Oculus Touch Controller Delayed To Second Half Of 2016
In addition to its Rift HMD, Oculus continues to work on the Touch, the VR controller it initially revealed earlier this year. You would expect the two devices to come out at the same time in the Q1 2016 release window, but Oculus delivered some bad news: The controller is delayed, with a new release date set for the “second half of 2016.”
The company didn’t provide any specific reason for the delay, stating only that it will need more time in the pursuit of “perfecting Touch.” However, Oculus did share a few details on the controller’s overall progress. In the past few months, there were improvements to ergonomics as well as other changes to make it “more comfortable, reliable, and natural.” At the moment, developers are working on more changes, specifically with the hand pose recognition software.
The extra time also gives Oculus the ability to create more pre-production versions of the Touch for developers. This allows ample time to not only integrate Touch controller support on various VR games, but Oculus also gets feedback from developers on how to further improve controller functionality.
Unlike Touch, the Rift is still on schedule for a Q1 2016 release. Pre-orders for the Rift will start “very soon,” whereas Touch pre-orders start a few months before an exact release date is confirmed.
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Rexly Peñaflorida is a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering topics such as computer hardware, video games, and general technology news.
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dstarr3 Reply17235698 said:I'm just dying to know what this thing will cost.
Probably a kidney
Good thing I've got two! -
photonboy I'd guess $150 to $200USD.Reply
Money for this will mostly be made on the software side so they want widescale adoption. On the other hand there's probably a high initial cost until manufacturing scales up, plus a lot of people will plunk down the cash even if priced really high.
My guess as it stands now is:
$350 to $450 (Oculus Rift)
$150 to $200 (Touch controllers)
Maybe later this year a kit for "only" $500? -
uglyduckling81 You're dreaming if you think they will launch for under $400. If guess closer to $800 given aGear VR which is just a phone holding device costs $100 is the US and $190 in Australia. Im expecting Oculus to be over $1k in AU.Reply -
photonboy Reply17253837 said:You're dreaming if you think they will launch for under $400. If guess closer to $800 given aGear VR which is just a phone holding device costs $100 is the US and $190 in Australia. Im expecting Oculus to be over $1k in AU.
http://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-rift-price/
So earlier they estimated "$200 to $400" then updated that to "at least $300" so I think it's pretty easy to make a rough estimate based on that.
It's obvious they want to keep the price as low as possible. Like gaming consoles, they want to make money on the software side of things. -
uglyduckling81 Reply17268858 said:17253837 said:You're dreaming if you think they will launch for under $400. If guess closer to $800 given aGear VR which is just a phone holding device costs $100 is the US and $190 in Australia. Im expecting Oculus to be over $1k in AU.
http://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-rift-price/
So earlier they estimated "$200 to $400" then updated that to "at least $300" so I think it's pretty easy to make a rough estimate based on that.
It's obvious they want to keep the price as low as possible. Like gaming consoles, they want to make money on the software side of things.
Yeah but the pre release sales happened last night and they unit is about $800 US or around $1100AU, exactly like I thought it would be.