WE’LL VIRTUALIZE IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE: Oculus Rift slashes prices for second time in four months.
The harsh reality for Facebook-owned Oculus is that sales of its premium Rift virtual reality headsets have not taken off. Will a second price drop for the Rift in just over four months make a difference?
On Monday, Oculus announced this latest drop, a six-week “Summer of Rift” promotion in which the combined price of Rift headgear and its optional Touch hand controllers falls to $399, down from the previous combined price of $598. Oculus vice president of content Jason Rubin says Oculus is trying to “prime the pump and make sure there’s plenty of people coming to VR.”
In early March Oculus lowered the Rift-Touch combination from $798 to $598.
“It doesn’t appear the (initial) Rift price drop has made a big difference, but the first half of the year tends to be pretty slow in gaming at least,” says Lewis Ward, IDC’s research director, for gaming and VR/AR. According to “preliminary” worldwide data from IDC, consumers have bought about 520,000 Rifts through the first half 2017, compared to 1.6 million units for the rival Sony’s PlayStation VR system and 770,000 for the HTC Vive system.
Rubin insists Oculus is not holding a fire sale. He explains that the new promotion “is really about building that ecosystem of users.”
Until virtual reality doesn’t require a massive device strapped to your face, and even its own room, it’s going to remain the next big thing.