The Oculus Rift may be sold at or near cost when it reaches consumers

[AA_Engadin]

Hi all  Good news for the weekend:

Mark Zuckerberg wants to price the consumer Oculus Rift at 'the lowest cost possible' In other words, THE OCULUS RIFT MAY BE SOLD AT OR NEAR COST WHEN IT REACHES CONSUMERS.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/11/58...-cost-possible

Such a price policy is a powerful tool against competitors trying to reach this market niche: a solid entrance barrier.

Lets see  the next move of the fearsome main competitor, Sony's Project Morpheus.

AA_Engadin

[DD_bongodriver]

Project Morpheus is not a competitor to the rift, Morpheus is for the PS4 only.

[VR-DriftaholiC]

Cost doesn't mean hardware price only. But I'm sure they will be at or near they $350 price range they were shooting for.

[Shalimar]

i was really looking forward to the eagle dynamics demo at e3, but apparently the rift support was broken so they couldnt demo it at the show.

[AA_Engadin]

Project Morpheus is not a competitor to the rift, Morpheus is for the PS4 only.

 

Only in the short term. Just wait and see.

 

AA_Engadin.

[DD_bongodriver]

Short term is probably what matters.

[VR-DriftaholiC]

Sony claimed PM is nearly finalized which means its only 1080p 75hz. Specs alone the Oculus is going to win with something like 1440p and possibly even 120hz. Besides consoles have a hard enough time playing a modern game at 1080p 60hz most are 30hz

Edited June 14, 2014 by driftaholic

[AA_Engadin]

Sony don't tend to share their technology.

 

.....

 

I bet anything Sony does in the VR market will be firmly tied to their console business.

 

I sincerely hope you're thinking right ... and therefore I am wrong. I bet you a beer things will get a nasty twist not too far away. Time will tell.

 

AA_Engadin.

Short term is probably what matters.

 

Mate, not in an emerging market, I am afraid, a long marathon has just started these days. 

 

AA_Engadin.

[FuriousMeow]

Sony don't tend to share their technology.

 

 

 

Yep... and Sony snared "No Man's Sky" - so I expect to see that on the PC about never. Not happy about that one, I was actually looking forward to seeing what would happen with that. They already took out PC specifics for Planetside 2 (PhysX) because they are moving it towards the PS4.

 

Sony is like Apple - all their products are overpriced and won't make it to competitors. Except with Apple, their competitors can squarely kick them in the ass and then be incorporated in their systems for much higher prices for Apple fans - Intel CPUs and MS products. Definitely another topic but that last part makes me laugh when Apple is "so superior."

Edited June 15, 2014 by FuriousMeow

[Magellan]

That's a good news but facebook have bought the oculus rift right... A social network company developing a gaming product, I want to throw up 

[DD_bongodriver]

NO, it's a social network company owning a gaming product, there is a difference, facebook themselves are not doing the developing as they are leaving that to the original oculus team.

[Magellan]

NO, it's a social network company owning a gaming product, there is a difference, facebook themselves are not doing the developing as they are leaving that to the original oculus team.

 

Yes of course but they will influence on the leadership and so the developing of the oculus team. who knows what facebook have in mind to earn money , putting some advertising during the pause ?  We never know haha

[DD_bongodriver]

Nonsense, they will not force the pop ups in games and all that other fantasy, they will however redesign their own product to fit in with a VR environment, so when you log into facebookVR it will be where they get to make their money

[Matt]

I never understood this concern about commercial pop ups etc. I mean, Sony also has some other products right? Why is nobody concerned that they will introduce pop ups in their VR, advertising a PS4 or their newest TV or whatever.

 

Everyone is jumping on the VR train and unlike other big companies like Sony for instance, Facebook is not a hardware developer, so they just bought a developer instead. Maybe Google would've done the same eventually.

[Feathered_IV]

Presumaly retailers will want to put something on top, if not the 110% that usually gets added to ws prices.  I imagine "Australia tax" will apply downunder too.   

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

Yes of course but they will influence on the leadership and so the developing of the oculus team. who knows what facebook have in mind to earn money , putting some advertising during the pause ?  We never know haha

 

Why would they do that? For starters, they understand the financial forces at work: People are paying a premium for this product. They're shelling out money for it, whereas Facebook is free to use. That free use has to be supplemented some how and that's where ads come in. Similar deal with PCs you'd find at major outlets; manufacturers keep prices down by subsidizing their product through copious amounts of preloaded software.

