Oculus Finally Fulfills All Backlogged Rift Preorders, New Orders Ship Within 2 to 4 Business Days
That last point puts the Oculus Rift on equal footing with the competing HTC Vive, which began boasting a shipping window of 2 to 3 days back in early June. “We want to apologize for the delays in getting Rifts to doorsteps,” wrote the Oculus team in a blog posting. “We appreciate that without your support, VR wouldn’t be where it is today. Thank you for your patience over the past few months.”
Back in early April, Oculus blamed unexpected component shortages for shipping delays and decided to waive shipping fees for customers to make amends. But now that production is back on track, Oculus is looking to expand Rift availability through additional channels. Production has been ramped up sufficiently enough that Oculus’ retail partners (both online and physical stores locations) will begin selling the VR headset in significant quantities. Oculus will also offer demo stations for those that want to try out the Rift beforehand at select Microsoft and Best Buy stores (the latter will have Rift availability in over 500 locations by the fall). After all, $599 is a steep price to pay for VR technology without having some hands-on time first.
In other news, Oculus gave a status update on the Touch controller, which it says will be available [hopefully] by the end of the year. The company also announced that its third annual developer conference, Oculus Connect, will run from October 5th through 7th in San Jose, California. Oculus promises the this will be the biggest and baddest Connect to date, with over 50 technical presentations and keynotes from gaming visionaries like John Carmack and Brendan Iribe.
