Oculus VR Founder Apologizes for Initial $350 “Ballpark Estimate” for Rift

Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey is currently holding an AMA over on Reddit to talk about Oculus Rift, including answering questions about its price point and future. One interesting question came up regarding the initial “ballpark” estimate of Rift being $350, an announcement that Luckey at one point.

“I handled the messaging poorly. As an explanation, not an excuse: during that time, many outlets were repeating the ‘Rift is $1500!’ line, and I was frustrated by how many people thought that was the price of the headset itself. My answer was ill-prepared, and mentally, I was contrasting $349 with $1500, not our internal estimate that hovered close to $599 – that is why I said it was in roughly the same ballpark.”

Though Luckey did say later that Rift could end up costing more than $350, the message was once again lost in the shuffle. “To be perfectly honest, our biggest failing was assuming we had been clear enough about setting expectations.

“Another problem is that people looked at the much less advanced technology in DK2 for $350 and assumed the consumer Rift would cost a similar amount, an assumption that myself (and Oculus) did not do a good job of fixing. I apologize.”

The AMA has some rather interesting details from Luckey about Rift, including the reason why it won’t be making the company any money despite its $599 price. Oculus Rift will have its first shipments out on March 28th so stay tuned for more details.