Oculus Rift: Permanent price reduction announced at CES

QUELLE: OCULUS VR

11.01.2019 at 08:01 Uhr by Andreas Link - Oculus VR, Facebook subsidiary and producer of the Oculus Rift, announced a permanent price reduction for the VR glasses at the CES 2019 in Las Vergas. Slowly, the technology should be so priced in the upper end of the mainstream arrived.

The Oculus Rift has been lowered in price again. After having already received a first estate in March 2017, it is now expected to reach a level that also appeals to the masses. In the future, the headset will cost $ 350 instead of $ 400 recently. In Europe, the price is lowered to 399 euros. The new prizes were issued at CES 2019 in Las Vegas and are now valid. Some dealers have already responded.

The price reduction should also be related to the fact that there will soon be a pro version of the HTC Vive. However, it is still a few days until their release in November. The Oculus Rift is now significantly cheaper than the HTC Vive. For the 600 euros are due. For the HTC Vive Pro it is even 900 euros. For most users, this is too expensive, which is why VR has so far found no distribution in the mainstream and so the supply of software remained manageable.

With 400 euros, Oculus could have reached a point that is also on the upper end of mainstream suitability and the technology also moves into the living room of those who might not necessarily want to play on the system, but rather use explorer software to For example, to look at landscapes. With increasing popularity, it will also be more interesting for software developers to develop for the system.

After all, growth was 9.4 percent in direct comparison to 2018. 97 percent of the total VR / AR market continues to make virtual reality, while augmented reality is still only a niche existence. It was particularly positive for wired VR headsets and stand-alone versions in the months of July to September 2018. The latter division grew by a total of 428.6 percent and now accounts for 20.6 percent of the overall market. The main growth driver was the Oculus Go standalone headset, which was released a few months ago. However, the numbers are still much higher for the wired VR headsets from Sony, Oculus, HTC and Co.