Oculus Rift's $350+ price tag due to 'a lot of technology beyond DK2'

Oculus Rift will be more expensive than development kit models, because it boasts superior technology.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey won't yet commit to a price tag for the Rift's consume launch in early 2016, but has said it will be upwards of the $350 or so a dev kit costs.

"We’re roughly in that ballpark but it’s going to cost more than that," he told Road to VR.

"And the reason for that is that we’ve added a lot of technology to this thing beyond what existed in the DK1 and DK2 days."

Luckey said Oculus had to make a choice between optimising for low price or the best possible experience. Since Rift will be the first VR experience many consumers ever have, it eneds to be a good one.

"No compromises were made in terms of quality. Get the cost down as much as you can on that experience, but make it so that the Rift is something that everybody wants to use to the best of your ability," he said.

"It would really suck if you put something out there and people were like 'Ah man, the Rift is good, but it’s not quite there,' you know? 'If only it was a little better, if the lenses were a little better, if the resolution was a little better, if the screens had been a little bit better, then it would be great.'"

"Because you’d say 'God, we could have just charged a little more and put a little bit more money into custom hardware and actually achieve that.'"

Luckey said that competing technologies like Samsung's Gear VR will help provide a cheaper entry point to make sure VR is available to everyone.

"I’m confident there’s going to be VR existing at multiple quality points and price points and with the Rift, it makes sense to do what nobody else is doing which is invest in making the best possible quality headset," he said.

The full quote is significantly longer and goes into why Luckey thinks Oculus Rift's technology is worth the asking price; hit the link above for all the details.