Oculus Rift goes on sale in March for $599

Facebook has confirmed a March date for the consumer launch its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, priced at a hefty $599 (plus shipping costs).

The launch kit will include the headset, a head-tracking camera, an Xbox One controller, connection cables, a carrying case, and two included games: space shooter Eve Valkyrie and third-person platform game Lucky’s Tale.

Within 30 minutes of the pre-orders going live, the Oculus store is now showing an April ship date for new orders as initial shipment stock sells out.

Is your PC Oculus Ready?

The package will require a separate high-powered Windows PC to run. Oculus recommends a rig with an Nvidia GTX 970 (or equivalent), an Intel i5 processor, at least 8GB of RAM and a GPU 2160×1200 at 90HZ. All this could cost consumers an additional $600-$1000 if they don’t already have a PC that meets these requirements.

For the full Rift experience, Oculus recommends the following PC system:

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  • graphics card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater

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  • processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater

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  • memory: 8GB+ RAM

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  • output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

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  • input: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port

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  • operating system: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

    • You can also check whether your current PC meets the recommended specification right now with the new Oculus compatibility tool (downloadable from here)

    The Facebook-owned company also said the 1.0 version of its Rift SDK is available to download for “developers putting the final touches on launch titles.”

    With any luck this could help get a bunch of titles ready to play when the Oculus Rift actually arrives in the early months of 2016.

    Oculus Rift and other VR headsets can put users in a fully immersive virtual environment or place that would otherwise not be possible, such under the sea or on top of Mount Everest.

    oculus%20games.jpg

    Though much of the early action will be in gaming, virtual reality also has promise in travel, sports, films and social media- meaning that there’s plenty of marketing opportunities for brands.
    Oculus rivals will also be showcasing their VR gear during this year’s CES, including HTC which is pushing its HTC Vive system, and Sony, which is promoting PlayStation VR.

    View a sample Oculus Rift game below:



    Read the official blog announcement here: