palmerluckey

Hijacking your post to respond to the earlier mega-post that was deleted, it included your question:

The price is what it is, I understand bleeding edge electronics is expensive.. My question is "why was the messaging about price so poor? $599 is not in the ballpark of $350 when your target audience is the mainstream".

I handled the messaging poorly. Earlier last year, we started officially messaging that the Rift+Recommended spec PC would cost roughly $1500. That was around the time we committed to the path of prioritizing quality over cost, trying to make the best VR headset possible with current technology. Many outlets picked the story up as “Rift will cost $1500!”, which was honestly a good thing - the vast majority of consumers (and even gamers!) don’t have a PC anywhere close to the rec. spec, and many people were confused enough to think the Rift was a standalone device. For that vast majority of people, $1500 is the all-in cost of owning Rift. The biggest portion of their cost is the PC, not the Rift itself.

For gamers that already have high end GPUs, the equation is obviously different. In a September interview, during the Oculus Connect developer conference, I made the infamous “roughly in that $350 ballpark, but it will cost more than that” quote. 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. Later on, I tried to get across that the Rift would cost more than many expected, in the past two weeks particularly. There are a lot of reasons 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. 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.

To be perfectly clear, we don’t make money on the Rift. The Xbox controller costs us almost nothing to bundle, and people can easily resell it for profit. A lot of people wish we would sell a bundle without “useless extras” like high-end audio, a carrying case, the bundled games, etc, but those just don’t significantly impact the cost. The core technology in the Rift is the main driver - two built-for-VR OLED displays with very high refresh rate and pixel density, a very precise tracking system, mechanical adjustment systems that must be lightweight, durable, and precise, and cutting-edge optics that are more complex to manufacture than many high end DSLR lenses. 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, same with mid-range TVs that cost $599. There are a lot of mainstream devices in that price-range, so as you have said, our failing was in communication, not just price.

In what 'ballpark' can we expect Touch's price to be?

No more ballparks for now. I have learned my lesson.

How many games can we expect to have available to us by years end?

At least 100 - Over 20 Oculus Studios titles, many more 3rd party titles.

John Carmack tweeted that he expects gaming to occupy less than 50% of the time we spend in the RIFT.. what kind of experiences is he eluding to. Oculus Medium? Toy box? How much is there to do in Toy Box?

Somewhat surprisingly, the majority of time spent right in Gear VR is video and experiences, not games. Over time, VR span beyond games, much like the evolution of computer and mobile platforms before it. Right now, gaming is going to be the primary driver of PC VR, but the content base will expand over time.

What kind of prices can we expect Movies/Experiences to have in the Oculus Store? Most experiences in the GearVR store have been free.

There will be the range of prices from free to higher priced AAA games. The pricing will be similar to what you see in console PC games.

Can we have some detailed information about the screens/displays? FOV/Resolution/pixelfill/pentile/etc... these are custom displays, we want to know everything

We will be sharing more soon. We have done a lot of work optimizing and building these displays, we definitely want people to see how awesome they are.

Post too long, about to post next bit...

I don't remember writing this.

Hang on guys, I am here, not ignoring you - I am responding to the initial 25 question megapost that was at the top of this thread.

Part 2:

What accessories can we expect to see from Oculus for the Rift (replacement facial interface padding)

There are a range of accessories coming, and we’ll have a range of facial interfaces ourselves. Expect more news in the future.

The are some apps on the GearVR store that are unavailable to people in certain countries.. (MilkVR in Australia for example), are we going to have to deal with that bullshit with the Rift in it's Oculus store?

We want to have all Oculus Store content available everywhere in the world for Gear VR and Rift. There may be some cases where we can’t because of local policy or technical limitations.

Multiplayer experiences are obviously going to be a big thing when it comes to VR, what is Oculus doing to ensure its not the Wild West out their for connecting to other Oculus Users.. Id really rather not have to sign up to a hundred different gaming portals each with its own unique friends list and differing network performance…

Our games services provide devs the ability to use your Oculus Name throughout all of the Oculus games and experiences.

