Many agree that virtual reality is the future of gaming - or at least a big part of it - but so far the world is still holding its breath to find out how much VR is going to actually cost.
Now Oculus VR Co-Founders Nate Mitchell and Palmer Luckey have provided an answer, though not an exact one: the company hopes to ultimately sell the Oculus Rift for between $200 (about £120, AU$215) and $400 (about £245, AU$430).
"That could slide in either direction depending on scale, pre-orders, the components we end up using, business negotiations," Mitchell cautioned Eurogamer.
And Oculus Rift inventor Palmer Luckey added, "whatever it is, it's going to be as cheap as possible," echoing Facebook CEO and Oculus owner Mark Zuckerberg when he was quoted saying he wants the first consumer Rift to be "the best quality product at the lowest cost possible."
Setting the bar
If it lands on the top end of the co-founders' price range, it means the consumer-grade Oculus Rift headset could cost as much as an Xbox One or PS4 console.
Keep in mind the Rift doesn't run by itself; with its current iterations you need a gaming PC to actually run the games, while the headset displays them and interprets users' movements.
Then again none of Oculus's friends and rivals in the burgeoning VR marketplace have come out and said what they're going to charge for their own headsets, like Sony's Project Morpheus and Samsung's Gear VR (which Oculus is even helping out on).
Despite how candid Mitchell and Luckey were in parts of the quoted interview, the two still haven't shared any hints about when a consumer version of the Oculus Rift might actually arrive, besides that it's not happening any time soon.
It will be interesting to watch whether one of Oculus's would-be competitors tries to get in early and undercut the Rift, and who will ultimately get to set the price that all other VR headsets will be held against.
Hopefully we'll learn more at Oculus Connect on September 19.
Via The Verge
