This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of use.

VR-Feature

In the wake of Oculus' conclusion to cut the cost of the Oculus Rift with controllers to $400, there's been some worry that this move indicates a major new platform update is imminent. It'south not a crazy idea — plenty of companies, from automobile dealerships to CPU and sometimes even GPU manufacturers will cut prices to clear inventory and make room for upcoming models. In Oculus' example, still, that doesn't seem to be what'southward happening.

Now, Facebook executives threw common cold water on the idea of an upcoming new product generation from multiple angles. In an interview with CNET, Facebook's Jason Rubin, caput of content and marketing for Oculus VR as well as being the creator of both Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter series, stated: "Someone who buys a Rift today has years of enjoyment in front of them."

While Nate Mitchell (co-founder of Oculus) and Rubin gave neither Rift sales figures nor a launch date for a futurity Oculus Rift two.0, they stated they believed the electric current unit is more than enough to drive VR into the true mainstream. They also talked about having more channels available to players to help them find people to game with, though that appears to be something the team has discussed as opposed to starting to implement.

Last calendar week, Facebook stated that after the Summer of Rift sale ends, the Rift will get another price cut, this time permanently, to $499. The new bundle won't include an Xbox controller, but packs Oculus' Touch controllers instead.

The strongest evidence that Rift won't get an update presently came during a conversation well-nigh eye tracking, wireless gear, and other ideas that might help take VR into the mainstream market. Asked about when we might see cutting-border technology integrated into the existing Rift or specified for Rift 2.0, Rubin stated:

Rift does not take eye-tracking. Rift might add together some sort of wireless that can be a peripheral. Heart-tracking is more fundamental, equally would exist inside-out tracking, because Rift doesn't have a camera system inside. So if Rift is going to exist around for a while, that tells you something well-nigh how long we experience it'due south going to take for those things to go integrated and part of a full release.

I desire to be clear: we are dropping the price to get more people in Rifts considering nosotros expect the next years to be very Rift-focused and Rift-centric.

To respond your question nigh all these other technologies: People should not hold their breath and look, information technology'south not coming in a minute.

We should exist able to run across whether the Summer of Rift kicked off a buying bonanza equally soon as Steam Hardware Survey data is available for July. In the meantime, you still have a few weeks to option up the Rift for $400, but it'll still be bachelor for $500 (as opposed to $800 half dozen months ago) if you tin't quite save enough to hit that window.

It'll be very interesting to see if HTC's Vive follows this pattern. If Oculus plans to keep a $500 cost point with its existing engineering, there may be room for a Vive 2 with upgraded visual capabilities and ameliorate controls — provided Vive can evangelize them for something less than $800. When Vive was $800 and Oculus was $600 just lacked handheld controllers, a number of reviewers argued for the Vive for that reason alone. Now that the Rift is $400 ($500 in a few weeks) with touch controllers, while the HTC Vive is still $800, HTC has finer lost the advantage it had. If it doesn't cut prices or release a dramatically improved system soon, it won't stay in the pole position of VR adoption.

525520-oculus-touch

Oculus Touch on controllers.

Now, are these comments proof that at that place's no Rift refresh coming? Of class not. This would scarcely exist the first time a company has promised ane thing simply done another. But on balance, it seems Rubin and Mitchell are beingness honest on this ane. The concluding twelvemonth did a lot of damage to Oculus' reputation, some deserved, some not. Either way, the worst thing Facebook could practise is launch a new headset when people so recently spent $400 to $800 on a new one.

Getting VR systems into more than homes, by lowering the cost and barriers to entry, is far more than important than updating the specs and raising the price on hardware that but a fraction of a percent of gamers own. Once VR headsets striking $200, with accompanying GPUs driving them at the aforementioned price bespeak, we'll start to meet a lot more move towards VR. At least, we'll find out if price drops are the right impetus to encourage people to hop over the other barriers to entry and buy into the VR ecosystem.

Now read: The All-time VR Headsets and Accessories