Oculus’ developer conference Connect is in full swing and in the opening keynote, the news many were waiting for has finally been announces. Oculus’ VR motion controllers Touch will go up for pre-order Monday October 10th for $199 and will ship to them on December 6th.

Oculus’s Rift launch in March was a momentous occasion for consumer virtual reality, and despite the trials, tribulation and in some cases disastrous issues the company had in getting the VR headset to buyers, it marked a dawn in a new era of immersive entertainment for many.

However, the headset has come under fire as feeling incomplete when compared to its biggest rival in the PC VR space, the Valve developed and HTC manufactured Vive. Vive cost more, but came packed with the promise of fully tracked motion controllers. In the last months this has been somewhat of a thorn in Oculus’ side, as the company chose to wait until they were happy with both the hardware and the software lineup to support it. Whether this approach was right or wrong remains to be seen, but we’ve had time to try the Touch many times now and it may just be worth the wait.

Now, we can finally put a date on when consumers will be able to buy and own Oculus Touch. The controllers will go up for pre-order for $199 in the US and we already learned via unofficial channels that UK buyers can expect to pay £189. That’s for the controllers alone, but predictably Oculus will also begin offering the Oculus Rift headset along with a pair of Touch controllers in a new bundle, priced $798.

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Touch will ship in pairs, with an additional optical tracking sensor to bolster the Rift’s single unit, this is to enhance tracking fidelity and deal with occlusion issues when you’re waving your arms around in VR, hopefully with no loss of tracking.

Additionally, Oculus is promising 35+ titles that will support or be built for Touch within the launch window and we’ve already caught a glimpse of, and gond hands on with, some new ones today. Check out further coverage of the Touch and some of those new titles below.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • yag

    Damn that was long ! Alleluia !

    • TheVillasurfer

      They said it’d be a mass shipping, so in reality I doubt there will be a considerable shipping date difference between initial buyers and newer purchasers, if any.

    • Get Schwifty!

      The delay until Dec is irritating, especially since they have supposedly held stock. They are taking no chances with this release and are also buying “polish time” for the devs working on Touch-related titles to launch simultaneously I think. Still, great to finally have a date.

  • Zach Mauch

    Any word on how it will work for the original rift pre-order people who “reserved their spot in line” for the touch?

    • burzum

      I just received an email with this:

      Because you pre-ordered Oculus Rift on Oculus.com, you’re eligible for priority status for Touch when it becomes available for pre-order on October 10.
      Important info about your priority status:
      • Starting October 10 at 12pm PT you can pre-order Touch at Oculus.com
      • You must pre-order using the same email you used to pre-order Rift
      • You must complete your Touch pre-order before 11:59pm PT on Thursday, October 27 2016—after that date, you’ll no longer be eligible for priority status
      Once you’ve successfully pre-ordered Touch, we’ll send a confirmation to the email address you used to pre-order. If you don’t receive your email confirmation, try checking your spam or junk folder.
      Thank you for being part of the Oculus community!

  • Chad Michael Dyle

    Did they mention how much the second sensor would cost or how far it can be run from the computer?

    • Nashoba Darkwolf

      It comes with a second sensor. States right in the article. Upload VR says a third can be purchased for $79.00 USD.

      • Chad Michael Dyle

        Thank you. In my speed reading I think I read “optical” as “optional”.

  • Nashoba Darkwolf

    The only thing I am concerned about is if us original buyers actually get the first reserves or if they are going to make it first come first serve.

    • Get Schwifty!

      If you pre-ordered via Oculus then you are in the queue. I double-checked about two months ago to see if my pre-order of Rift still indicated first dibs on the Touch, and it does. It’s hard to find in the portal, email/call to check if you are concerned.

  • Get Schwifty!

    I sense a bit of Vive fanboy catering at R2VR…. the biggest news since the initial launch and its not a center stage article but rather one related to Facebook and parties… seriously? Oculus Connect is a big deal, and frankly VR as a whole has gotten quite a shot from Palmer and company and yet the release of what is quite clearly the better controller than Vive gets a whatever type coverage on R2VR. Methinks Sony and HTC/Valve contribute more ad dollars than Oculus apparently ;)

    • Ah, the daily / weekly R2VR are catering to fanboys of X rant. Under an article with links to 4 other stories about Touch and the entire front page filled with Oculus stories – most of which relate or about Touch. ;)

      • Get Schwifty!

