Oculus Rift: The Future of Gaming

Ryan Yniquez, Co-editor

Virtual reality gaming is no longer science fiction; it is now a reality in today’s world. For people wanting a more immersive game experience, the Oculus Rift is one of the forerunners in virtual reality gaming.

In fact, the company is now putting their product up for pre-order on their website, and will be officially released on March 28th.

The Oculus Rift is breakthrough technology for the gaming community; it allows the gamer to become fully immersed in the game, with goggles that create a feeling of being placed into a digital world.

This technology, however, will come at a cost.

The Oculus Rift headset is starting out at $599, and the PCs needed to run the software to play the game cost around $1000.

Despite the cost, consumers have been more than willing to pay the price, as pre-orders are being sold at the rate expected by Vice President Nate Mitchell.

Their main objective is not profit, but getting their product out to as many people as possible.

“What we’ve always said is that VR is going to start small and grow over time. We’ve reiterated that ever since the beginning of this thing. We don’t expect to sell 100 million units day one. But, we’re excited about the long-term potential and the experiences you’ll be able to have.
Right now the company hopes to make a decent profit so that there is time to reinvest into the company and make the product more affordable. They hope that this release will increase their product’s popularity, and that its popularity will build over time.

“We just felt pretty good about March 28, both in terms of the number of units we’ll ship and the number of pieces of content that will be available for launch. It felt like the right moment. It was about getting a substantial number of units so that it will go out to a good set of people who are excited about it.”

This product is profitable, but right now they are at a break-even point, which was their expectation of where the company should be by now.

“We’ll see where it lands. For gen one, we’re at this break-even point. We feel good about that. Subsidizing costs more, especially as this thing goes. We don’t want to dig too big a hole.”

The future of this company is bright, despite the challenges their product has faced. However, if the company wishes to continue their success they will need the support of the gaming community so that their product can continue to grow and make improvements.