Virtual reality fans around the world threw their hands up in shock when Oculus VR announced that its Rift CV1 headset would cost $600 to pre-order, as it was expected that it would come in much closer to the price of the DK2, which originally went on sale for $350. While that cushioned the blow though, the biggest price tag for VR hardware so far has been for the HTC Vive, which came in at $800 with its pre-order last week.
The reason for that price gap makes sense: the Rift ships without touch controllers, is using subsidised hardware and has all of that Facebook money so doesn't need to worry about making anything from the hardware.
But in actuality, the Rift may end up costing just as much as the Vive when its controllers ship. Admittedly the Vive doesn't come with an Xbox gamepad and doesn't have built in headphones, but we're been told before that they don't really affect the price of the headset bundle.
RoadToVR believes that the Touch controllers will come in at around $200 for the pair, including the additional Constellation tracking camera, which would even out pricing between the two platforms. There is some suggestion that the Touch controllers will be more complex and potentially more valuable, but then they are releasing later, which may help reduce costs.
Perhaps the biggest suggestion as to why they won't cost more than $200 though, is because that would make the Rift the more expensive system. At this early stage in development, if the Rift's full price for tracked controllers and headset came in at more than the HTC Vive, that would not help it become the dominant VR hardware choice.
