Oculus dreams of offering a free, subsidized Rift
The Oculus Rift being offered as a free product is just one "fantasy idea" posited by Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe. "We have all kinds of fantasy ideas," Iribe told Edge at last week's Develop conference in Brighton. Though the company is set on a $300 price for the virtual-reality headset at the moment, there is "potential that it could get much less expensive with a few different relationships and strategies."
Iribe also said, "You can imagine if Microsoft and Sony can go out and subsidize consoles because there's enough money to be made on software and other areas, then there's the potential that this, in partnership, could get subsidized."
He stressed caution, however, since Oculus isn't "there yet," and the company is constantly thinking about how it can offer the Oculus Rift free of charge. "You want everybody to play it and the cheaper it is, the more people are going to go out and buy it. Today it's a $300 dev kit but we're thinking about how to get it out to as many people as possible."
The Oculus Rift is currently only available as a $300 developer's kit. Oculus has yet to announce when the consumer version will hit retail.
