You Can Now Pre-Order the Oculus Rift VR System. Here’s How Much It Will Cost You

How much is virtual reality worth to you?

If you’ve been salivating over the chance to own your very own VR headset, the moment you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. The Oculus Rift is available for preorder as of Wednesday on the official Oculus website.

But being the first of your friends to sample the pleasures of VR gaming cost you: Exploring virtual worlds and experience the wonders of gaming immersion will cost you a cool $599.

Is that worth it for an untested system? Sure, every Rift bundle comes with a copy of both Lucky’s Tale, a colorful platformer, and CCP’s space sim EVE: Valkyrie for your trouble, but these are hardly indicative of the wealth of content that’s coming for virtual reality enthusiasts. There’s a whole cadre of developers out there hard at work on experimental (and, hopefully, groundbreaking) titles specifically for the Rift. You’re not just paying for the games, but to plant your flag in new — and hugely popular, potentially — gaming ecosystem.

The first batch of Oculus Rift pre-order kits will ship on March 28th, and if you were smart enough to go ahead and support the Oculus Rift back when it just a wee Kickstarter fad, you’ll receive your own free retail version in the coming months as well.
But don’t go all crazy and order 10 to hand out to family and friends (or to flip online): there’s a limit of one order per person, and one Rift per order.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Oculus fares in the coming VR wars, with Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, and HTC all throwing their hats into the ring with new devices in the coming years. Who will emerge victorious in the end? Probably the one that’s the most affordable, if we’re being honest.