Oculus provides free Rift VR headsets to Kickstarter backers

Earlier this week Oculus announced that the Rift would be available for pre-order – that day has come folks, the Rift is up for grabs!

And, popular Oculus will stay, as the Rift headset was just released today for preorder.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Rift sells considering the fairly high price point.

Why would you need a special PC for the Rift?

Don’t forget that the price tag also comes with an Xbox One controller (compatible with PC) and two games: EVE Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale. The purchase page says the headset will start shipping in May to 20 different countries.

If you’ve been holding out for a production-ready consumer VR headset, it’s time to get excited because the Oculus Rift is on its way. And with VR headsets from HTC and Valve, Oculus, and Sony all hitting the market it shouldn’t be too long now before we get a reboot of 1992’s The Lawnmower Man.

Not included in the cost is a PC with a top-notch video card and enough memory to handle the Rift’s demands. Luckily, potential buyers can download a Rift compatibility tool from Oculus to check if their machine needs an upgrade.

Oculus VR is now taking pre-orders for the Oculus Rift headset, but at $600 it’s about twice as expensive as many expected. It was initially proposed in a Kickstarter campaign, during which Oculus VR raised US$2.5 million for the development of the product.

Even so, it’s clear that the Oculus Rift is only for the determined VR enthusiast with powerful hardware and a few disposable dollars hiding under the lounge seat cushion.