If you’re looking to get your hands on an new Oculus Rift DK2, you should start trawling the online auctions for a mint-in-the-box headset, because the company’s latest and final developer kit is now sold out.
With the consumer Oculus Rift launching in the first quarter of 2016, the company may well have winded down their production of the DK2 for good.
Although Oculus confirmed to us that DK2 supplies were indeed exhausted, they assured us that developers can still reach out to the dev relations team if they have any hardware questions or requests.
Some 9,500 original supporters backed the DK1 headset during the company’s record-breaking Kickstarter, a campaign that saw $2.4M in funds directed at the humble $300 headset. With a 1280×800 display (640×800 per-eye resolution) and external control box, it was the first device to offer virtual reality at a reasonable price point, and went on to sell more than 56,000 units throughout the world. Oculus still hosts the DK1’s ‘sold out’ page to this day along with the original setup instructions.
Almost one year after shipping their first developer kit, Oculus announced the second iteration, the DK2, which offered a host of improvements over the initial Kickstarter-funded dev kit. An included tracking camera and headset-embedded IR LEDs made it possible to track the user’s movements positionally with the updated configuration.
See Also: Palmer Luckey Reaffirms DK2 is the Last Dev Kit Before Consumer Rift
While positional tracking significantly reduced VR-induced motion sickness along with a low persistence OLED display running at 75hz, the headset’s Samsung Galaxy Note 3 display panel left much to be desired (960×1080 per-eye resolution).
If you’re looking to get your hands on a DK2 headset to bridge the wait for the new consumer version Oculus Rift, Ebay may seem like the best place to go, but buyer beware: mint headsets tend to sell at historically high rates simply because Oculus refuses to ship to certain countries. Resellers hike the original $350 price as a premium for the added trouble of shipping to high-risk regions.
Used headsets, while much more attractive in price, can also show wear and tear like scratched lenses and bent cables, which are both neigh impossible to replace. Make sure that all parts are present and in good condition before buying, because Oculus makes no warranty on second-hand sales their developer kits.
Check out our full day 1 coverage of the DK2 from a time when the headset was still was shiny and new. Oculus’ chief scientist Michael Abrash puts it best during his Connect 2 keynote address when he says this:
“…I urge you to take a moment now and then to remember how unbelievably fortunate we all are to have the opportunity to be VR pioneers … opportunities like that come along once or twice in a lifetime at best, so make all you can out of this one.”
