sucks to wear something over them unless it is specially made.Reply -
brianorca Reply
Some of that problem comes from the ghosting from the less than perfect glasses used to view 3D movies, and some from the reduced light level. Occulus is supposed to bypass many of these (and other) issues, so I hope you don't totally dismiss it. But I understand reluctance to try "yet another 3D system" if you've had trouble in the past.The reason I wont buy it is not going to be the price but rather that it's too invasive.
I won't buy it because it will probably give me migraines like 3D movies do.