{"id":85045,"date":"2016-01-07T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=85045"},"modified":"2016-01-07T10:22:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T08:22:05","slug":"more-than-we-expected-the-oculus-rift-is-priced-at-r9500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/85045-more-than-we-expected-the-oculus-rift-is-priced-at-r9500","title":{"rendered":"More than we expected: the Oculus Rift is priced at R9,500"},"content":{"rendered":"

We love the Oculus Rift. Having tried it a few times, we know it works a treat, and that\u2019s before the improved retail headset releases and many of developers keen on the idea of virtual reality (VR) begin working on VR titles in earnest.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt about it, it\u2019s a great piece of tech, but you\u2019re going to have to pay through the nose to get one.<\/p>\n

Having gone on pre-order<\/a> last night, we now know that it\u2019ll set you back a sizeable $599<\/strong> (R9, 500<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Analysts actually predicted that Oculus\u2019 VR headset would sell five million units in its first year<\/a> alone, but we\u2019re not so sure anymore.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re also going to have to front the shipping costs, as well as import fees, because Oculus will not be shipping the Rift to SA, at least not initially. In fact, only 20 countries<\/a> will have the Oculus shipped to them at launch.<\/p>\n

The date of the Oculus\u2019 launch, by the way, is March 28th<\/sup> for the first batch. Following that, you can expect them to arrive in April.<\/p>\n

Should that not bother you, we\u2019d recommend you follow Oculus\u2019 advice and download their Rift compatibility tool. It\u2019ll suss out your PC\u2019s specifications and let you know if your rig can handle the headset.<\/p>\n

\"Oculus<\/a><\/p>\n

After all, it has fairly high hardware requirements:<\/p>\n

Minimum Requirements:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Video Card<\/strong>\u00a0NVIDIA GTX 970 \/ AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
\nCPU<\/strong>\u00a0Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
\nMemory<\/strong>\u00a08GB+ RAM
\nVideo Output<\/strong>\u00a0Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
\nUSB Ports<\/strong>\u00a03x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port (it seems that report<\/a> was right on the money)
\nOS<\/strong>\u00a0Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer<\/p>\n

NVIDIA goes so far as to suggest a GTX 980 as the minimum requirement<\/a> for a 60 fps VR experience.<\/p>\n

At least you get two free games with your Oculus Rift pre-order<\/a>; that\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

To be fair, the Oculus Rift is by far and away the most advanced VR headset, and Oculus are actually selling their headsets at a loss.<\/p>\n

Oculus\u2019 founder Lucky Palmer has said as much, via Twitter<\/a>, following complaints about the price.<\/p>\n

\n

To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware. High end VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is.<\/p>\n

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 6, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n