Oculus Rift VR Headset Pre-Orders Start Wednesday

Before now Oculus has only released prototypes of its headset, which promises users “immersive” video gaming experiences. On Tuesday, Oculus announced anyone who backed the first Developer Kit on Kickstarter will get a free special edition of the first consumer headset.

KitGuru Says: Tomorrow we will finally know how much the Oculus Rift costs and hopefully, we will also have a release date. “We look forward to hearing from you”.

The announcement, made on the Oculus Rift blog this morning, is more like a heads-up regarding the more detailed announcement that will made when pre-orders open.

Rift is about perfecting the VR experience, not cost-cutting; to that end, Oculus seems to be preparing would-be early adopters for some sticker shock. The virtual reality headset maker’s website is displaying a countdown clock on its home page to keep track of the dwindling hours, minutes and seconds before the company starts accepting preorders for consumer units.

Starting Wednesday, gamers can reserve the consumer version of the Oculus Rift.

The Rift would come bundled with the platforming adventure game “Lucky’s Tale” and a multiplayer space combat game, “EVE: Valkyrie, “Oculus said”. Backers will get a survey from Kickstarter before February 1st; if their country isn’t one of the 20 where the Rift is officially launching, Oculus is “working on an alternative”. Did any of you back the project back in 2012?

While Oculus “Rift” – a Virtual Reality (VR) device – is set for a launch in the first quarter of this year, Facebook has chose to delay the launch of touch controllers till later in 2016.

It said the firm’s founder, Palmer Luckey, would be answering questions about the Rift on a Reddit Q&A session on Wednesday at 18:00 PCT (02:00 GMT).