Sticker Shoculus

Ah, a brave new world where virtual reality can be enjoyed in every home. Well, not my home, and maybe not your home either, but someone's theoretical home can soon be filled with realities both physical and virtual. If you're willing to pay a pretty penny, of course.

Oculus announced the price for their Rift VR headset today, and turns out the price of admission is going to be just shy of $600. Add in the fact that a good number of folks will be needing to upgrade their PC in order to run the thing, with most estimates saying that a scratch build will run in the neighborhood of $1000. So all told, a charming $1600 at most in order to video game wrapped around your head. Is it worth it? I haven't the slightest idea.

I'm certainly no expert when it comes to price points for consumer electronics. My only experience with the subject would be that I frequently consume electronics and electronic accessories. Objectively speaking, it seems like an ok price for the technology, and we'll see how it stacks up once the competition heats up between Rift, Samsung's Gear VR, and Sony's Playstation VR. Comparing it to other technologies, the Rift is pricier than a Playstation 4 or Xbox One when they originally released, less expensive than current prices for most augmented reality headsets, and I think that's a fair place for it. The real kicker is whatever you'll be spending on a new computer or upgrades. Let's face facts though. If you're enough of a techie that you want to be an early adopter in this wave of virtuositical goodness, then having a top flight computer was probably already on your to-do list anyway.

Personally, I'll have to be a late adopter, but that's pretty par for the course for me. Bleeding edge technology is a bit above my pay grade and I'm ok with that. Not to mention doctors and dentists won't usually accept the "but it looked cool" excuse when you try to explain why you can't pay them (the heartless bastards). I do hope the tech sticks though, and I hope CCP has a hit with Valkyrie. More money in CCP's wallet means more space goodies for me, and I do enjoy my space goodies.

Of course, if I keep pulling 70+ hour work weeks, I might save up some spare change quicker than I realize ;)