Oculus Rift: What I Think

The price for the Oculus Rift was released alongside preordering earlier this month. Coming in at $599 USD, consumers receive a bundle of goodies with there purchase. First and foremost is the Oculus itself along with an Xbox One controller, a remote, a tracking sensor and two games(Lucky’s Tale and Eve: Valkyrie). The price reveal came as a bit of a shock to many gamers around the world. So what do I think about the Oculus? I find myself firmly planted within the cynics camp on the matter. This has little to do with price point and more so the tech itself. Now before I begin to ramble about why I am skeptical of the VR revolution, it is important to note that I have not tried VR in any  iteration. Before you say it, no I am not a Luddite. I am not opposed to trying the tech and would be open to having my opinion changed. With that aside here are two of the reasons I am cynical:

Past or Future?

1. Lack of Gaming Content: Hypothetically speaking, say I won the Powerball last Wednesday and was now flush with cash. Would I preorder an OR for myself and all my friends? Nope. The lack of interesting and available games is to blame. Sure there are some games out there, but none that seem like a ‘system’ seller to me. Now as the system becomes more widely adopted and valued by publishers this may change, but at this point in time there is nothing that really gravitates me towards the experience. The appeal of virtual reality, at least to me is in gaming and so far there is little to no reason to grab the device.
2. Wearing the Thing: I currently rock a Logitech wireless headset and find that it is an annoyance. I’ve had it for a couple years now and still notice its existence. The idea of wearing a device, taking it off and on to use the bathroom, answer the door, go to the kitchen, look at your phone and so on is unappealing to me. There is also a concern of the unknown physiological impacts of wearing the device for extended periods of time.

While writing this, I realized I am not an early adopter. To those who are, I’m happy for you. You believe in a technology enough to make a sizable investment into helping grow the platform into future iterations.The Rift’s price marketing aside it is really a remarkable piece of tech. However like many groundbreaking technologies, there is growing pains. I await the moment I can sit down and put my VR cynicism to the test.