Home » News » Oculus founder apologises for “poorly” handled messaging on Rift pricing
palmerluckeyrift
News

Oculus founder apologises for “poorly” handled messaging on Rift pricing

Oculus VR founder Palmer Lucky has taken to a Reddit AMA to apologise for what he calls “poorly” handled messaging in regards to final Oculus Rift pricing.

The VR headset costs close to $1,000 AUD, which dismayed many gamers.

“I tried to get across that the Rift would cost more than many expected, in the past two weeks particularly,” Luckey said in the AMA. “There are a lot of reasons [why] we did not do a better job of prepping people who already have high end GPUs, legal, financial, competitive, and otherwise, but to be perfectly honest, our biggest failing was assuming we had been clear enough about setting expectations.”

Luckey also acknowledged that many were mislead on final pricing because earlier development kit software cost far less than the final retail unit.

“[It was an] assumption that myself (and Oculus) did not do a good job of fixing,” he affirmed. “I apologize.”

“I handled the messaging poorly,” he added. “To be perfectly clear, we don’t make money on the Rift. It is expensive, but for the $599 you spend, you get a lot more than spending $599 on pretty much any other consumer electronics devices – phones that cost $599 cost a fraction of that to make.”

What do you think of Oculus Rift pricing?


This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.

About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Stevivor.com, the country’s leading independent video games outlet. Steve arrived in Australia back in 2001 on what was meant to be a three-month working holiday before deciding to emigrate and, eventually, becoming a citizen.

Stevivor is a combination of ‘Steve’ and ‘Survivor’, which made more sense back in 2001 when Jeff Probst was up in Queensland. The site started as Steve’s travel blog before transitioning over into video games.

Aside from video games, Steve has interests in hockey and Star Trek, playing the former and helping to cover video games about the latter on TrekMovie.com. By day, Steve works as the communications manager of the peak body representing Victorians as they age.