Oculus Rift pre-orders now open, ships March 28

There’s no shortage of VR products available to buy, but the daddy of them all is unquestionably Oculus Rift. Unlike some rivals, this isn’t just a device you slap a smartphone in and strap to your face, it’s a full blown VR system with a sensor for tracking head position, and an input device that’s been built specially for navigating VR worlds.

The Rift has just gone up for pre-order now, and Oculus will start shipping it from March 28. It will be available in 20 countries, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. The full list of supported territories is here. It will also be available through select retailers from April.

In the box you’ll get the Rift headset with built-in headphones and mic, sensor for positional tracking, an Xbox One controller and the Oculus Remote.

Pre-orders come with Lucky’s Tale, a VR platformer developed by Playful, and access to EVE: Valkyrie through the Founder’s Pack. Rift will live or die on the titles which are available for it, but Oculus says dozens of full-length AAA games are lined up, including Minecraft, with more than 100 titles expected to be available by the end of the year.

To use the Rift you will need a compatible PC. Oculus shares the required specs:

• Graphics card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
• Processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
• Memory: 8GB+ RAM
• Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
• Input: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
• Operating system: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

If you’re not sure if your system is up to the task, you can check using the Oculus compatibility tool. Oculus is also running a certification scheme and you’ll be able to buy Oculus Ready PCs.

At this point you’re probably screaming, "but how much is it?" The Rift is priced from $599 but may cost more depending on where you are in the world. The price doesn't includes taxes or shipping.

~ Wayne Williams

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