It’s difficult to watch the endless Oculus Rift videos without a tinge of envy — it’s not an experience most of us can have yet. Once it releases, the developers are aiming for a $US300 pricepoint — which also makes the headset inaccessible to many people. That may not always be the case according to Edge.
Speaking to the developers of the virtual reality headset, Edge discovered that the developers would love to one day just give the headset away for free.
“The lower the price point, the wider the audience,” CEO Brendan Iribe stated. “We have all kinds of fantasy ideas. We’d love it to be free one day, so how do we get it as close to free as possible? Obviously it won’t be that in the beginning. We’re targeting the $US300 price point right now but there’s the potential that it could get much less expensive with a few different relationships and strategies.
“You can imagine if Microsoft and Sony can go out and subsidise consoles because there’s enough money to be made on software and other areas, then there’s the potential that this, in partnership, could get subsidised. Let’s say there was some game you played in VR that everybody loved and everybody played and we made $US100 a month — or even $US10 a month — at some point the hardware’s cheap enough and we’re making enough that we could be giving away the headset. We’re not there yet, but we’re sitting there thinking all the time, how can we make this free?”
Obviously, all of this might be nothing more than a fantasy — or if it’s possible, it won’t be something we get to enjoy just yet. Still, it’s encouraging to hear that one of the most exciting developments in gaming right now may also be one of the most accessible experiences too.
Comments
17 responses to “The Oculus Rift Headset Might Be Free One Day”
Alas will never happen.
i feel happy and confident to pay aroun $300 for one of these bad boys,
once this device is finished, im 100% set on buying one, but gotta wait till more of the bugs are ironed out 😛
So what systems support this?
PC at this point.
The only system that matters 😛
I spend 8-10 hours a day on a PC….like hell I’m gonna come home and game on a PC………give me my 65in home theatre, comfy couch and a console any day.
65in oculas rift on your head? with headphones?
Sounds good
It would be awesome if Valve were to make a deal with Oculus and release a Steam Box: VR edition.
Call me a skeptic, but too much of this reminds me of the VR craze of 92-93. Same hype, same revolutionary promises, similar dicky looking headset……I could be wrong, but my gut tells me otherwise.
Except today’s tech actually allows for the ideas to actually happen, unlike the primitive VR headsets of yesteryear.
Go watch some some reaction videos on YouTube. When everyone from John Carmack, to Jamie Hyneman to people’s grandmas are impressed by their experience with the Rift, you gotta think there’s something special here.
I didn’t know Karl Pilkington was into games.
I could see it being bundled in with high-end graphics cards, but probably not for free.
Where do you get that the developers are going for a $300 price point? By all accounts, they are going for a lower-than-current-devkit-price point.. and since the current devkit price is $300.. that would be lower than $300, wouldn’t it?
Well if they WANT to give away free versions, I’m not going to say no…
It badly needs positional tracking. In order for them to come up with the complete solution they will have to bundle it with a few other peripherals on PC.
If everyone uses their own brand positional tracking, VR is going to have a very hard time. They’ll probably go for a bundle.
………give me my 65in home theatre, comfy couch and a console any day.
Why do console gamers always assume PC gamers, game at a desk? (apologies in advance if no such assumption was being made).
I PC game on my comfy couch with my 65in home theatre constantly. I have my keyboard and mouse on one of those mini/travelling ironing-boards, on my lap (often with my legs folded under me). It’s very comfy. My beer even sits nicely on the arm of the couch!!
I can’t remember the last time I gamed on PC at an actual desk?
Anyone else do the same??