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Oculus Rift price slashed again amid concerns over sales - Mainstream Media Spells Oculus DOOM

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary

Oculus Rift price slashed again amid concerns over sales - SKY NEWS


I'll just post some quotes from the article and highlight some key points with my opinion on this misleading reporting. It also doesn't sound very impartial if you ask me. Some very misinformed statements. You can take that as you will, but I think SKY News is quite a highly visible news outlet which will be giving the wrong impression to a lot of people.

"Facebook has slashed the price of its Oculus Rift headset and motion controllers again, as the gaming market continues to show signs of hesitation in embracing the VR system."

This is a comment focusing on Oculus Rift but the hesitation is something which isn't unique to Oculus/Facebook but Sony, HTC and everyone else in the market. However, the Oculus designed Gear VR happens to have some healthy market penetration which isn't mentioned here. The use of the word "again" is cleverly used to suggest a company struggling to sell their product. Plus as Zenbane always points out VR isn't just about the gaming market.

"It is the second time this year Oculus' price has been reduced. In March the bundle's price was slashed by £140."
Again, this seems to suggest Oculus struggling to sell the product with another price cut only months earlier. It's not a price cut though it's actually a Summer promotion event. Oculus aren't the first company to offer a SALE.
"Before the discounts, the headset, which offers a 360-degree panoramic view, was described as "obscenely cheap" by its founder, Palmer Luckey."


This comment is a snide dig at Oculus  rather than taking the SALE at face value. Shameful quoting there and ignoring the natural progressive of electronics generally becoming cheaper over time. The Rift does much more than simply "offer a 360-degree panoramic view". Codswallop. Good job in simplifying what VR actually is.

"But unlike consoles, the Rift cannot be used by itself - it requires a powerful gaming computer, which could set consumers back more than £1,000."
Very misleading. It can be read two ways. You will need to spend an additional £1000 on a PC to run the Rift, or the combined £399 on Rift and £600 on PC. It reads more like the former though doesn't it.
"Mr Rubin also attempted to placate fears that the current model of the Rift would be quickly made redundant by the development of a new, potentially lighter and cheaper model."
Speculative nonsense, again undermining the SALE news here. There is no evidence to suggest a revision  is to be released anytime this year.

"The relatively slow speed at which Oculus has managed to ship units will not have delighted its parent company Facebook, which acquired the company for $2bn in 2014."

Conjecture. There is no evidence to support this claim is there? This is a purely speculative comment.


"At the time Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said that the medium would "become a part of daily life for billions of people".
However that has not happened - and it is unclear if that is because of high prices, something inherent in the technology or another reason.
A naive representation to say the least. Does SKY news expect billions to be sold in a few years. A bit of research would show that this was an end goal of Zuckerberg and not something that will happen in year 1 or 2 of a product launch.


Just adding salt into the wound to discredit Oculus with this unrelated comment. Again, to suggest a troubled company.


So folks this is how mainstream media is reporting a Summer Sale for the Oculus Rift and if you Google other articles there's a lot of negative spin being applied to this news. The SKY article though is not very impartial reporting and reading into the sale with pure speculation as to why Oculus are raising awareness of its product. No mention that it's possible Oculus has reduced the production costs, rather Oculus is struggling to penetrate its product into the market. No mention of its competitors either who are also in the same boat but charging more money. 

"Infamy, Infamy, they have got it in for me." 











System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.
38 REPLIES 38

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Shadowmask72 said:
But unlike TVs with built in tuners, the Rift as a display device cannot be used by itself - it requires a reasonably competent computer, which could cost consumers up to £1,000 for a high end system or under £400 for a budget system if purchasing a new PC rather than upgrading an existing system.




Anonymous
Not applicable
The quality of journalism during the last 20 years or so has gone right down the toilet unfortunately and it wasn't great 20 years ago either lol :open_mouth:


vannagirl said:

urgggh

i forget,

every time something good happens, we get this kind of article



Nail on the head vannagirl.  What this shows is an agenda.  

The article was either "VR for the Masses, Hoorah" or "VR is failing" and Sky News (a hugely derided news outlet here in the UK, only a smidgen better than the BBC) chose the latter.
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

HiThere_
Superstar
More like Facebook is finally getting serious about kickstarting VR : I don't know what a good starting price is, but 2016's ~800$ wasn't it. The only reason I purchased it at that price is because I spent ~5 years waiting (and financially preparing) for it.

JohnnyDioxin
Expert Trustee
Or a Vive owner, who secretly reads the Oculus forum (in between using Revive to play his fave Oculus Home games), winding up the Oculus community - knowing this would get picked up and linked to in this forum.

btw - there is no such thing as journalism these days. Only sensationalism.

i5 9600k @4.5GHz; 16GB DDR4 3200; 6xSSD; RTX2080ti; Gigabyte Z390D Mobo
Rift CV1; Index; Quest; Quest 2

Calmfixup
Heroic Explorer
This article is such utter crap.

I get that you feel the need to condescend and misrepresent literally everything, but please just stay the hell away from my favorite hobby, which also happens to be an important technology that is in every way a part of the future of all media.



vannagirl
Consultant



vannagirl said:

urgggh

i forget,

every time something good happens, we get this kind of article



Nail on the head vannagirl.  What this shows is an agenda.  

The article was either "VR for the Masses, Hoorah" or "VR is failing" and Sky News (a hugely derided news outlet here in the UK, only a smidgen better than the BBC) chose the latter.


yes

this hate train became boring in back in 2014




Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are. 

vannagirl
Consultant

Zenbane said:


Shadowmask72 said:
But unlike TVs with built in tuners, the Rift as a display device cannot be used by itself - it requires a reasonably competent computer, which could cost consumers up to £1,000 for a high end system or under £400 for a budget system if purchasing a new PC rather than upgrading an existing system.






my brother recent tv was over 2.5k

what of the other so expensive consumer products

ohh ofc, facebook does not make tvs 😕
Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are. 

Calmfixup
Heroic Explorer

vannagirl said:


Zenbane said:


Shadowmask72 said:
But unlike TVs with built in tuners, the Rift as a display device cannot be used by itself - it requires a reasonably competent computer, which could cost consumers up to £1,000 for a high end system or under £400 for a budget system if purchasing a new PC rather than upgrading an existing system.






my brother recent tv was over 2.5k

what of the other so expensive consumer products

ohh ofc, facebook does not make tvs 😕


Right? Homeowners spend far more on things they would use far less than a VR capable PC... riding lawnmowers, top of the line grills, hot tubs, pools, stereo equipment...the list goes on.

It's not the price, it's people writing articles scaring away consumers and would-be adopters.


madamluck
Heroic Explorer
Well I saw some articles putting oculus is bad lighting because why drop the price so low? Must have problems! So they have their own personal opinions on why... and we all know opinions are like a**holes, everyone has them! And they all stink! Lol
But from other forums I've seen online , this sale is a HUGE hit! People who were on the fence are no longer. Even some people who wanted the vive have caved and got a rift instead. I bought mine a few months ago and while the price drop has me a little salty at the same time I never regretted paying the price I did.. it was worth the amount I spent and with the price drop I think people are crazy if they don't get it now!