We're just a few hours away from the beginning of a new virtual reality era: the much awaited Oculus Rift is about to become available to all who want it.
Oculus had promised their Rift would become available in the first quarter of 2016 and it seems it didn't want to wait any longer, as pre-sales will begin today (Jan 6th).
The Rift development cycle has been almost like a fairy tale. It began as yet another crowdfunding project, but it soon proved to be onto something as it began convincing more and more pros (John Carmack even left is own company to join them!) And then Facebook acquired them, proving it to the rest of the world.
The Oculus Rift pre-sales will open up in a couple of hours, and all that's left is knowing just how much it will cost (and when they'll actually be delivered.)
People are estimating something around the $350-400 price range, and pre-orders will include two games: Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie. Just keep in mind you'll need a decent PC to make the most out of it. Oculus recommends as minimum: Windows 7 SP1, 8GB RAM, Intel Core i5-4590 CPU, Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD 290, HDMI 1.3 video out, 2x USB 3.0. As for the Rift, it comes with 2 OLED screens totaling 2160x1200 pixels (at 90Hz).
There's one last point of note: Oculus has decided to reward all those that believed in the project right from the start, and so is offering a Rift Kickstarter Edition for free to all those that acquired one during it's Kickstarter launch phase! :)
Actualização 2: Sales are open and the price is higher than we expected: $599, with shipping date scheduled for March (and limit of 1 order per costumer - probably to minimize the chance of users reselling it at inflated prices on ebay).
It seems the added and improved hardware (extra camera for tracking, dual OLED displays, etc), has significantly moved the price to a higher region, putting the Rift away from the "general consumers". We can't say it's unexpected, as VR will still need to evolve for a couple of years to reach the point of potencial mass adoption; but on the other hand, this is also good news to Sony, which will soon announce it's cheaper PS VR for the PS4, which will certainly grab a bigger portion of gamers not willing to spend so much on a VR set.
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