As I am sure you’ve heard by now, Oculus Rift’s price tag has recently been announced and as expected, it has caused an uproar in the gaming community. I get it, $599 is a very, very steep price tag to pay for an average consumer but what you gotta understand is that it’s not out of the norm for such a price tag as this is a common feat found in any revolutionary innovation…
The Oculus Rift is a cutting edge device that offers something unique for gaming that a few years back it would have been considered impossible. The device is packed with multiple high resolution, high frame-rate displays, all miniaturized and an advanced head tracking technology. It’s extremely demanding in terms of specs so right off the bat, not everyone will be able to even use the Oculus to its absolute potential. According to the Oculus Rift FAQ, unless your computer can run most demanding modern games at 1080p, 90fps, you’re basically out of luck.
This is quite common with every new invention that enters the market and changes how we previously used to enjoy certain things. Take cars for example, when they were first introduced to the masses, did you really think that everyone at that time could have afforded one? Hell No! At that early stage of a new product life, a company’s target market would be those with high enthusiast level, those you want the latest product and have the excess amount to afford it.
The reason why its currently priced at that level is because of all the stuff built into it to help the Oculus Rift provide better, more refined VR experience that’s currently on the market. Personally, I have had the chance to try the Oculus at a convention myself and I can tell you right now that it’s a very impressive tech.
All I’m saying is give the damm product a chance, the first batch of the Oculus Rifts are going to be “prototypes” anyways so those who buy it first are beta testing it out for us and as they start to manufacture more and enhance and improve on the previous models, the price will eventually come down to a level that will be affordable  to the masses.
Besides, I can guarantee you that more than half of those people who are complaining about the price, don’t even have a PC to fully tap into the potential of Oculus Rift (wanna prove me wrong, click here to use Oculus compatibility tool for Windows to find out if your PC is truly ready), hell even my PC can’t tap into that potential either but I ain’t buying it yet so there’s no worry.
Thank you for reading.
