For a while there, these amazing PC-based VR headsets that you kept reading about were just about impossible to get in your hands (erm, on your head). Just over a month after HTC Vive orders gave you instant gratification, the previously months-long shipping delays for Facebook's Oculus Rift are also now finally a thing of the past.
In a blog post announcing this year's Oculus Connect 3 developer's conference (October 5-7 in San Jose), the company added that new Rift orders are now shipping within two to four business days. That's a big improvement over just a month ago, when new purchases were estimated to ship in August (though apparently that was a very conservative estimate, since here in mid-July Oculus says all previous pre-orders have now been fulfilled).
The US$599 Rift includes headset, sensor, Xbox controller and remote control, but its Oculus Touch controllers (above), which "give you hands" inside virtual worlds, are still slated for a release sometime later this year. Oculus says we'll hear more about the Touch release at Oculus Connect, which suggests that its ship date will be no earlier than the conference's October 5 kick-off date.
The HTC Vive has included its equivalent motion controllers in the box since its early April release. The Vive does cost $200 more than the Rift, though we still don't know how much Oculus Touch will add to the Rift's total package cost. In each case, you'll need a (roughly) $800 PC to power the headset – a base price that dropped recently with Nvidia's and AMD's latest budget, VR-ready graphics cards.
For more on the big PC headsets, you can read our reviews of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Source: Oculus
