Oculus Rift Bundles to be available for preorder this Tuesday Feb 16th at 8am PST, stocks expected to go fast
It’s been announced that Amazon and Best Buy will have Oculus Rift Bundles available for pre order on Tuesday, Feb 16th. That’s just in a few hours, depending on when you read this.
Sources have stated that Amazon won’t have much stock, and these will most likely get sold out very fast. Last time Oculus did a preorder event, their website crashed due to the traffic. I’d refresh the Amazon/Best Buy pages pretty much continuously starting at 7:55 if I badly wanted one.
The bundles will have the Oculus rift (duh), an Xbox One wireless controller, the “constellation” sensor, as well as a PC that’s guaranteed to meet the Oculus rift performance requirements. Specifically, Oculus say:
These PCs have been battle tested and certified by Oculus to deliver an incredible Rift experience.
The prices of the bundles apparently range from $1500 to $2200. It’s unclear at this point if it will be possible to get the Oculus Rift alone as part of this sale, but I’m gonna guess the answer is no.
This might be a good deal if you badly want an oculus rift and were looking for a new PC to match it. On the other hand some sites are saying that the deal is focused on a partnership with NVidia, and that it might be doable to get similar performance with cheaper GPUs from Radeon. That is, assuming you’re willing to wait for the Rift to be available for preorders again…
I recently saw gameplay videos of EVE Valkyrie (see below), and I must say I’m much more enthusiastic about VR now, after seeing those vids. I’ll probably wait for Sony’s Playstation VR (Morpheus), but I have to admit the Oculus and other VR headsets now look really appealing to me.
Are you jumping on the VR bandwagon? Will you go with Oculus, Playstation VR, or something else?
You can check the Amazon Oculus sales page Here for the sale.
disclaimer: Amazon links in the article are affiliate links. if you’re one of the lucky few who actually get the device, and you use our links for it, you don’t pay anything extra but we get a small commission for the sale.
Ok, since they come with the Rift, the prices aren’t actually bad compared to building your own. They’re actually probably pretty good price-wise (though obviously still expensive). I do wonder how well the 970 (3.5 GB) will do with VR games though. Also surprised to see how low the clock speeds are on i5’s compared to i7’s, but I hadn’t been paying attention to them really. The first 2 ASUSes have some interesting trade-offs to consider I guess. I realize this is already a thing that is going to have to happen for early adopters, but you’re gonna have to lower settings for a good VR framerate at what is it? dual HD? or is it quad? Especially on the 970. That’s why a lot of games built for VR don’t have high detail graphics. But of course you can take VR into modified versions of already existing games. You’re just gonna have to really turn down the settings for some perhaps.
True about the clockspeeds, my i5 4670k shipped with 3.5ghz or so.
But in general i dont see a good reason to use an i7 solely for gaming, since the performance gain is usualy negligible compared to the price difference.
“That is, assuming you’re willing to wait for the Rift to be available for preorders again…”
The Rift has always been available for preorder since early January and is still available. Estimated shipping date is pushed until July, however. I already ordered mine. April can’t get here soon enough!
Those prices actually ain’t bad at all for what you get considering the oculus alone is worth about $600 usd
I’m eager to own a VR heatset and there were opportunities where I could try them out but missed it. I’d probably wait till the Playstation VR comes out and grab it. It’ll be a stand alone addon to my PS4.
Apparently there’s suppose to be a touch controller which will be released later on. Not at launch.
I won’t be jumping on the VR bandwagon, at least not anytime soon. Its far too early to tell if it will be just another short-lived gimmick or if it has a more permanent place in the gaming world. With so many models coming out, the community is doomed to be divided, especially with the current prices.
When using a phone for VR, I wonder if the system requirements for a computer is still this high. Surely a Samsung Edge is far more powerful than the Oculus and therefore my R9 270x can play VR just fine if I had the phone setup, right? If not then the investment for this tech is far too high and should just be left to wealthier people.
I don’t think you quite understand how it works, your 270x is a rebranded 7870 which is so enormously far from meeting the minimum requirements for VR and having your phone setup anyway is irrelevant it is all about the intensity and complexity of what you are trying to push, I.e resolution, aa, etc.
