Updated Oculus Rift Shipping Delayed Two Months, HTC Vive Head Promises Fulfillment Of April Pre-Orders (Update)

Update, 4/14/2016, 4:35 p.m PDT: Oculus released a statement regarding the shipping delays.

"The component shortage impacted our quantities more than we expected, and we've updated the shipment windows to reflect these changes. We apologize for the delay.

We're delivering Rifts to customers every day, and we're focused on getting Rifts out of the door as fast as we can. We've taken steps to address the component shortage, and we'll continue shipping in higher volumes each week. We've also increased our manufacturing capacity to allow us to deliver in higher quantities, faster. Many Rifts will ship less than four weeks from original estimates, and we hope to beat the new estimates we've provided."

The shipping troubles continue for Oculus and HTC as both companies seem to struggle with getting their VR HMDs to customers. Delayed shipping dates, or even the lack of a shipping confirmation for some of the earliest orders, are angering what should have been the first customers to receive the Rift or Vive.

A Two-Month Delay

Nearly two weeks ago, Oculus announced that customers would get new shipping estimates for their Rift orders due to “an unexpected component shortage,” and the updated information would arrive as early as April 12. However, the new shipping date was pushed back further than expected.

When I pre-ordered the Rift, the initial shipping date was set for May. With the component shortage issue, the updated shipping estimate meant that I would get my Rift anywhere between July 1-14, two full months later than expected.

Oculus tweeted that it was “addressing the component shortage and shipping Rifts as fast as we can,” and company founder Palmer Luckey backed up the statement in a response to another user on Twitter.

Where’s My Vive?

As for the HTC Vive, the main problem is with HTC’s “first in, first out” Vive order policy. Some customers, including some of our readers, placed orders in the first few minutes after the pre-order sales started. However, they have yet to receive any shipping details. Meanwhile, other customers, who placed orders later, were already getting their Vive shipments in the mail.

If you look at the Twitter account of HTC Vive head Daniel O’Brien, you’ll see his numerous interactions with other Vive customers with the same issue.

“Try to remember we are fulfilling in order by region,” he tweeted. “Adjustments made to ensure order [numbers are] checked and verified.”

Even with that assurance, there wasn’t a clear explanation as to why early customers were still waiting on their Vive orders. However, O’Brien did make a promise that all April pre-orders will arrive in that same month. He even went so far as to say that this week would be a “good week globally for our Vive customers.” One user replied that the fulfillment for all April pre-orders seemed impossible, to which O’Brien tweeted back, “Challenge accepted.”

Waiting

At this point, it’s simply a matter of waiting. We won’t know for quite some time if HTC does deliver (no pun intended) on its promise to ship all of its April pre-orders by the end of the month. Even if it does, most customers will still be angry that their early pre-orders didn’t mean anything, especially with the company’s “first in, first out” shipping policy.

Even then, at least Vive customers don’t have to deal with any component shortages. Those who pre-ordered a Rift will have to wait an additional two months to get their Rift HMD. Either way, these developments are the latest indication that the launch of the two biggest VR companies aren’t going according to plan.

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  • waxdart
    I don't want the first ones as they are still trying to get production right and the wait means one of the next next gen graphic cards may have just come out. If you have to update your whole rig for one of these things like I have to the more faster better bits the better.
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    Just got my physical HTC Vive yesterday. Works great!
    Got a notice from Oculus that my order is delayed to the middle of July!
    Both orders were placed seconds after golive.
    I have also seen more news on here and other places that Oculus is researching "social" type content and design.
    ebay prices: I have watched 4 auctions to completion. 2 vive and 2 oculus. Vives went for $2000+. Oculus CV1 autions went for around $1400.
    I think it is time to cancel the Oculus.
    Reply
  • Brandon_29
    I did exactly that. I placed my Vive order about 6 minutes after it went live. My rift pre-order was about 2 hours. After getting the late june response email from oculus I sent them one back and said keep it. I was planning on keeping both, but why wait that much longer for inferior tech. It may be more comfortable, but it is lacking the interactive component and that is critical to making VR different.
    Reply
  • zambutu
    The big conspiracy is that Oculus was supposed to have been stockpiling units since last October or so. So the belief is that they found a defect they don't want to admit to and now have to re-manufacture/repair. Calling a 'defect' a 'component shortage' is technically correct...I guess, but also very slimy.
    Reply
  • falchard
    The main thing the Oculus had going for it was that it would be the first onto the market. They don't have that anymore so their market viability is questionable.
    Reply
  • all rights reserved
    I've been waiting for my vive for a while and have been promised it will arrive in April, I accept there has been a misunderstanding as I was expecting it on or near the 5th of April. What is the consequence if I don't receive my vive before the 29th? compensation?
    Reply
  • Biscuit42
    In other words -- Oculus doesn't know how to run a supply chain and product rollout.

    That's like, Manufacturing 101.
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    May, June, July Rift shipments are not affected at all by the delay.. The delay was only the March and April Customers. I was originally a March 28th customer and got my rift on april 11th.

    The component shortage was the Xbox One Controllers and Wireless PC Adapter. Several high ups at Oculus have denied that microsoft is to blame, but a bunch of us on reddit can confirm that the xbox controller components were indeed the reason for the delay. Many users got controllers with small defects, like scuff's and scratches.

    Microsoft produces these controllers and adapters at a very slow pace because they dont want to pay for storage and warehouse fees.. Xbox controller sales are a very predictable market, so Microsoft only produces maybe 115% of what they sell. So when the Oculus went on sale and sold 500K units in the first week, this caused a huge problem. The initial batch of xbox one controllers and adapters that was reserved for the Rift, did not materialize and show up on oculus's front door. So now oculus is frantically acquiring these controllers/adapters anywhere they can get them, until Microsoft can ramp up production.

    The Xbox PC Wireless adapter had even lower volume, so i'm betting its the main reason. Very few adapters are sold compared to controllers.

    With VIVE, they just messed up due to crappy programmers not coding a pre-order system right.
    Reply
  • agentbb007
    I got my Rift on Monday, it's the first time I've used VR and admit I was blown away by how realistic it feels. My favorite thing has been the Showdown cinematic demo released by Epic Games. It's has an amazingly high resolution that just makes it look awesome.
    But with that said everyone who hasn't got theirs yet isn't really missing out. Firstly there are a lot of bugs and more polishing that needs to happen on the software side of things. My Rift has tendency to start stuttering like crazy and instantly makes me sick. The only way to fix the stuttering is to completely restart my PC and I'm running i7-6700k with 2 Titan X's so my PC is not slow. The other thing is the games that are available seem really expensive for what you get. Most of these games should be like $10.
    So in a way people who don't have theirs yet might be good for them since us early adopters get to help beta test the software and improve it.
    Reply
  • computerguy72
    The component shortage was the Xbox One Controllers and Wireless PC Adapter.
    That wasn't the reason for the shortage. A scratch on a few peoples wireless adapter is rather meaningless, evidence of nothing, I mean seriously. People had scratches on some of their rifts too when delivered. It was one of the other custom components. Multiple official and unofficial sources at MS and OVR deny it too as you pointed out. It will come out at some point what part it was but the controllers wasn't it.
    Reply