It wasn’t long after Oculus opened pre-orders for the Rift in January that the unit became backordered by four months. Having held steady since that time, the backorder has now been pushed back yet another month.
The Oculus Rift launched officially on March 28th when it began shipping to Kickstarter backers and the earliest pre-orderees. If you order the headset starting today, however, Oculus estimates your Rift won’t ship until August. It isn’t clear whether the slip was due to increased demand surrounding the headset’s launch or the shipping delays that came with it.
Last week Oculus confirmed that the initial shipments of the headset were delayed due to a component shortage. The company refunded the shipping cost on all orders up to that point and said that customers affected by the delay should see an update to their Rift order status by April 12th.
“…many Rifts will be arriving on schedule and in line with original estimates,” the company wrote in an update about the shipping delay.
The HTC Vive, which officially launched just a few days after the Rift, has held a steady backorder date of May since shortly after opening pre-orders for the unit back in February. The company has had its own shipping woes for early units apparently caused by payment processing issues, though so far this hasn’t impacted the backorder date.
