Soon you’ll be able to walk into a regular store in Europe and Canada and pick up an Oculus Rift headset, according to a tweet from the company’s CEO Brendan Iribe.

Oculus’ launch in March was certainly viewed as ‘less than perfect’, especially when it came to actually getting the company’s Rift VR headsets to customers who pre-ordered online – a matter that has thankfully improved enormously. Well, as of September 20th, you won’t have to deal with online ordering, couriers or any hassles surrounding eCommerce as the Rift is coming to bricks and mortar stores throughout Europe and Canada.

In a tweet sent by Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, he states that not only will you be able to pick up a Rift from a regular store, from October you’ll also be able to try out the company’s forthcoming motion controllers Oculus touch too.

From the beginning of VR’s resurgence, the mantra from enthusiasts and VR businesses alike as been “you need to try it to understand it”, and although online shopping is many people’s preferred form of consumerism these days, it’s clear physical stores may have a significant role to play in introducing the mass populous to virtual reality.

See Also: Latest Version of Touch has Better Tracking & Longer Range, Says Oculus
See Also: Latest Version of Touch has Better Tracking & Longer Range, Says Oculus

It’s not clear from the tweet precisely which stores in these territories will see stock of the Oculus Rift or Touch, but HTC’s tactical rollout of physical demos for its SteamVR powered Vive VR system in the UK is probably a good indicator for Britain. The Vive is available to buy and to demo in select Currys PC World stores over here and it seems likely that the same will be true for the Rift, but this remains to be seen.

That Iribe confirmed that Oculus Touch will hit UK and Canadian stores in October may indicate we’ll see the motion controllers up for sale before the end of the year. With Oculus Connect also scheduled for October, it’s expected that we’ll know for sure as part of announcements made during that event. Could Oculus be ‘pulling an Apple’ and make Touch available in short order after a big announcement?

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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.
  • Justos

    I think its likely they will “pull an apple” . The controllers should be significantly easier to produce than the headset and im sure they learned from the launch that they should shut up until they’re 100% ready.

    • Get Schwifty!

      In all fairness, the component shortages that affected the launch were not planned, so in their eyes they were ready to go to production. Sometimes these things are just outside of a companies control. Not sure any company should “shut up” until they release a product as consumers need a time frame to expect a product, and in fact they have given folks a time frame and narrowed it down as it has gotten closer and will continue to narrow it down. HTC/Vive had an advantage here as HTC is a manufacturer and very familiar with production processes and supply-chains, while Oculus is more of a RnD group and this is their first launch.

      I do agree though that they don’t want (or need) the same wave of negative reactions delays could incur twice, and they will launch the controllers shortly after or even quite possibly at the same time the Rifts start appearing in stores in late September/October.