Having previously announced that the consumer Oculus Rift and Touch controllers would be available for pre-order in 2015, Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey today confirmed that pre-orders will hit “soon after New Year.”

Following the announcement of a substantial launch delay to the HTC Vive from Q1 2015 to April 2016, Oculus has now confirmed that eager early adopters won’t see pre-orders until early 2016. Founder Palmer Luckey notes in a tweet today:

Fortunately Luckey also says that the Rift is still on track for the previously announced release date of Q1 2016:

Earlier this year, Oculus had announced that the much anticipated consumer Rift would open for pre-orders in 2015, ahead of the 2016 launch. It was also stated that the company’s Touch VR controllers would open for pre-order alongside the Rift, though it isn’t clear if that will still be the case with this delay.

Back at Oculus’ ‘Connect’ developer conference in September, the company said that the first Rift headset had rolled off the production line as part of a manufacturing test.

oculus-rift-production-line
See Also: The First Oculus Rift Has Rolled off the Production Line

“We set a date out for ourselves for when we wanted to build the first product and we hit that date on the nose,” said Oculus Hardware Project Manager, Stephanie Lue, on stage at Connect. “Our hardware teams are pouring our hearts and souls to get it just right for the experience and for manufacturability so that we can get this out to as many people as possible. It’s definitely worth the wait.”

oculus touch hands on e3 2015 (4)
See Also: Hands-on – Oculus Touch is an Elegant Extension of your Hand for Touching Virtual Worlds

While Oculus Touch remains entirely unpriced, Oculus confirmed to Road to VR that the Rift would cost “more than $350,” which is believed to exclude the cost of Touch. Each Oculus Rift will come bundled with an Xbox One controller and EVE: Valkyrie.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • CURTROCK

    A few more weeks before pre-order gives people a chance to recover from Christmas expenses. Makes sense not to ask people to fork out $350 + during the month of December. We are so freakin close!

    • Brandon Owen

      Pre-orders usually charge you when it ships. I think the DK2 charged you $50 at most prior to the ship date. So I doubt that is a reason. Stress – Yes. Because who wants to be on the PC 24hrs a day during the holidays away from their family…that is just cruel.

    • RockstarRepublic

      Not 350+, exactly $400.

      • CURTROCK

        Exactly $400 ? Has this been announced officially by Oculus?

        • RockstarRepublic

          I could have sworn I just read about Palmer claiming the heavily subsidized price would be at $400 starting off on twitter. Cant seem to find it anymore so take my post with a grain of salt till I can find it (or he removed it)(or i just remembered wrong).

  • Kijutsu

    I have a full week off after new years, should I be stressed? All kidding aside, knowing the freaken specs before the preorder would have been nice.

    • psuedonymous

      What additional specs do you need? We know the resolution (1080×1200 per eye independent OLED panels), refresh rate (90Hz), video interface technology (HDMI), tracking technology (Constellation, optical marker tracking), physical headset design (plastic frame with fabric covering), physical headset adjustments (IPD), and the recommended requirements for the PC driving it.

  • Brandon Owen

    Pre-orders will be released during CES. Makes perfect sense.

  • RockstarRepublic

    If you read between the lines, Palmer basically called it another prototype for “early adopters”. Not sure whether to pre-order this($400) or hold off to quarter 2 for VIVE. Both HTC and Oculus have did enough to make them unlikable but for very different reasons.

  • SlyNine

    Last night I just had a feeling they were not going to start preorders in 2015.