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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

MowTin
Expert Trustee
It's all about price point. When you can get full wireless standalone VR for $300, that's when you'll see mass adoption. 

As it is now, Oculus is selling to the high end PC market which is niche. 

I don't care. I got my CV1 and will be playing flight sims and racing sims until the rest of the world catches up. 
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

flexy123
Superstar
Oculus Doom == BS. It's long known that high-end VR, like Oculus or the Vive will have a slow start and that the initial wave of VR will happen in the mobile sector. This is nothing new.

Low prices so that people can afford actual VR (and not some mobile gimmicky BS) is the BEST thing that could happen to VR!

CrashFu
Consultant
Oculus Rift not $300 = DOOMED. Needs to cost less, now!

Oculus Rift lowers price to $600 (bundle) = Why does it cost less now!? It must be DOOMED.  But also it still costs too much, so DOUBLE DOOMED.

Oculus Rift goes on sale for $400 (bundle) = OMG SO DOOMED!


There's just no pleasing some people.

Also, some people really shouldn't be working in Tech Journalism.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

kojack
MVP
MVP

CrashFu said:

Oculus Rift not $300 = DOOMED. Needs to cost less, now!

Oculus Rift lowers price to $600 (bundle) = Why does it cost less now!? It must be DOOMED.  But also it still costs too much, so DOUBLE DOOMED.

Oculus Rift goes on sale for $400 (bundle) = OMG SO DOOMED!


There's just no pleasing some people.

Also, some people really shouldn't be working in Tech Journalism.


Plus we'll get all the people complaining that the price drop isn't fair because they paid more in the past, just like we did when the touch went cheaper.

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2

flexy123
Superstar
>>
Mark Zuckerberg said that the medium would "become a part of daily life for billions of people".

This is the key here, folks! Zuckerberg KNEW exactly why it was worth $2b+ to him buying Oculus.
Mind you: facebook <--- THE biggest site on earth with 2b users and soon 3b...and it is this, SOCIAL, among other things, where VR *will* make its greatest impact and where it will become mainstream. NOT SO MUCH GAMES. And Zuck knows this! He knows the potential VR has, not unlike Palmer. The two are, believe it or not, very much the same with their enthusiasm and "vision" for VR.

It is not THIS time yet, however. VR is still "too niche" right now that fb would pump lots of money and work into R&D of a VR facebook. It is still too early for this to do this on a grand scale. This only makes sense once many, many more people have VR. And offering VR as cheap as possible is one way to get there.

I think that Zuckerberg knows that in 5, 7, 10 years....no person on Earth will go on a lame "website" like facebook anymore where their family and friends are. It is a joke compared to the potential VR has. You and I, we have seen it, conferences, meetings, music events, theatre, art galleries etc..in VR. The early adopters can literally "feel" the potential which is there today already..but it's still something "alien" for the average person. Granny is maybe already ordering plane tickets for her next FL vacation "on the internet", but we're still not at the point where Granny "goes into VR" to see her grand children who may be on the other side of the planet. But we're getting there. Zuck knows it will be happening because he's no dummy.

kojack
MVP
MVP
Slashdot has a story titled "The Oculus Rift Still Isn't Selling, In a Worrying Sign For VR".

That's based on a story from MIT Technology Review which starts with:
"Another Price Slash Suggests the Oculus Rift Is Dead in the Water
Facebook hopes that it can finally sell the thing if it undercuts its cheapest rival."

They also say:
"Jason Rubin, vice president for content at Oculus, tells Reuters that the reduction isn’t a sign of weak product sales, but rather a decision to give the headset more mass market appeal now that more games are available.
Don’t believe it: this is the latest in a string of bad news for the firm, which has also shut down its nascent film studio, shuttered in-store demo stations of its hardware, and stumped up $250 million as part of a painful intellectual property lawsuit in the last six months."

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Good going Slashdot.

Here are some other interesting reads:

When Was The Exact Day Slashdot Jumped The Shark?
http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/post/when_was_the_exact_day_slashdo.html

User Backlash to Slashdot.org Beta
https://www.reddit.com/r/socialmedia/comments/1x77zt/user_backlash_to_slashdotorg_beta/

Slashdot Sucks
https://everything2.com/title/Slashdot+Sucks

Why Slashdot Sucks
http://www.xdroop.com/content/1010311095.html
But if there's one thing I have no tolerance for, it's the geek phenomenon known as slashdot.org, the sorriest case for content on the web I've ever seen pawned off and gleefully accepted by the masses.

When I look at magazines, newspapers, or any other source of information, I judge them on three items: usefulness/uniqueness of content, quality of that content, and the depth of coverage regarding that content.

Slashdot has none of these things. And yet people try to convince me that the people who run that website are working hard at it.

Gizardpuke
Honored Guest
whats going on with mobiles isnt VR, its AR, they are rather different. 

inovator
Consultant
Facebook knew this was a long term investment. I believe high end vr will be sustainable but struggle along for a time. The breakthrough will probably be with the next generation. I'm going to enjoy being a pioneer. As far as the news, there are plenty of morons spewing misinformation. There are also many competent articles out there. People that don't like vr will report it is bad even if it's the same fov and visuals  of the human eye.

kzintzi
Trustee

vannagirl said:

urgggh

i forget,

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


the problem is that people are wired to be pessimistic and look for the bad thing all the time... our brains are wired to look for things that may eat us (tigers in the grass)... it's why we see "SNAKE" when we see a rope in the grass - our brains look for the worst possible result of a pattern match, so we can jump out of the way of the pointy/nasty things.

either that or people are just @rsehats and we should throw rocks at them :tongue:
Though you are more than slightly incoherent, I agree with you Madam,
a plum is a terrible thing to do to a nostril.