        It is NOW… it wasn’t at the time of writing. I think for the most part R2VR does a very good job, but there are a moments where I really wonder if there isn’t an agenda of sorts at work… Considering that the release of the controllers is perhaps the biggest turning point there is currently in the competition between Vive and Rift it needs to be ballyhooed a bit in my opinion. Rift owners have had to endure months of crap talk about room scale and controllers on R2VR, its not surprising some folks are a bit ready to have the other shoe drop with a splash.

        If you look back, one article in particular was annoying, “How the Vive stole my heart” which was nothing but a clear promo piece. The fact one company held off release while refining it’s design as part of larger plan was totally glossed, and instead “controllers and room-scale this moment” was the cry without any discussion of the real merits of waiting.

    • Matt R

      REALLY!!!! I think it was quite a balanced article considering most of the R2VR staff are Oculus fanboys. This isn’t really a criticism or surprise considering this site has been propelled into mainstream status over the last 3 years on the back of what Palmer and Oculus have done. I own both Rift and Vive and will be getting touch and I am glad to see R2VR making an effort to be unbiased as any good tech site should be. I’m a bit disappointed about needing 3 sensors for “official” room scale but it is just the limitation of the tracking system Oculus went with. The self contained inside out tracking looks cool and I don’t see any reason why this couldn’t replace constellation tracking on the PC Rift in the future.

      • Get Schwifty!

        On the surface it is, but it seems if you read enough articles, particularly by one person, their is always a sort of FUD comment around Oculus thrown in it seems. If the R2VR guys are Oculus fanboys you sure could have fooled me. Ill take your word for it and see if the tone indicates that.

        The three sensor thing too is so overblown…. it improves tracking for room-scale, but its not a requirement, only a suggestion. I think the camera selection was more due to the eventual move to inside-out tracking, Oculus seems to have a more carefully thought-out, and serious long term plan for developing and promoting VR and what appears a miss-step in the short term may prove to be a wise decision later. HTC/Vive, focused pretty much on the game and phone market, pushed out what with the possible exception of the less cabled Lighthouse design itself amounts to a less refined experience and certainly doesn’t have a real plan beyond that. These things need to be pointed out more IMNSHO.

  • Want it! But…. PSVR comes out on the 11th for $400. So…. not getting it.

    • Wheezy

      Kinda like saying, I’m not buying a new Ferrari because volkswagen has a new beetle coming out!

      • This is an ACCESSORY, and PSVR is an entire kit. So it’s more like saying, “I’m not going to buy new tires for my Ferrari because the new Corvettes are coming out”.

        Not to mention, PSVR will have far more video game companies backing it then Oculus and VIVE. Serious AAA game companies! Even if the PC can drive more graphics, without games to support those graphics, there’s not alot you’re going to do with it.

        I was wondering if I was getting bored of VR, since all I usually play are freebies and cheap indie games. But last night I played the rather short Call of the Starseed, and really enjoyed it! I think I’m just getting bored of little indie titles, demos, and VR experiments.

        • LaRocky

          For $400, PSVR is not the entire kit. To get the ‘entire kit’ you have to spend another $100 for the ‘Accessories’. So spend $500 for a mediocre setup or spend $200 and add Touch to an already good setup. Also, if you have a Rift, you know you get more complete games like Chronos, Edge of Nowhere, Eagle Flight, The Climb, etc. Not just demos and experiments.

  • Miqa

    A little disappointing that there is no saving on the Rift + Touch bundle. Otherwise, great news!

    • Foreign Devil

      No savings on buying the bundle? That sucks . no point in bundling them then.

      • Get Schwifty!

        If I had to guess it won’t be too long (maybe 6 months or sooner) before we see a Touch+Rift bundle that may swap the Xbox controller out for the third, better tracking optional camera. Together I would not be surprised to see the price for that setup coming to about $829.00 USD. A little more than the Vive (if you must compare) but for a what is probably a seriously better experience with the Touch controllers over the wands.

        Edit: and maybe $20 if you must use USB extenders ;) See, I’m fair lol.

  • James

    If valve/HTC dont up their game quickly. We wont see a Vive2. Game over Vive