News Eve Valkyrie to be bundled with every Oculus Rift sold

Does each game have to be programmed for each specific headset, or will Oculus Rift games run on any other headset?

It would be a real pain in the backside if this becomes a choice like PS4 or Xbox depending on which games you want to play most.

 

So they have bundled a game with it. Yet there is still no release date or price?

 

Your screenshot is missing the "now trending" banner in the top right corner, and the pop up that allows you to buy 20 more missiles for 20 gems!

Not to mention all your Candy Crush invites!

 

Essentially yes, partly due to the slight variations in hardware, and partly due to the variations in software.

Oculus have funded 24 games, so that people actually have something to play when the system launches. This isn't really like a console hardware launch where you've got all the established players clamouring to developer games for the new system. Since they've paid for them to be created, they've locked them to Oculus hardware, much like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft do.

There are quite a few people out there that are fairly butthurt by this, but sadly the world we live in isn't a utopia of rainbows, fairies, and unicorns and a business has to make a return on its investment.

Its mildly annoying I agree, but if its so important to anyone that they ABSOLUTELY HAVE to play ALL GAMES then picking up both is what I would suggest. Its a small price to pay for everyone else in the world to enjoy 24 games that probably wouldn't otherwise exist.

 

Wait, what?! Nobody told me!!!


Does mother know?

 

An important note is that the 'exclusives' aren't exclusive to a headset, but to Oculus' store (e.g. in the same way EA's games are 'exclusive' to Origin). There's nothing to stop them being playable on other HMDs other than the funding to do the work (why would anyone expect Oculus to pay for development on other HMDs?).
It's way too early to try and create a lowest-common-denominator universal standard for VR device interface yet. People point to OpenVR and say "See, it works on the Vive and DK"!", excapt the DK2 support is buggy and underperforming, unacceptable for VR where consistently low rendering latency is king. It should be a surprise to no-one that Valve are not putting serious effort into optimising their API for another companies HMD, and you can't really fault them for that any more than faulting Oculus for not funding development for another companies HMD.

In a few years, after a few generations, where the minimum useful featureset has been reasonably well established, and the market for VR games/etc has become large enough to sustain itself without direct aid/funding from HMD manufacturers, it would be a good time to start trying to create a universal interface standard.

 

CV1 order won't be too far away now and probably before Vive. Palmer doesn't want to wait too long with no Rift available for purchase. CV1 will have short delivery time once the pre-order is up.

 

People have been saying that for months Stanley and we are still no closer to a confirmed price or release date. Maybe they hoped Vive would be out first so that they could price match it a bit.

Generally speaking id not expect it below £400 in the uk. And it could be closer to £500.

EVE Valk will not be a deal breaker for many would be buyers.

 

They've said Q1 2016 for a long time now. The audio SDK has just hit its launch version (1.0), they've announced a game bundled with the launch, and officially announced another. We are very close now.

We don't know pricing, so any guesses are just wild speculation at this point.

All we've got to go on is that when asked about a $350 price point Palmer said "You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. We’re roughly in that ballpark… but it’s going to cost more than that. And the reason for that is that we’ve added a lot of technology to this thing beyond what existed in the DK1 and DK2 days."

Even if they added an extra $100 to the cost that would still only be £300. You're suggesting £400 - that is $600 which is nearly double their target price - and not 'roughly in that ballpark'. £500 meanwhile is $750 - which is over twice their original cost estimate.

Also, I'm not sure why they need a 'deal breaker' - this is almost certainly going to sell out on day one.

 

I think you're forgetting VAT in your conversions, Parge. That'll stick an extra 20% on top, so for example $450 converts to £300 plus VAT, or £360 including VAT.

 

Yeah, I had considered it, but the fact remains, $600 is a long, long way away from their original price point.

The DK2 was £270 ($400) to my door - but it was only that, just the headset, no games, no Xbox controller, no Oculus Touch. I'd say with the price increase due to better custom hardware that Palmer is talking about we could be looking at £350 as a realistic final price.

However, it could be that that is the 'base price' and they if you want 'Touch' you have to pay £50 or whatever extra.

 

I'd say your looking at £400 min for oculus + touch controllers. I'd be shocked but happy if it's below that figure. And I'd not be surprised if it's above that though.

 

The problem is technology tends not to have a proper currency conversion.
$500 tends to translate to £500. £400 is we are lucky.

 

As above, you have to be careful trying to convert retail prices from $ to £, as the dollar price is before any US sales taxes whereas the UK price in pounds will include VAT at 20%. As such, you're not comparing like for like.

 

Does the price really matter they could charge £1000 and it will still sell out on day 1. That's a harsh fact. People may not like it and it may put off some but I've said it for a while oculus is waiting for VIVE to say we cost this much then undercut them a tiny bit.

Project Morpheus is meant to be £400 minimum Sony already said it would cost more than the ps4 launch price. Does not leave a whole lot of wiggle room.