Since the folks over at Oculus announced its Rift headset, we"ve seen numerous documented demonstrations of what the Rift is capable of. We know that Microsoft is a big partner for Rift and that the headset will support Windows and eventually both OSX and Linux. We also know that games aren"t the only targeted market for Rift. Yet, for all we"ve known about this device, the actual release date has been unknown. That is about to change.
Starting January 6, everyone will be able to begin placing preorders for the Oculus Rift. There"s no official release date or price being offered as of yet, but the folks over at Oculus say that they"ll be "sharing everything you need to know to order your Rift on Wednesday when pre-orders go live". That will include a Reddit AMA forum on Jan. 6 @ 6pm for interested buyers to get their questions answered before putting their money down.
The Rift will launch with a pair of games: Lucky"s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie. Other games will be supported at launch, including Harmonix"s Rock Band 4. In order to experience all the Rift has to offer, you"ll want to have the following recommended hardware specs:
- NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
- Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
- 8GB+ RAM
- Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- 2x USB 3.0 ports
- Windows 7 SP1 or newer
UPDATE: Oculus Rift has been confirmed for a March release and will retail for $599.
Source: Oculus