Sound like they are forcing you to buy something you dont want for something you want. If is it the case I’m disapointed for their choice of sell.
Well to be honest I’m not the youngest gamer out there and I remember how many times that movies and games have tried to shill 3D and VR on us. Problem is, because of the limitations and often the expense it never takes off.
The reason behind the relative failure of 3D is that you need special glasses, so straight away not ideal for people who already wear regular glasses, and that the effect can easily cause headaches. Even when Nintendo did glasses-free 3D on the 3DS it still came across as a gimmick and most gamers don’t use it anyway.
The reason behind the relative failure of VR before was the same but worse – it’s not just a pair of headache-inducing glasses, it’s a bulky headset plus the barrier to entry is higher because of the expense. This in my opinion is a fundamental flaw with VR that cannot be changed – after all you’re still using a controller, just rather than kicking back looking at the game on your TV it’s inches away from your eyes you’re getting neck cramp and eye fatigue much more easily.
What would be more interesting is augmented reality like we’re seeing in the early stages with the Microsoft HoloLens, not requiring glasses or a headset and just overlaying true 3D holograms instead. Much more difficult to pull off but that much better for the end user experience. There’s a reason it used to be a sci-fi trope well-demonstrated in Minority Report – because it’s the most logical step forward from 2D to 3D.
If you’re unsure, go ask your friends or family who own a 3DTV, if any do. Ask them how much they used the 3D function when they bought it, and how much they use it now. My guess for the answer would be “barely ever”, reflected in the reduction of new 3D content being released. In fact in the UK the Sky 3D channel closed down last year due to lack of interest I believe, and Sky relegated it to on-demand only. People don’t wanna wear sunglasses to watch TV.
To clarify, I’m aware you still require a headset (less instrusive than a full VR headset of course) with HoloLens, which is why I used the phrase “early stages” – the real trick is going to be moving beyond those early stages and doing it without glasses/headset.
You have some great points, but I think VR is different from 3D on a flat display. The ability to look around in every direction is different from a single camera angle with depth projection. The immersion will be beyond anything we’ve experienced. The reason “VR” has failed in the past is because it was fake. The technology wasn’t there to bring us into a fully 3D environment with 360-degree perspective.
That being said, I don’t think VR is going to change TV, at least not for a long time. As you mentioned, people don’t want to wear goggles/glasses/a freaking helmet to watch TV. It’s also often a communal experience shared with multiple people, which would be very cost-prohibitive for most people.
Gaming is a slightly different story, where there are already large masses of people who have invested in high-tech PCs in order to play the latest and greatest. There is a consumer-base for expensive gaming devices as long as the product delivers what the user wants. Whether or not Oculus will do that, however, is yet to be seen… I wouldn’t want to take my chances at this point, because it’s really not clear which VR device(s) will take over and which will blow over. But I fully believe that the technology is at a place now where an exceptional VR experience is doable, and even relatively affordable. (*E.g. Wealthy individuals can adopt it early, but the main bulk of the users will wait a few years.) One or more of them will prevail, and VR will have a lasting place in the gaming world – but make no mistake, 2D isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Yeah, I have played Descent and Whiplash in VR back in the DOS time. (stand alone device)
Then I played Mechwarrior and some others in win95 (bundle with graphic card… dedicated connector in the board) and the force feedback joystick.
While it was an impressive experience, the support for these devices always decays rapidly, so I have a lot of impressive gear just gathering dust.
I would play these games again now and then, but having to connect an old pc and put all the gear in place (and dusting it off) is a pain.
OK head trackin is a plus.. but I think that the cycle will repeat just once more…
Hate to be a spoil sport. but someone has to say it. If you go down the VR route, consider that neurologically, it will change you. I would want to know the nature of reality first personally.
Change you neurologically in what way exactly?
Didn’t realize there were scientific studies done on this already with concrete proof of what you’re stating, mind posting them?
I have his source right here in my hands. It’s called The Matrix. Stunning documentary.
ARE YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME!!!!???????????? EVERY FRIGGING SINGLE ONE SOLD OUT!!!!????????
Every bundle is currently unavailable, sold out really fast.
Oh, the hype train…
Yep, that’s right, all sold out on the day they were available. Museums worldwide are stocking up early it seems… 😉