Oculus announces aggressive price cuts for Rift and Touch

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

Getting into VR just got a whole lot cheaper — if the Oculus Rift is your thing, that is. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) today, Oculus announced a $100 price cut (opens in new tab) for both the Rift itself and the Oculus Touch controller, making the two bundled together a full $200 cheaper.

All told, you're now looking at a price of $598 for the Oculus Rift plus Touch bundle. The Rift and Touch by themselves now cost $499 and $99, respectively. In a blog post discussing the price drops, Oculus' Jason Rubin explained the move thusly:

Let's start with price. We've read all the stories and looked at the analyst reports. VR is going through the normal adoption cycle for new pieces of technology. We saw hype into launch, facing impossible expectations, and we will eventually break out with the "hockey stick" of mass adoption.Oculus believes, as do the thousands of original Kickstarter backers and millions of current users, that VR is the next computing platform. We also know that if there aren't major investments made to the ecosystem, it's going to take a really long time to reach that eventuality. So today, Oculus is aggressively making the high end of VR more attainable.

Ultimately, the new price points are much more enticing for anyone who was interested but still holding out. And as Rubin alludes to, Oculus' hand was kind of forced based on the fact that console VR — a less expensive prospect — is already outselling PCVR. Combined with a lower barrier to entry set by lower-cost VR-ready PCs now hitting the market, Oculus is hoping for a more accessible high-end VR experience.

In any case, if you've had your eye on an Oculus Rift setup, you can grab one now for a much cheaper price at Oculus, Best Buy, and other retailers.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

18 Comments
  • Purely coincidental this happened the same day WIndows Holographic dev kits are announced at GDC.
  • VR is not going to be as successful as they think. I really wouldn't want something strapped to my head like that for more than 30 min. Once they get the whole thing shrunk down to slightly bigger than a pair of glasses then it will get hugely popular.
  • the future is in 3D holography. No lens, no headsets, no cables
  • That's 30 years away at the earliest. It will be 10-20 years before we get glassless 3DTVs.
  • The same applies to gaming in general, though. What are many of the biggest gaming experiences for the masses? They're the 10-minute puzzle games. The mass market took to the Wii pretty well, but the users were probably not playing for long stretches, either. Size and weight will make this a shirt-term use, but those are easy to improve on (look at how tech has shrunk in revisions, like consoles).
  • Tempting but I'll probably sit this one out as well and get myself one once there's a bunch of AAA VR Games out there that also let me actually walk around in the Game like how it used to be the norm for like the past 20+ years or so... Might actually save some more bucks by then =)
  • I assume they are trying to shift as many as they can before Zenimax's wotsit comes into effect?
  • I don't want to be a naysayer, because it sucks to read others being negative about Windows Phone and all, but I don't see this really taking off. VR in general but Oculus in particular, and this whole first batch of bulky VR helmets. It's not there yet, software either. Games are mainly minigames or demos which suffer from the hardware limitations. Let's talk again in 5 years. Maybe 10.
  • Military (DCS) and civilian (FSX, P3D) are the current sweet spot, but lack of resolution is hurting current generation of VR.
  • As long as I see headlines like Games for Rift or Games for Vive, I will not buy a VR set. VR should be as universal as a LCD dispaly is today.
  • Then what do you think about xbox one, ps4, or switch exclusive? If the companies don't create their ecosystems in this case we'd have another android situation. Like samsung, which has struggled with its dependency on google play even though it has the largest market share. We are nearing a point, where hardware isn't all that different. Even though VR is in its infancy.
  • Hi. I actually tried a VR helmet back in cirka 2002 in an educational exhibition in northern Sweden (where I'm from). That thing was powered by SGI hardware as far as I know. The VR display inside the helmet was a low-resolution display of unknown type, probably LCD. It worked well, but the helmet was heavy (picture yourself inside an MC bike helmet - that's basically what it was). It had a long, very thick cord connected to some hardware that powered this system. Now, my point is: THAT was primitive, VR in its infancy. What we see today, about 15 years later, is mature in the sense that the hardware is not on a prototype level. It can handle games, they just are not available yet, and we have both Oculus and others with capable hardware available for consumers to buy: smartphones with VR, stand-alone and PC VR devices. Extremely fast hardware. I mean, at the time, my phone was not even a flip phone. It was a Nokia 3210 that could make calls, send/receive SMS texts and use custom monophonic ringtones. Having access to a supercomputing-phone with VR in your pocket was sci-fi.
    Today's VR is amazing in relative terms. However, I agree that it still needs more work. Many games still seem to be conceptual, but at the same time, more "real" games turn up every once in a while now. So, yeah: While VR is not in its infancy, I would say it has become a teenager, anxious to explore and not even close to being ready for adulthood for a long time.
  • This. This sums it up pretty good.
  • Agreed. This is like way back when some games supported a certain sound card or a certain video card. This is further proof that it's still too early in the future history of VR. This is the VHS vs Betamax, they should spare us this crap by now, come on.
  • Oculus will take off even more when its compatible with Scorpio.
  • Or something else will, more likely.
  • Bought a Rift on Saturday, just went in to Best Buy today and picked up my "free" touch controllers due to the price drop.  I've only had time to setup and try the touch demo, but this is all kinds of awesome! 
  • Is the Rift limited to it's own store, or does it allow the usage of vr enabled steam games as well? I'd love to try it at some point.