Price — one of the biggest hurdles to widespread adoption of high-end virtual reality devices — just got a temporary cheat code for anyone considering the Oculus Rift.
Starting Monday, the price of Oculus Rift and the Oculus Touch controllers will be reduced, for a limited time, to $399 at all stores (Best Buy, Amazon, and all others where it’s available).
This represents a huge price cut that suddenly puts the VR device on a par with popular gaming consoles like the PlayStation and the Xbox. And while the Rift isn’t solely a gaming device, that comparison may help some who have been teetering on the edge of diving into VR esports, but are put off by the price of the Rift.
The price drop also goes a long way toward dramatically reducing the overall price of VR set-ups when you factor in the additional price of buying a VR-ready PC, which is necessary when using the Rift.
Just last year, the Oculus was being sold for $600, which rose to $800 overall when you added the cost of its $200 Touch controllers (in my opinion, the Rift is only truly worth it when you use Touch).
Then, four months ago, Oculus decided to reduce the overall price of the Rift and Touch, allowing users to buy the entire set-up for $600.
That price drop not only eased some of the cost of entry into high-end VR, it also put more pressure on Oculus’ main competitor, the HTC Vive, which costs $800.
But now, with this temporary price drop making the Rift and Touch literally half the cost of the Vive, picking the bulkier,…
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