 

Rift is a peripheral, so placing ad popups within it's functionality would not only prove to be an annoyance for those pushing it, but also outright alienate the consumer who, in turn, might voluntarily give the products and services advertised the middle finger for annoying them.

[JG27_Chivas]

VR is the future.  Facebook is investing in that future, and the last thing they would want to do is screw it up, and let some other company reap the rewards of a multi billion dollar market. 

[Dakpilot]

very big lawsuit coming to oculus

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/225491347/ZeniMax-v-Oculus-Complaint-As-Filed-21-May-2014

 

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[FuriousMeow]

very big lawsuit coming to oculus

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/225491347/ZeniMax-v-Oculus-Complaint-As-Filed-21-May-2014

 

 

Cheers Dakpilot

 

Same lawsuit basis that id was being prepared for John Carmack because he "stole" some proprietary information. I recall it being a power supply unit that was the point of controversey, and not the OR's tech itself. It appears they are now going after the SDK builds, greedy corporations that have failed to make a return on their products try to go after the startup company that has tons of money due to investors that believe in this venture. Greedy bastards.

 

Either way, I hope they take down ZeniMax/id - their time has been up for a long time and that's why they are going after the OR developers. I hope that ZeniMax/id are taken to the bank for this, they haven't done anything revolutionary in forever and are grasping at lawsuit straws here.

 

Really, OR's tech itself has existed long before Carmack hopped onboard - so the real core tech is so far removed from ZeniMax/id that they are just going to piss off the gaming community as a whole for this move.

 

Screw ZeniMax.

Edited June 17, 2014 by FuriousMeow

[Dakpilot]

^Not

 

^{Same lawsuit basis that id was being prepared for John Carmack because he "stole" some proprietary information. I recall it being a power supply unit that was the point of controversey, and not the OR's tech itself. It appears they are now going after the SDK builds, greedy corporations that have failed to make a return on their products try to go after the startup company that has tons of money due to investors that believe in this venture. Greedy bastards.}

 

^{Either way, I hope they take down ZeniMax/id - their time has been up for a long time and that's why they are going after the OR developers. I hope that ZeniMax/id are taken to the bank for this, they haven't done anything revolutionary in forever and are grasping at lawsuit straws here.}

 

^{Really, OR's tech itself has existed long before Carmack hopped onboard - so the real core tech is so far removed from ZeniMax/id that they are just going to piss off the gaming community as a whole for this move.}

 

^{Screw ZeniMax.}

 

^{Read the first few pages of what I linked above, does not seem to relate to what you are saying at all?}

 

^{Cheers Dakpilot}

[FuriousMeow]

It's against Carmack, the original issue was powering technology that Carmack "took" from id. It doesn't specifically mention what specifically the hardware/software improvements were - however the past was specifically power. It does relate.

[DD_bongodriver]

Exactly, 2 Billion dollars makes a very pungent aroma that will attract all manner of vultures.

[AA_Engadin]

 

 

I bet you a beer things will get a nasty twist not too far away. Time will tell.

 

AA_Engadin 

[DD_bongodriver]

The lawsuit is old news.

[Dakpilot]

The lawsuit is old news.

 

 

Filed on 21st May.. not really old news

 

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[DD_bongodriver]

Filed on 21st May.. not really old news

 

 

Cheers Dakpilot

 

the first rumblings of it happening were about the 1st of may, only a little over a month after Facebook flashed 2billion to buy oculus, so yeah relatively old news.

 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303948104579534013624548846?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303948104579534013624548846.html

 

Oculus don't seem so concerned.

 

http://time.com/87675/oculus-calls-zenimaxs-allegations-of-theft-false-disappointing-and-not-surprising/

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

It's inevitable it'll get nasty. There are at least 2 billion reasons why.

 

Aside from that, there's the ex-employee issue, that has the potential for severe nastiness.

 

And American Lawyers. Nuff said.

 

All-in-all it's a nasty business.

 

None of the above means Zenimax has a justifiable claim of course.

And even if it IS justifiable, it's some pretty flimsy bull.