Bundles have been slashed by $200.
Approaching the one-year anniversary since shipping the Rift, Oculus has made a surprising move to cut prices for both the Rift and Touch controllers.
Announced today at GDC, the Oculus Rift plus Touch bundle price has been slashed from $798 to $598. And if you’re looking to buy the Touch controllers separately, also effective immediately, Touch is now priced at $99 (down from $199).
Oculus states that the move to reduce pricing is their latest push to make PC VR more affordable to the masses, placing the Rift bundle now $200 cheaper than the HTC Vive system and only $100 more than a PlayStation VR bundle with motion controllers.
The price cut is fantastic news for the VR market, making premium VR more accessible to consumers and in turn driving more sales for developers. But if you’re scratching your head, thinking that Touch was only just released a few months ago — you’d be correct. The strategy to slash Touch pricing by 50% when they’ve only just begun making their way into the hands of consumers is a bold move. When considering that competing headsets like PlayStation VR and especially the HTC Vive all had solutions for hand-tracking, Oculus likely felt the pressure to ensure all future purchases of Rift included the best VR experience going forward.
“We believe this lower entry price will attract consumers to PC VR at a faster pace,” Oculus VP of Content Jason Rubin said in a statement. “This is universally good for the entire community, but especially for developers.”
For those of you who bought either the Rift or Touch in the last 30 days before today’s price cut news, you’ll be able to receive a $50 credit for Oculus Home content. Not much of a consolation, but it’s something. So if you’re sitting on the fence to join the VR club, now is probably a great time!
You can head on over to Amazon to pick up a Rift + Touch bundle, the Rift, or just Touch controllers.
