
Controversy has sprung up around the Oculus Rift, one of the first robust commercially available virtual reality devices of this generation, after the Facebook-owned Oculus announced that the headset will be available in stores before the pre-orders have been filled.
Customers were able to pre-order the Rift starting on Jan. 6. Other units were given out as part of the Kickstarter that started it all, but even all of those weren’t in backers’ hands by the time the Rift came to retail stores on May 6. A “small number” of units will be available at Best Buy, Amazon, and Microsoft’s online store.
The Rift package includes the headset, a movement sensor, a remote, an Xbox One controller, and two free VR games. At the time that preorders opened, the device was expected to ship starting March 28, then come to retail in April. Oculus is aware this is an issue for people who already preordered: they’re offering to still give out pre-order bonus material (namely the game EVE: Valkyrie) if the buyer cancels their pre-order because they’ve already picked up the device at a store.
Oculus hasn’t said why they ended up shipping devices to retail stores first instead of fulfilling the preorders. Shipping was delayed several times already from the original date in March, so deadlines might have flip-flopped as the preorders were mailed out later than expected. Now, they’re working on fulfilling both at the same time: “Quantities will be extremely limited while we catch up on Rift pre-orders,” a recent blog post read.
Best Buy has wrapped considerable hype around the agreement: you can schedule time with a demo version of the Rift at one of the retail stores using an online check-in.