Shipments of the Oculus Rift have been delayed for a number of customers, even those who pre-ordered the device. Many people who were told their Rifts would arrive in April have now their ship dates in the end of May or even June. If you decide to place an order for the Rift today, you’re likely to get a shipping date all the way in July.Oculus says the delay is due to an “unexpected component shortage” according to Polygon.
“The component shortage impacted our quantities more than we expected, and we’ve updated the shipment window to reflect these changes. We apologize for the delay,” reads an official statement from the company. “We’re delivering Rifts to customers every day, and we’re focused on getting Rifts out the door as fast as we can. We’ve taken steps to address the component shortage, and we’ll continue shipping in higher volumes each week. We’ve also increased our manufacturing capacity to allow us to deliver in higher quantities, faster. Many Rifts will ship less than four weeks from original estimates, and we hope to beat the new estimates we’ve provided.”
The Oculus Rift was the first out of the gate in terms of VR headsets. The HTC Vive followed shortly afterward. The Oculus had the leg up on price point as well as an earlier launch. The Vive costs about $100 more than the Oculus. The Oculus has also enjoyed the most name recognition among people outside of the tech community. Besides the Oculus and the Vive the other major player in the VR space is PlayStation VR, which is slated to launch this fall.
