Oh this is hilarious...

Hrimnir

http://anandtech.com/show/9921/oculus-vr-reveals-retail-price-of-its-virtual-reality-headset-599

Should we start calling it the hindenburg or the titanic?  What do you guys think?

GrumpyHobbit

Is this raising anything new that wasn't mentioned in the thread about the OR a few days ago?

Kiyoris

There's been like 10 threads about this. But yah...VR is going to fail with that price.

GrumpyHobbit

Already sold a bucket load and new technology always starts expensive. Did you buy the first ever Mobile phone, Ipad, Flat screen TV, SSD, Cd player, Walkman.....the list goes on.


The success of a product isn't necessarily linked to it's initial price (or standard price, I mean MACS are just PC's but for double the price!) and is more reliant on how effective it is at providing a new service or replacing an existing one.

Nasa

Maybe call it the start of the VR era?.
It seems they know the price is very high and therefore not sell many the first year. But at least now it seems to start.

Kiyoris

GrumpyHobbit said:

Already sold a bucket load and new technology always starts expensive. Did you buy the first ever Ipad, walkman

Why are you even getting upvotes, what you say isn't even true.

iPad was $499 on launch in 2010.
The iPad Air 2 is $499 in 2015.

The first Sony wakman was $150 in 1997.
The Sony S series walkman is $150 in 2015.

The price didn't go down at all.

Kyleran

At one time PC gaming was focused on and limited to people of fairly substantial means, but eventually came down to a point appealing to the masses.

If the concept is well accepted by the early adopters, same pattern will likely occur.

GrumpyHobbit

Apple products are a bit weird, probably should have left the Ipad out of it as it seems people are just stupid when It comes to Apple products (as I said, the MAC is just a PC but for twice the price).

But look at pretty much any new technology and you see the same trend. High initial price, then as the product becomes popular and mass production savings come into play then the price drops.

Wait till either a rival product is released and they have a price war or till enough of the original product has been sold to recuperate initial production and development costs then the price will move towards making it mainstream.

Kiyoris

The truth of the matter is that Virtual Reality, will always demand at least twice the processing power and twice the memory from a GPU.

It needs to render 2 separate viewpoints, and needs a frame buffer twice the size.

That means Virtual Reality will remain expensive, even if somehow the device itself goes down in price, which I doubt it will. Niche products tend to remain expensive. (if you think VR will go mainstream, you're delusional)

BillMurphy

I is really way too expensive except for the hardcore enthusiasts and early adopters. 2016 won't be the year of mass VR acceptance. It's the year people start to see if the content and viability of the experiment as a platform will be there.  

Personally, I won't be getting a Rift unless Oculus sends out units for review, and we'll let you know if that's the case. When it's 300 or so, maybe. 

Adjuvant1

$600 is going to be paltry, once some of these people wake up to realize they'll need a completely new rig to use the thing. Maybe it will be a new running joke on Pawn Stars, like Battletoads. This, of course, before people find out it's an amazing conductor of MRSA.

Cereal2K

The main problem the oculus has is that up to the reveal of the actual price it's been said the price would be around 400 bucks (or even as low as 350).
Imo HTC did the right thing they said right off the bat it's going to be more expensive than the quoted price for the Oculus at the time, and later clarified they assume the price of the vive to be around 700 bucks. While still a lot of money at least people could manage their expectations accordingly or start to save up.
The only thing that annoys me about Oculus' pricing is their frankly ridiculous markup for the european market 699 Euros + 42 Euros shipping...to my friends in the states thats 805$.
Not that it affects me I'm getting an HTC model anyways but I still find a price increase of around 30% just a slap in the face.
Edit: I just realized it's not really a markup but covers the 19% salestax as well as customs - *cough* Well at least I'm honest enough to admit my mistake, guess I complained a little too early there ^^

Kiyoris

GrumpyHobbit said:

But look at pretty much any new technology and you see the same trend. High initial price, then the price drops.

But this isn't new technology. It's not like "flat screen" TV at all.

VR uses existing technology, it doesn't use special components. The screens it uses are smartphone screens, and the chips are nothing special.

VR isn't new technology.

aegolin

Kiyoris said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

Already sold a bucket load and new technology always starts expensive. Did you buy the first ever Ipad, walkman

Why are you even getting upvotes, what you say isn't even true.

iPad was $499 on launch in 2010.
The iPad Air 2 is $499 in 2015.

The first Sony wakman was $150 in 1997.
The Sony S series walkman is $150 in 2015.

The price didn't go down at all.

Let me see....... you dont have a PhD in Economics right? 'cause there is something called Inflation and those 1997's 150$ were a hell of alotmoremoney that todays 150$

GrumpyHobbit

Kiyoris said:

The truth of the matter is that Virtual Reality, will always demand at least twice the processing power and twice the memory from a GPU.