Are there any details about Oculus' Friends List/Store Front/Community/Library app/program. Basically im asking how is Oculus' answer to Steam going? Can we have some details?

We talked about the Oculus platform at the E3 Rift Reveal event in June and at Oculus Connect 2 in September, good to watch those talks if you have not already. No additional news yet.

Oculus have the Rift and Touch. Is there anything else VR related you guys are working on that your willing to let slip?

Yes, we are working on a wide range of VR technology. No, not willing to let more secrets slip here.

Will upgrading to Windows 10 be required for Rift? Will it provide a better experience for the Rift specifically? (compatibility, setup, etc)

We support Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Will we ever see a drum kit in Rock Band VR? or Multiplayer..

That’s a better question for Harmonix, the developers of Rockband.

How Long will the Cables be from headset to PC, is it feasible to extend that length for room to vr experiences?

4 meters from PC to Rift headset, though use of extenders is often possible.

Palmer the messaging you have been hammering out lately is "We'll see you in the Rift".. how exactly will that happen?

Multiplayer and social experiences like EVE Valkyrie, mostly! I can’t work all the time, gotta spend some time playing VR games myself.

Recommended specs are 970/290.. anyone buying a RIFT will EXPECT to play all games at max settings and have the best experience possible.. is a 970 up for that challenge? will Nvidias Pascal GPU's be better suited for VR? what will YOU (@palmer) be running on your rift set up?

You won’t necessarily be able to play all games at MAX settings on the recommended spec. You will be able to play everything in the Oculus store at a high quality level (90 FPS) on the recommended spec. Personally, I am going to be running the standard rec spec rig to make sure I get the same experience as most users.

Will Oculus Cinema be able to play our 3D/2D Bluray movies off the disc or do we have to go through the whole rip/convert phase.

On Gear VR, Oculus Video has a paid video store that features full-length films from our content partners. It also supports sideloaded video playback. You can expect similar features to come to Rift over time.

I want to know more about the small new remote, can we play games with it? What was the decision behind it and what functionality can we expect from it

We designed the Oculus Remote to be simple and intuitive input device for navigating VR experiences, especially when a fully-featured gamepad doesn’t make sense. An example is Oculus Video on Gear VR, which can be explored with just with gaze and tap. The remote is also ideal for non-gamers who want to try VR but aren’t familiar with a gamepad. It is also a good fit for apps that are ported across from Gear VR to Rift.

Will only apps downloaded from the Oculus store work or will we be able to use software that is downloaded outside the app store?

You’ll be able to do both. You can download Rift titles from our store or elsewhere and run them.

When CV1 is out, what happens to DK1 & DK2 compatibility? are they phased out immediately or will the SDK allow seemless support for them for games and experiences? is this all on the developers themselves? Will the introduction of Touch phase out DK2 completely when it comes to games with "Touch required"?

We want to make sure that developers with DK1 and DK2 can continue developing for Rift. We’ll have more news on DK1 and DK2 compatibility over the next few months.

The Case that the CV1 comes in, is there a place for the Oculus Touch in that case?

Maybe…

Will we see CV2 before 2020? Can’t say too much about future products yet.

What kind of 3D support can we expect for traditional, non-VR games? If I want to play Overwatch or Heroes of the Storm or Counterstrike on my Rift, can I use it as a dummy 3D display? If not, why?

This may be enabled via 3rd party applications, but it isn’t something we’re focused on for Rift launch.

Can we expect to ever see a cheaper, stripped down Rift SKU (-Xbox controller, -headphones, -games, etc)

Very unlikely for the first generation of Rift. A standardized system is in the best interest in developers trying to reach the widest audience, and we cannot significantly reduce the cost without dramatically reducing quality. Also see my first post.

What's the rough cost breakdown that goes into the $600 cost of production? Roughly how many % of the price is the OLED, optics, audio, electronics, peripherals, and manufacturing?

And spoil the first tear down?! I wish I could share the detailed breakdown, but I cannot, for both internal and partner related reasons. I will use whatever credibility I have left to assure you that you are getting a pretty crazy deal.

Yes.