Things haven’t really gone well for Oculus VR with the launch of the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD). Many customers who pre-ordered the device in January were expecting the HMD to arrive at launch day on 28th March, or shortly after. Many still haven’t received their order with some being given a new shipment date stretching into June 2016. Today Oculus VR has announced details on its retail plans including something to appease pre-order customers.
Launching on 7th May 2016, Oculus Rift will be available at 48 Best Buy locations across the US as part of The Intel Experience. Then later this summer further headset demo locations will be added to Best Buy stores.
The company will have a small quota of devices available to purchase (total amount undisclosed), but in a blog posting Oculus VR does state that: “Quantities will be extremely limited while we catch up on Rift pre-orders.”
Many customers have been venting their frustration online about the fact Oculus VR has been holding onto headsets for retailers while many pre-orders are left unfulfilled. To address this the company now notes: “We know that many pre-order customers are still waiting for their Rifts, so we’re offering those customers a chance to purchase Rift from retail instead – while keeping their pre-order benefits, like the EVE: Valkyrie Founder’s Pack and priority status for Touch pre-orders. Starting May 6th, if you’re interested, simply go to your order status and let us know you’ve purchased a Rift at retail, and we’ll cancel your pre-order. Your EVE: Valkyrie entitlement will appear in your order history.”
While this may help some customers it certainly won’t help everyone, but Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has said in a recent tweet: “Good news for pre-orders. Best case scenario given the situation. Expanding retail after we catch up will be huge.”
The blog has also announced a new app called Oculus Live is being introduced to help people schedule demos at the participating Best Buy locations.
Time will tell is this works in Oculus VR’s favour, until then VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest news on Oculus Rift.
