From Kickstarter to Facebook: the full Oculus Rift story – The Verge

The Oculus Rift goes on sale at Best Buy later this week

2016-05-02T12:02:02-04:00

The Oculus Rift is coming to retail stores this weekend, and things just got a little more complicated for preorder customers. On May 7th, 48 Best Buy locations across the US will start offering demos of Oculus' virtual reality headset. The chains will also have an "extremely limited" supply of Rifts available for purchase, marking the headsets' first appearance in brick-and-mortar stores. For anyone who can't make it to Best Buy, a small number will also be going on sale online through Amazon and the Microsoft Store, starting at 12PM ET on May 6th.

For the large number of people still waiting on their Rift preorders, there's at least a lit …

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Oculus Rift preorder customers are facing months-long delays

2016-04-12T10:09:29-04:00

Many people who preordered the Oculus Rift will be waiting significantly longer than expected. After announcing delays because of an "unexpected component shortage," Oculus has now updated the expected ship dates for customers' virtual reality headsets, pushing some back by a month or more. As detailed on a Reddit thread, people who ordered on the first day (sometimes within the first hour) have gotten new ship dates that range from May to June. The very first Rift headsets shipped in late March.

Oculus sent emails to Rift buyers in early April, informing them that filling orders was taking more time than expected and promising new estimates …

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Oculus apologizes for shipping delays, will waive shipping fees for all orders to date

2016-04-02T17:24:12-04:00

Oculus won itself the distinction of launching its virtual reality headset first, but it hasn't been all smooth sailing. Even though Rift headsets officially started shipping on March 28th, many customers who preordered the $599 device have yet to receive any shipment updates. Today, Oculus admitted it's having issues getting Rifts out the door on time, with CEO Brendan Iribe posting on Twitter that the first batch was "going out slower than we orig[inally] estimated." In an email to customers, the company elaborated that "an unexpected component shortage" was to blame:

We've been working through an unexpected component shortage, and unfort …

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One of the Oculus Rift’s best launch games is basically Top Gun in space

2016-03-30T09:02:47-04:00

The most defining moment in EVE: Valkyrie - and by extension the Oculus Rift itself - happens just before I play my first round. Strapped in and waiting to enter the fight, I calmly look around and appreciate every detail of my craft: disarmingly small and very utilitarian, built with a clear purpose in mind and every other expense spared. Then the track beneath me lights up, and I feel a real sense of speed as I shoot like a bullet into the vastness of space. Instantaneously, the micro becomes the macro, and I can't help but feel a sense of insignificance to whatever towering structure is floating in front of me, and whatever nearby planet …

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The 7 best games for the Oculus Rift

2016-03-28T10:10:02-04:00

The wait is over. This week, the first consumer Oculus Rift headsets are shipping. But having a VR headset is one thing; knowing what to do with it is another. At launch, Oculus' store has more than three dozen games, shorts, and experiments, with prices ranging from about $5 to $60.

Some games are brand new; some are flatscreen experiences that have been ported to VR. Buying everything would cost as much as the Rift itself, and frankly, not everything is worth your time. Here are some of our favorite Oculus experiences so far:

Read: Our Oculus Rift review

Adrift

Like space itself, Adrift is both deadly and beautiful. The first-person narr …

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Oculus Rift review

2016-03-28T10:00:19-04:00

For a long time, the hopes and dreams of many virtual reality fans could be summed up with two words: Oculus Rift. Helped by the rise of cheap smartphone displays, Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey took a technology that most people considered a retro curiosity and convinced them that it could change the world. The Rift let you skydive without a parachute. It helped artists show the world through another person's eyes. It simulated beheading. It put you in fictional settings that ranged from kaiju-fighting robots to Jerry Seinfeld's apartment.

Virtual Reality is

Always almost here

By Adi Robertson | Photography by James Bareham

F …

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The 29 Oculus Rift games you’ll be able to buy at launch

2016-03-16T10:00:54-04:00

Two weeks before Oculus launches its Rift virtual reality headset, we're learning what games people will be able to play on it, and how much they can expect to pay for the experience. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the company released the names and prices of 30 launch titles, one of them bundled with every order, that range from adapted Gear VR puzzle games to super-realistic simulators. It's possible that developers will submit more projects to the store before the Rift starts shipping on March 28th, Oculus head of studios Jason Rubin says, but below is a rough picture of what anyone who preorders the headset will have …

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Oculus Rift and PC bundles open for preorders February 16th, starting at $1,499

2016-02-09T13:39:51-05:00

The Oculus Rift still isn't coming until the end of March, but Oculus has announced a preorder date for bundles that will include the company's VR headset and a PC that's certified to run it. On February 16th at 11AM ET, Amazon, the Microsoft Store, and Best Buy will all start accepting orders for "Oculus Ready" PC bundles from Asus, Dell, and gaming-focused Dell subsidiary Alienware. The bundles will start at $1,499 for "a limited time," with prices topping out at over $3,000.

The Oculus Rift headset costs $599 on its own, but finding a PC capable of rendering VR footage smoothly is a barrier for many people. The bundled machines are all h …

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Oculus Rift Kickstarter backers will get a free consumer edition

2016-01-05T10:26:27-05:00

Oculus will be shipping a consumer version of its Rift VR headset to people who backed the original Kickstarter project in 2012. In a post this morning, the company announced a "Kickstarter Edition" of the Rift for any of the 9,522 original supporters who pledged enough for a development kit - by our count, around 7,500. 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." While the headsets won't look any different from normal Rifts, they'll be "among the first" to ship, and the box will be marked as a Kickstarter E …

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Oculus Rift preorders open Wednesday morning

2016-01-04T11:11:24-05:00

Oculus still hasn't announced a launch date for its Rift virtual reality headset, but now we know when preorders are opening: this Wednesday, January 6th, at 11AM ET. The news appeared in a blog post this morning, and Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey will answer more questions in a Reddit AMA on Wednesday at 9PM ET. Unfortunately, we also have no idea how much the Rift will cost - this is, effectively, an announcement of an announcement. An Oculus spokesperson has confirmed that pricing and ship date will be shared when preorders open.

The consumer Rift headset's release window was first confirmed in mid-2015, when we learned it would ship i …

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