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At 8:00am Pacific Time today, the flood gates opened and the world could pre-order a real virtual reality headset.
The long-awaited Oculus Rift will cost $599 (plus tax) and is expected to ship in March, according to Oculus’ website. However, the first month of orders is already sold out, and the site now says products ordered now will arrive in April.
It will come with the Rift headset, an Xbox One controller, a motion-tracking sensor, and a previously unannounced Oculus Remote, which is used to more intuitively navigate VR spaces. (You’ll also get all the cables.)
While other pseudo-virtual reality offerings are already available, like the Samsung Gear VR, the Oculus is the first of its breed to market.
Oculus originally launched as a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, when dreams of true VR (and Kickstarter itself) were in their infancy. Since then, a boom of interest has surrounded the technology, although software options might be limited upon release. Facebook has also acquired Oculus since the crowdfunding campaign, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has often posted high hopes for the platform.
Those who pre-order the Rift will also receive CCP’s EVE: Valkyrie, a game centered around dogfights in deep space, and Lucky’s Tale, a platformer in VR.
Full disclosure: I already ordered one.