Briefly: I found this quote thanks to this tweet. It’s from an AllThingsD interview with Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in 2013. (I get that things change, but…ouch.)
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20 responses to “Remember When $US600 Was Too Much For An Oculus?”
$1k+ is tooo much, anything up to $700 i’d buy without thinking..
Agreed. I think 600 – 700 I could see as viable for the device (AUS) but 1k+ is ridiculous, especially given the need to upgrade my system that would come with it.
You’re forgetting that at the time of the quote, USD and AUD were at parity.
I’m not forgetting anything and that comment was not made to the Australian consumer but to the American audience, so it’s moot and irrelevant.
I would actually consider dropping 1k on an oculus…. but having to upgrade my PC is just overkill for something that I don’t know will be the best thing ever. For now, I’m going to hold off and have a go at my friends who are ordering. If I can justify it then I’ll do an entire upgrade.
I actually think this is why PS:VR will thrive, it’ll be inferior but the thought of having the PS4 optimised and ready to go for it is very enticing…. I just wish one of these would work with XB1 and I’d be onboard now !
The full article is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150911024658/http://allthingsd.com/20130606/oculus-co-founders-luckey-and-mitchell-on-the-rifts-progress-price-and-limitations-qa-part-one/
lol oh damn…
This is what disturbs me most, before he became wealthy, he seemed to understand that the way for VR to be successful, was for it to be affordable in its first iteration, capture the mainstream, get the big userbase and then the developers would follow.
It didn’t have to be ‘the best’, it just had to be immersive and have the wow factor, which a sleeker looking DK2 could have done. They sold the DK2 for $350, they should have been aiming for a similar price for the retail product.
Coupled with his comments when the Facebook buyout happened, that it would be good for VR because it would allow them to “greatly lower the price of the rift“, it looks like along the way the money bath made him lose sight of his original goal.
http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-founder-palmer-luckey-facebook-buyout-reduce-price-oculus-rift/
I never bought the DK2 because i thought “hey its a development kit, when a product is fully released it’s not only an improvement but generally cheaper due to being able to figure out ways to reduce cost and streamline the entire process”…. should’ve bought a DK2 😛
From the same article:
Pepperidge farm remembers!
It needs mainstream support for developers to fully embrace it. A 2 to 3k system plus over a grand for the rift will mean only the affluent gamers can afford it. Hopefully the htc/steam solution will be more reasonable pricing wise. I was expecting 600 as a maximum for the rift and this is double that and I can’t believe that people will pre order it at that price without knowing too much about the support it will receive moving forward.
Well, the pre-order didn’t take any money, I think as the release date gets closer a bunch of people will pull out.
Specially after SONY drops the bomb on everybody. I think they are going to bring Jack Tretton out of retirement for this one.
I can picture it;
Somewhere in the Alpines, a helicopter lands,
“Sir, we need you to deliver this sentence at E3”
Prices like these are why I wait till things are mainstream and developed and buy it 3-4 years down the track.
Good thing it’s only $599 then? 😛
If it came with the haptic hand controller thingies then I probably be pretty happy with the price. But yeah $599 is what I will likely save for something more useful down the track.
Which reminds me, they have yet announce a price for those. When they do we have to pay tax and shipping again.
If HTC Vive undercuts them, or even matches that price, people are going to change some of those orders.
But, they are doing expensive tracking and including motion controllers. I can’t believe they both went for the high end and left mainstream wide open.
I will wait to see what the Sony version is like as i don’t have a good enough PC right now so it sounds better to me to just get Sony’s version for the PS4.
well as of today to get it in my hands its going to cost upwards of $1100 AUD, not to mention the controllers are extra.. considering i have 4 games compatible its just not worth paying hundreds of dollars extra just to experience the games in VR