Oculus VR announced that the Oculus Rift + Touch will cost $399 for a limited time only, according to a blog post on the official Oculus website. Oculus VR also announced the “Summer of Rift,” the tagline for the Oculus Rift + Touch sale, through a video on their official YouTube channel.
“Summer of Rift is all about celebrating the VR community and encouraging new people to get in the game. Today, we’re excited to announce that Rift + Touch are now available at $399 for a limited time,” it said in the blog post.
This isn’t the first time this year that the Oculus Rift + Touch have been on sale. In the last sale (which happened in March of this year), the Oculus Rift cost $499 and the Oculus Touch cost $99 according to Ars Technica.
“With its comfortable ergonomic design, high-quality lenses with a wide field of view, high-resolution OLED displays, and six degrees of freedom that let you move around and explore, Rift is VR at its finest. Combine that with Touch controllers, and you can see your own hands in virtual reality—grab and throw objects, cast spells, or paint and sculpt like the real thing. Plus, with a suite of experiences that promise action, adventure, mystery, and excitement, you’ll be transported to places you’ve never imagined,” it also said in the blog post.
This seems like a tactic to push the Oculus Rift, since the Oculus Rift is currently the lowest selling VR headset in 2016 according to SegmentNext. Although VR made $1.8 billion in sales last year, the Oculus Rift has only sold 240,000 units (which isn’t a lot, in comparison to other VR headsets). Samsung Gear VR has sold 4.51 million units, PlayStation VR has sold 750,000 units, the HTC Vive has sold 420,000 units, and the Google Daydream has sold 260,000 units, all of which have sold more units is the Oculus Rift.
Back in 2014, CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg claimed that in order for VR to be considered an important platform (this was after Facebook acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion), the Oculus VR must sell between 50 million to 100 million units, according to Game Rant. Considering the fact that the Oculus Rift has sold nowhere near that, and that statement was made three years ago, it doesn’t seem like Oculus VR and Facebook are hitting their target sales.
Some of the games that are currently available for the Oculus Rift (and only available for the Oculus Rift) include The Unspoken, Lone Echo, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Superhot VR, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, Killing Floor: Incursion and Batman: Arkham VR.
To finish off the announcement, Oculus VR told fans to continue to anticipate more upcoming announcements for the Oculus Rift + Touch.
“We’re excited to welcome even more people into the VR community as Summer of Rift continues! Check back often for new game announcements, launches, and big news leading up to OC4 (Oculus Connect 4, a convention for the Oculus Rift),” it said in the blog post.
If you’re interested, you can find (and maybe purchase) the bundle package of the Oculus Rift + Touch for $399 on the Oculus VR official website. Considering that most other VR headsets are more expensive, this seems like a good time to purchase your own VR headset before the price goes back up at the end of the summer.
Hopefully with this new sale, Facebook and Oculus VR can boost the sales of the Oculus Rift + Touch so that they can compete with bigger competitors like HTC, PlayStation and Samsung. The Oculus Rift was one of the first VR headsets available on the market and was one of the most spoken about VR headsets before its release, so it’s sad to see it being the lowest selling VR headset in 2016.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.
