at like $1k CAN (conversion + canada tax) it's way out of line with what I'd be willing to spend. Especially since there's little reason for it to be that much.
TBs video made a bunch of good points, however I felt he was off the mark on a few of them.
A lot of his talking seemed to be "well i'm rich so I just buy things I like" which is well and good, good for you TB for having money. It's not a very persuasive argument. Having the ability to buy things has no bearing on whether or not the product is objectively priced well or not.
Equating the price to a "high" end phone is also a bit disingenuous because "high" end phones have huge markups outside contracts. Oneplus and Asus make flagship phones, and sell them at reasonable prices. Hell, there's like 999999999 chinese flagship equivalent with arguably better features than a lot of the "high" end phones today, and those are also priced more reasonably.
I did like the bit about early adopters having to pay more, which while I don't like it as a trend, I understand it.
Palmer did a reddit AMA a few hours ago if anyone is interested. The top comment is an explanation of the price along with a FAQ on the Rift. The TL;DR of the explanation is that he and Oculus did a poor job at publicly getting the right price point across and that they are losing money on the hardware due to the customizations they have made to make a quality product.
More and more I am beginning to think that the Rift at $599 USD is actually a good deal, its just the barrier to entry on a niche product that is very new.
Comparing to high end cellphones is a bit weird. High end racing wheels come to mind. If you want a quality product, you will pay a premium for it. Only difference is that there is no low end model because they want only the best experience. Might be the same reason why you don't see a low end iPhone. Although Apple is more evil about it.
There are plenty of inexpensive iphones, just look to chinese brands. What apple has done is sidestepped competition with brand loyalty. It's a great marketing tactic. Hats off to them. If we dig a bit deeper though, anyone can see there's not much else to the iphone being super expensive other than people love apple and apple happily charges them for that love.
Simplicity I think is key here. People know what they are getting when they buy an iPhone. The phones are also very easy to get here. The average person isn't going to scour the internet for a cheap iPhone knock off. They want to be able to walk into their carriers store and walk out with a phone that is guaranteed to work. Price isn't the problem with some people, the ease of purchase is. We are a tech-savy community, we know where we can save money with our tech by going Android and are in most cases willing to jump through the hoops to get the price we want (buying a OnePlus phone for example). Most people want to be able to walk into a Best Buy and pick the product off the shelf, and not think about it again.
Same thing applies to VR. Most of us know that Google Cardboard exists and that you can get a plastic version for your phone from China for around $15. I have one. I knowingly jumped through those hoops (research, buying it online, waiting a month for delivery) to get it. I also know that my experience isn't even close to Oculus. Oculus in some ways wants to be the Apple of VR. I'm completely fine with that.
I hope they have a product that's good enough to become the Apple of VR. As much as I dislike apple because of their ecosystem and overpriced products, their phones are still nice phones. VR is still very much being tested.
Exactly. Apple may not be the best comparison because there is a lot of price gouging going on. I'd almost compare them in a way to Microsoft and Sony. Both companies at the launch of their consoles were losing money on each console sold. However as time goes on the price will probably come down to something more reasonable.
remember VHS et al? it was shit and should never have taken off.... but it did... this will because industry supports it, and there will be more competition to drive prices down, Oculus is just taking advantage of having no competitors...
i think the better comparison would be to equate it to a console or a screen/monitor for your PC. People will easily drop 1k on a monitor, and if, in the end, Oculus (etc) can provide a better product/experience than a monitor can offer, then this would be no different than buying a nice 4k monitor atm.
"Iām one of the few people where itās different. I would spend whatever it was. Gamers are not known to be the most affluent population of people. If somethingās even $600, it doesnāt matter how good it is, how great of an experience it is ā if they just canāt afford it, then it really might as well not exist. Weāre going for the mainstream, but time will tell what the market is."
Looks like someone sold out lol, but can any of us really blame him? Still doesnt change the fact that this is hypocritical as FUUUUUUUU.....
yea because that's why they label things as "gamer" because they won't pay more for ANYTHING that's got "gamer" attached/not a marketing strategy AT ALL.....
I was pointing out why VHS won when it should have failed.
Again as many other time VR has a wide host of problems to get over before it will be universally accepted. Flaws on something like this will be amplified by its use case making the flaws potentially impactful on the sale of all VR.
yes, and i reiterated my point that porn is an industry which, as you stated, helped VHS win. ie; VHS won because industry supported it (porn among others, and for various reasons).
Don't wholly disagree, but again this is why the release was so delayed and dev kits available for so long, along with prolific testing. It is not the same as your typical first gen hardware.... it is really 2.5 gen..... the largest problem it will have in the beginning is content (or lack of) with a wide appeal etc. Of course tech will get better.... you can say this of anything you purchase, it's how that hardware is implemented and how it is harnessed (software etc) changes that can make/break a product (as long as the hardware has potential that is...).
I know the GPU is up to it by my 4 core/8 thread processer is well over spec'ed than the requirements. I guess if you don't have on-board graphics your CPU is just up to it!
I think the pricing is actually pretty fair considering the AMA the head of Oculus did the other day. If you haven't checked it out already it's worth a read as he clears up a lot of stuff.
That being said because of the US dollar a lot of countries are getting boned in terms of how much it's actually costing. In NZ it's going to cost around 900-1000 dollars after conversion, import tax and shipping.
I won't be buying now until either the price comes down or things change with the channel and I can justify buying it and writing it off as a business expense..
