Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset went live yesterday, and after months or even years of speculation, we finally learned that the actual price for the device would be $599. The price came as a surprise for many consumers who were hoping that Rift would be a bit cheaper, and in a recent Reddit AMA (ask me anything), Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey admitted that the company could have handled the price reveal a little better.

“I handled the messaging poorly,” Luckey said. “Earlier last year, we started officially messaging that the Rift+Recommended spec PC would cost roughly $1500. That was around the time we committed to the path of prioritizing quality over cost, trying to make the best VR headset possible with current technology.”

Luckey explained that multiple publications misread his statement and began reporting that the cost of the Rift headset itself would be $1500 rather than the price of Rift with a high-end PC. He noted that for people who are already hardcore PC gamers, the cost of being able to use Oculus Rift would be much lower since they would likely already own a PC capable of handling VR.

“In a September interview, during the Oculus Connect developer conference, I made the infamous ‘roughly in that $350 ballpark, but it will cost more than that’ quote,” Luckey continued. “As an explanation, not an excuse: during that time, many outlets were repeating the ‘Rift is $1500!’ line, and I was frustrated by how many people thought that was the price of the headset itself.”

Setting consumer expectations

While Luckey said that he had attempted to readjust consumer expectations on what the final price of Rift would be, particularly over the last few weeks, he admitted that Oculus could still have done a better job.

“There are a lot of reasons we did not do a better job of prepping people who already have high end GPUs, legal, financial, competitive, and otherwise, but to be perfectly honest, our biggest failing was assuming we had been clear enough about setting expectations.”

Luckey added, “To be perfectly clear, we don’t make money on the Rift.”

It is not uncommon, especially in the gaming industry, to sell new hardware at a loss to maximize the early install base, which will arguably be one of the greatest challenges faced by VR over the next year.

Still, even if it is a loss, $599 is certainly a high barrier to entry for many potential VR fans, and Oculus will need to prove that its device is worth the price tag.

Photo by Web Summit