With less than a day to go to launch of consumer pre-orders, Oculus has announced their intention to offer FREE Rifts to their Kickstarter backers who qualify for one. Yes, you read that correctly. Anyone who backed the campaign and received the early DK 1 model as a result will receive a free consumer model.
The update on the Kickstarter page reads:
“As a small token of our appreciation for your support, all Kickstarter backers who pledged for a Rift development kit will get a free Kickstarter Edition Oculus Rift! And like all Rift pre-order purchasers, you’ll receive a bundled copy of Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie.
“To claim your free Rift, fill out the survey you’ll receive from Kickstarter before February 1, 2016 and provide a shipping address that is located in one of the 20 countries Rift is launching in. For those who don’t live in one of those 20 countries, we’re working on an alternative, and you can let us know your preference in the form.”
Even with that stellar announcement, some details remain unclear. Many users are concerned that the demand for the platform will outpace production capability. And honestly, this is always an issue with popular media or technology. It’s rather difficult to gauge exact numbers for demand at the best of times. The safe assumption is that with Facebook sinking Billions of dollars into the future of VR, they won’t let their pet be led astray by supply issues.
With a lot of companies-including CCP with Valkyrie-staking their claim in the VR arena, these next few months will be an entertaining drama to say the least. With the inclusion of EVE Valkyrie with pre-orders, there is no doubt that there will be folks at CCP waiting with abated breath to see initial results come the 8AM PST opening for Rift pre-orders on January 6.
According to Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey, there is no reason to fret over not being able to get an Oculus Rift headset. There will be no shortage of available units, he said on Twitter.
No chance of Rift preorders “selling out”, we will keep taking preorders for as long as people want EVE: Valkyrie!
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 4, 2016
