Oculus Wednesday began accepting pre-orders for the Rift virtual reality headset. It also set a ship date, as well as a price that might startle some VR fans.
The Rift will begin shipping to over 20 countries starting March 28, with a pretty hefty $599 price tag. If you want to pick one up in person, it will also be available in “limited locations” at select retailers starting in April.
If that seems pricey for a gaming accessory, you wouldn’t be mistaken. For comparison, recall Sony’s last-generation game console, the PlayStation 3, which was released in 2006. The price? $599.
So what does 600 bucks get you? The Rift VR headset that slips over your head and connects to your PC; the Oculus Sensor, which tracks your movements; and a wired Xbox One controller. The Oculus Remote, not to be confused with the Oculus Touch controllers that are coming out later in the year, will also be included in the package. (Oh, and it all comes in an attractive case.) The remote is designed to give beginners an easy way to navigate the virtual environment.
Here’s the PC setup Oculus recommends for the Rift:
- NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 graphics card or greater
- Intel i5-4590 processor or greater
- 8GB+ PC RAM
- Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- 3 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port
- Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer
If you want to see how your current setup fares before you upgrade any parts, you can download Oculus’ compatibility tool here to see if your PC has enough power to support the Rift.
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