A young man tries out an Oculus headset at a Games Week event in Milan in 2014. Image via Stefano Tinti / Shutterstock.com
Oculus has revealed the first Oculus-ready PCs capable of handling virtual reality (VR) applications, which will be available from 16 February but are available for pre-order from today, at prices ranging from $1,499 up to $3,000.
Yes, that’s right, Oculus-capable PCs won’t be cheap and the price tag backs up an assertion by Nvidia at the recent Consumer Electronics Show that less than 1pc – just 13m – of PCs in the world in 2016 will be capable of handling the complex, hyper-realistic VR experiences being promised by Oculus.
Oculus, which Facebook acquired in 2014 for $2bn, began accepting orders for its long-awaited headset on 6 January at a price of around $1,000 per headset. First shipments are tabled to begin on 28 March.
Other makers – like Samsung with its Gear headset, HTC with its Vive headset, Microsoft with HoloLens and Sony with its PlayStation VR headset – are also likely to enter the fray in 2016.
Oculus has provided a tantalising look at the first Oculus-ready PCs from Asus, Alienware and Dell and promised that more will come on stream soon.
On 16 February at 11am Pacific time (7pm Irish time), you can pre-order Oculus-ready PC and Rift bundles from Best Buy, Amazon, and the Microsoft Store, starting at $1499, for a limited time only.
All bundles include an Oculus-certified PC and everything that comes with Rift – the headset, sensor, remote, a Xbox One controller, EVE: Valkyrie founder’s pack and Lucky’s Tale.
Pre-orders for Oculus-ready and Rift bundles will ship in limited quantities to select countries and regions starting in April.
If you want to check if your existing PC is Oculus-ready use the Oculus compatibility tool.
Young man on Oculus headset image via Shutterstock
