Want the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset? You can finally pre-order one for $599.
The device went on sale Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET after years of anticipation. It was originally funded as a Kickstarter project in 2012. Since then, several Oculus Rift prototypes made for developers have been released, but this is the first commercial version to go on sale.
On Tuesday, Oculus VR announced that backers of the original Kickstarter project would receive the new Oculus Rift for free, making thousands of people very happy. The release of the headset should also please Facebook, which bought Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion.
So what do consumers get for $599? The Oculus Rift headset, plus an Xbox One controller and two games, "Lucky’s Tale" and "EVE: Valkyrie." The gadgets should ship out in March 2016.
The Oculus Rift is an advanced piece of technology — which means consumers need a powerful computer to run it. Nvidia says that only 13 million PCs have the specs to run software for the Oculus Rift, and it has partnered with other companies to label laptops, desktops and graphics cards as "GeForce GTX VR Ready" to signify that they can handle virtual reality.
