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.
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?