It needs to render 2 separate viewpoints, and needs a frame buffer twice the size.

That means Virtual Reality will remain expensive, even if somehow the device itself goes down in price, which I doubt it will. Niche products tend to remain expensive. (if you think VR will go mainstream, you're delusional)

Niche products are only niche until they become popular....look at computers and online gaming. When I was at school the other kids were breakdancing and I was the nerdy guy who did things on computers.


Hell go back to when computers first came out one of the modern thinkers (can't remember the exact quote or who said it) said there would be a need for about 5 computers in the world. I think VR is something that will be mainstream, eventually tough we will use little contact lenses or a direct plug in.

Kiyoris

aegolin said:

Kiyoris said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

Already sold a bucket load and new technology always starts expensive. Did you buy the first ever Ipad, walkman

Why are you even getting upvotes, what you say isn't even true.

iPad was $499 on launch in 2010.
The iPad Air 2 is $499 in 2015.

The first Sony wakman was $150 in 1997.
The Sony S series walkman is $150 in 2015.

The price didn't go down at all.

Let me see....... you dont have a PhD in Economics right? 'cause there is something called Inflation and those 1997's 150$ were a hell of alotmoremoney that todays 150$

The iPad with inflation would be $541 today. So it dropped..what...7% or something.. in price? Basically nothing.

Kiyoris

GrumpyHobbit said:

Niche products are only niche until they become popular

The closest thing to VR is stereoscopic 3D, and it remains a niche today.


This thing bombed:

GrumpyHobbit

Kiyoris said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

But look at pretty much any new technology and you see the same trend. High initial price, then the price drops.

But this isn't new technology. It's not like "flat screen" TV at all.

VR uses existing technology, it doesn't use special components. The screens it uses are smartphone screens, and the chips are nothing special.

VR isn't new technology.

LOL I mist have forgotten to buy my VR set back in the good old days when everyone was using it...

A new car is still a new car even if the Wheel has been around for Millennia.

Hrimnir

Kyleran said:

At one time PC gaming was focused on and limited to people of fairly substantial means, but eventually came down to a point appealing to the masses.

If the concept is well accepted by the early adopters, same pattern will likely occur.

The utterly massive difference is a PC is capable of a great many things.  This VR headset is capable of... oh thats right, 1 very limited thing.

Kiyoris

GrumpyHobbit said:

LOL I mist have forgotten to buy my VR set back in the good old days when everyone was using it...

And you didn't why? Because VR failed.

In fact VR has failed just as many times as stereoscopic 3D has.

The similarities between VR and 3D market failures are shocking.

mgilbrtsn

Oculus is only 1 company.  There are others out there.  Just because they are priced high, doesn't mean the death of the entire platform.  Also, while this is the MMO community, people need to realize that MMOs and gaming is by no means the only application of the technology.  Travel, culture, ..... dare I say it .... porn.  There is enough variety of applications that make VR very viable.

Hrimnir

mgilbrtsn said:

Oculus is only 1 company.  There are others out there.  Just because they are priced high, doesn't mean the death of the entire platform.  Also, while this is the MMO community, people need to realize that MMOs and gaming is by no means the only application of the technology.  Travel, culture, ..... dare I say it .... porn.  There is enough variety of applications that make VR very viable.

Literally the ONLY thing that will save VR is porn.  If anyone thinks otherwise they have their heads seated very deeply in their rear ends.

Kiyoris

GrumpyHobbit

Kiyoris said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

LOL I mist have forgotten to buy my VR set back in the good old days when everyone was using it...

And you didn't why? Because VR failed.

In fact VR has failed just as many times as stereoscopic 3D has.

The similarities between VR and 3D market failures are shocking.

OK keep thinking VR now is exactly the same is it has always been and nothing new is happening.

Kiyoris

GrumpyHobbit said:

Kiyoris said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

LOL I mist have forgotten to buy my VR set back in the good old days when everyone was using it...

And you didn't why? Because VR failed.

In fact VR has failed just as many times as stereoscopic 3D has.

The similarities between VR and 3D market failures are shocking.

OK keep thinking VR now is exactly the same is it has always been and nothing new is happening.

name me a consumer technology that failed multiple times but is now successful

Adjuvant1

GrumpyHobbit said:

Kiyoris said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

LOL I mist have forgotten to buy my VR set back in the good old days when everyone was using it...

And you didn't why? Because VR failed.

In fact VR has failed just as many times as stereoscopic 3D has.

The similarities between VR and 3D market failures are shocking.

OK keep thinking VR now is exactly the same is it has always been and nothing new is happening.

Nothing new is happening. There's not a mind-machine interface. There's not even some technical aspect that "tricks the brain" into some sensory illusion of "actually being there". It's a monitor you wear on your face. Touch your nose to the screen you're reading right now, with a blanket over your head. Voila, virtual reality.