The Oculus Rift has been greatly anticipated and yet now that it’s entering the market, it’s doing so without fanfare.
With the debut of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, many people would have expected that there would come with the launch of a huge marketing campaign, or at least a glitzy launch party, but that is not the case.
Unlike with the launches of new smartphones and game consoles, the Oculus Rift is simply being slipped onto shelves.
The early adopters who pre-ordered their virtual reality headsets will be receiving theirs just as they would any other package that they’ve ordered, except in this case they needed to be willing to drop $600 in order to obtain it. For many, it came as a surprise that the Oculus Rift launch was simply a matter of putting the product out there to buy and that it didn’t come with a huge amount of noise. With the amount of effort the company had put into bringing exposure during the time before the launch, it seems that the launch itself was rather anticlimactic.
The virtual reality headset has come a very long way since it was first designed out of smartphone parts.
It is now a form of wearable technology that provides an immersive VR experience that is miles away from the nauseating effects for which similar inventions were known a couple of decades ago.
In 2014, Oculus was acquired by Facebook for a hefty $2 billion. Since then, it has put out a number of wearable technology headset devices meant exclusively for developers. That said, The consumer version of the Oculus Rift was rolled out on Monday. It could be that the lack of noise is the result of the first wave having already been sold out. Pre-orders bought out the entire stock and fresh devices won’t be available to purchase until the summer.
For that reason, it could be that there wasn’t really the need for a lot of hoopla with the launch, as there was enough of a racket made over this virtual reality headset to sell it out before its launch even happened. What will be interesting is to see what the early adopters will think of these devices and the VR experience they provide. It will also help to answer questions that people have been having with regards to whether or not they will cause health issues or even motion sickness among users.
In fact, this week will provide visitors to the Arlington, Texas location who hold season passes with an opportunity to experience a preview of the VR roller coaster experience on “Shock Wave”.