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The Oculus Rift has something brewing

By Salehuddin Bin Husin - on 27 May 2015, 8:48am

The Oculus Rift has something brewing

 This view might become very familiar in a couple of years.

Last week, we talked about how the OSVR and Valve's OpenVR are hooking up and how that might be bad news for the Oculus Rift. We bet somebody at Oculus VR was thinking the same thing.

It's either that or the timing for this invite that Oculus VR sent out to the press was a pretty big coincidence.

The invite in question.

Whether it's coincidence or not, the invite is real, which makes us question what else is Oculus VR likely to reveal about the Oculus Rift? We already know the release window and the hardware requirements, which leaves only one thing left that's of interest to anybody. 

If you said price, you're right on target. That's the only thing everybody is waiting for.

With E3 just a few days away from the event, it might be a good time for Oculus VR to actually reveal the price before the event starts. Waiting to unveil at the event is risky, because Valve might be unveiling the price of the HTC Vive there. After all, since the HTC Vive is the only headset coming out this year, it makes sense to announce major details about it at the biggest gaming industry event of the year.

If both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive had price reveals, one of them will undoubtedly steal the other's thunder. An earlier unveiling would keep the Oculus Rift on everybody's mind during the lead-up to E3, which is a good strategy, even if Valve's VR overshadows the headset later on during the event.

Valve will undoubtedly go into E3 this year guns blazing. While Oculus VR has the financial muscle of Facebook behind it, Valve has gamer recognition and the ability to produce beloved games, which includes the Half-Life games and Team Fortress. It probably won't happen but if Valve announces that Half-Life 3 is coming to the exclusively to HTC Vive (and maybe the OSVR) at E3, it's not hyperbole to say that the Oculus Rift will be the last headset any PC gamer would want.

Of course, an earlier price reveal could also prove to be disastrous for the Oculus Rift.

Sega pulled the same gambit in 1995, at the beginning of the 32-bit console wars, when it tried to gain the upper hand over the Playstation. They announced that the Sega Saturn was available at select retailers at $399. At Sony's E3 conference, Sony countered by revealing that the Playstation would only cost $299. The Playstation would then go on to be one of the best selling consoles in history, while the Saturn was relegated to a footnote. While the situation is not exactly the same in this case, the point has to be made that going first could be disastrous too.

We're not saying that the same thing could happen to the Oculus Rift but there's certainly precedence for it, and history does tend to repeat itself.

Source: TechCrunch

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