Facebook’s Oculus division is seeking to bring virtual reality (VR) to more people by means of a significant price cut to its Rift headsets.
The social-media firm reduced the price of its Oculus Rift headset from $599 from $499. The price of the Oculus Touch system has been dropped to $99 from $199.
The $200 discount will reduce the price of the PC-based VR kit to $598.
If users want to take their VR experience to the next level, they can buy an additional Oculus sensor, which enables room-scale VR tracking, for $59. Originally, each sensor had a price tag of $79.
Oculus vice president of content Jason Rubin said in a blog post that the price drop is part of the company’s plan to reach a broader audience.
Rubin said: “We believe this lower entry price will attract consumers to PC VR at a faster pace.
“This is universally good for the entire community, but especially for developers. A larger user base means higher potential sales, easier player matching, better communities, and results in the ability to invest more in titles. This increased investment means better software which in turn brings more consumers.”
The price drop comes nearly a year after Oculus first shipped the Rift headset. Facebook acquired Oculus for $2bn in 2014.
At that time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set a target of selling 50 to 100 million of Oculus units over the next decade.
Oculus has not revealed sales figures for Rift, but Sony recently confirmed to The New York Times that unit sales of the PlayStation VR is nearing the 1 million mark.
SuperData Research said that HTC sold about 420,000 Vive headsets in 2016, while sales of Oculus Rift headsets stood at 243,000.
