Oculus founder says Rift VR headset will cost more than $350

“And it’s not a matter of, ‘Oh we’re selling more, we can make more money!’ It’s just the reality that when you make this thing you have to decide what tradeoffs you’re going to make; are you going to optimize for absolute lowest price possible, even if it’s gonna be a lower quality experience?” he added. The Rift’s custom hardware, which contains amongst other things custom displays and lenses, costs more to produce, according to Luckey, and that even small adjustments to lower the price are not worth the trade off in terms of quality. He said that as it’s the first consumer headset the company is releasing, they want to make it the best possible experience that they were able to make.

While Luckey shied away from naming a specific price, “over $350” is the closest we’ve come to having a solid idea as to what the final, consumer version of Oculus’s flagship product could cost.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has admitted the consumer version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset will cost more than $350 (£230). “There are a few people who are like, “Well, I think that VR applications can be made for VR and PC”, and I agree with them, actually, but you still have to keep VR in mind from the beginning”, Luckey added. “And with the Rift, it makes sense to do what nobody else is doing which is invest in making the best possible quality headset”. “Some of it’s been announced, most of it hasn’t, so, yeah, people definitely get it. That message has really been hammered home, and the good thing is, there’s no dissenters”. That includes the difficult-to-manufacture Rift lenses, the need for built-to-custom displays optimized for VR, and the high-accuracy tracking system-three of the largest factors driving the cost of the hardware.

Oculus Rift will be more expensive than development kit models, because it boasts superior technology.

Sony has already said its PlayStation VR will retail for the same price as a new console. What do you think, though? Oculus said back in May that the cost of buying and being able to use an Oculus Rift, including a computer capable of running the games and software, will be around $1,500.

Check out the full interview with Road to VR here.