From CBC News:
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset's retail launch in Canada has been delayed in some stores — one day before its planned release.
The Rift was scheduled to hit store shelves Tuesday, but Best Buy's site now says it's due on Oct. 11, a delay of three weeks.
A Best Buy representative confirmed the store is experiencing "unexpected delays" and that the retail chain is "working hard with Oculus to expedite orders as quickly as possible."
[...]
A Microsoft Store representative in Toronto said Rift headsets also aren't expected in their stores on Tuesday, but online orders should ship normally.
[...]
This isn't the first time Oculus has dealt with product delays. In May, Rift headsets began showing up in some stores in the U.S., while customers who had already pre-ordered a headset were told they would have to wait months for their units to arrive.With all the other challenges that VR faces in convincing consumers to buy into an essentially useless new technology, and with even VR evangelists admitting that people really need to try VR to be convinced to buy, it certainly isn't going to help that the biggest brand in VR can't even get their headsets onto store shelves. It probably shouldn't be a surprise, though; Oculus themselves are technical experts, not logistics experts, and Facebook aren't exactly in the business of manufacturing and shipping physical goods, either. Marketing is a lot easier, in some ways, than physically delivering promised products.
Oh, the Rift's other problem? Price point. Still from CBC News:
The Rift sells for $849 with the game Lucky's Tale included. A Windows PC is required for it to work.
The delay will place the Rift in stores only two days before the launch of the cheaper PlayStation VR headset, which will sell for $549, or in a bundle with a camera, two Move controllers and the game PlayStation VR Worlds for $699.
The pricier HTC Vive is currently available in Canada for $1,149.Seriously, HTC? $1149 CAD? Good luck with that, especially considering that the Vive needs a special, separate room for its room-scale set up to work at all.
Even at a relatively modest $849 CAD, though, not including the $1500 PC that you need to drive the thing (the Vive's required PC specs are basically the same), the Rift is going to be a tough sell compared to the $699 CAD PlayStation VR ($379.99 CAD PS4 not included). And PlayStation VR is going to be a tough enough sell to start with, simply because it's a basically useless toy right now, that most users aren't even going to be able to get much use out of for gaming, and none at all for anything else, given that it'll be married to a gaming console.
Did I say yet, that VR isn't going to change everything? Because I'm standing by that prediction. This is just too much money, for a product that simply doesn't do enough out of the box.
Except play Lucky's Tale, of course:
Yes, that's right... the bundled VR game that Oculus expects to blow your mind is basically Super Mario 3D World, except not quite as good. Sweet. </sarcasm>
Seriously, people... you don't need this. At any price point, really, but certainly not at $849 CAD.