14 DAY TRIAL // Brendan Iribe, the chief executive officer of the company working on the Oculus Rift, is saying that those who are interested in getting the virtual reality device and a computer that can power the experiences associated with it should be ready to spend around 1,500 dollars (1,400 Euro).
The statement is quoted by Recode and was delivered at the Code Conference event in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Iribe states, "We are looking at an all-in price, if you have to go out and actually need to buy a new computer and you’re going to buy the Rift … at most you should be in that $1,500 range."
The CEO also says that as the technology progresses and the cost associated with top-of-the-line hardware decreases he would like to see the price for the Oculus Rift package drop under the 1,000 dollars (900 Euro) milestone.
Iribe has not offered a clear price for the headset itself but given the hardware requirements that were revealed for it seems that those who want to pick up the consumer version will have to pay somewhere between 400 and 500 dollars (340 to 450 Euro).
The fact that the Oculus Rift will be an expensive proposition for those who want to use it might be a problem in the long-term for the virtual reality solution.
At the moment, launch is set to take place during the first quarter of next year but not the exact window has been mentioned.
Other VR solutions have not announced their own prices
The Oculus Rift is the first virtual reality solution that managed to gain the attention of the public, which funded the initial development process using crowdfunding.
The company has since then been acquired by Facebook, which has said that it sees the hardware as important to its own growth because it can be used in interesting ways to enhance interactions between people.
The Oculus Rift will need to compete with the Vive, which is created by HTC and Valve, Project Morpheus, which Sony is developing for the PlayStation 4, and the HoloLens concept from Microsoft.
Neither of the rivals have so far announced a clear launch price, which might be a sign that the entire field of VR devices will be expensive for those who want to be first adopters.