The big launch for the Oculus Rift is next year and although the thought of virtual reality gaming has got pretty much everybody interested from the “kinda curious” to the “I must own it nows” the reality is that it could be a costly affair. Until now.
Oculus VR has announced an “Oculus Ready” program for PCs which is a line of high performance PCs that are specifically designed for optimum comparability with Oculus VR. The best part is that the cheaper models come in at less than $1000. As us have so far annoy fed the cheapest model at $949 with Alienware and Dell right behind them with models for $999.
The system specifications haven’t been announced for these PCs yet but they will be Oculus branded and capable of running VR straight out of the box when it launches in Q1 2016.
Although there is also still no price on the Oculus Rift but the company have stated that to get an all in package, including one of the baseline PC models capable of running VR, you should be looking to spend no more than $1500. This puts the retail price of the Oculus Rift headset at around $500, which isn’t confirmed.
Oculus will be going into competition with Playstation VR who launch their VR headset shortly afterwards in the first half of 2016. Playstation’s headset looks set to cost around the same price as a new console but the will be no need for additional hardware to use it.
Altogether the idea of VR gaming in the wider market looks set to be one of the biggest stories for the gaming industry in 2016. I need to start saving.