Oculus VR, the presumably omniscient types behind the Rift, will suspend sales of the goggles’ developer kit in the near future. Somewhat alarmingly, third-party manufacturers have stopped making bits of it. According to the company’s community manager, though, that’s a “good problem to have”.
Oculus are currently casting about for alternatives to the components no longer being manufactured – but in the meantime they don’t have the necessary materials to produces new developer kits.
Some stock remains – but the company are “quickly running out”, and will suspend sales region-by-region as their magic goggles dry up. Right now, they’re only selling and shipping to the US, the EU, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Switzerland and Norway.
Oculus “don’t yet have a timeline” for when new units will be available, but plan to “keep everyone posted”.
“We never expected to sell so many development kits and VR only made this much progress with the community’s support and enthusiasm,” community manager Andres Hernandez told /r/Oculus. “Even though we never wanted to sell out, it’s a good problem to have. Thank you!”
It certainly won’t do their sales too much harm. Some 50,000 kits are with developers already – and while Oculus send out a fellowship to uncover new relics to build their VR glasses around, the remaining units will sell like hot cakes (N.B. remember to let yours cool before pinning them to your eyes).
Do any of you lot own an early Oculus Rift? We do. That’s why we have the Oculus Rift Internet Show.
Thanks, Polygon.