Thousands of fans have pre-ordered the Oculus Rift and are now clamoring for more information of when their orders will be shipped. Unfortunately, the Oculus site released a blog today not about when the invested fans will be able to get their hands on the virtual reality headset, but instead when the general public will see the Oculus Rift in stores.
Later this week, a very limited amount of headsets will be available at 48 Best Buys locations in the US. The retail initiation and demos are set to work as part of The Intel Experience, an interactive presentation of technology at select Best Buy locations.
The demo intends to be the first opportunity for many users to experience the virtual reality for the first time. It includes the popular Oculus Dreamdeck, rock climbing experience The Climb, and further into the summer they will also include Farlands, a vignette focused on exploring and discovering an alien world.
Buyers can either go to the brick and mortar locations, or they can order their Rift online from Microsoft and Amazon starting May 6 at 9 am PST. Potential customers are even able to use the new website to search for a Best Buy location near them that will feature the Oculus Rift demo.
Oculus is acknowledging that customers are still waiting, offering them ‘a chance’ to purchase from retail without losing any of the pre-order benefits. If the customer gets their hands on one of the few available, they can then change their order status on the website but still have access to EVE: Valkyrie.
During this summer, the Oculus team hopes to provide more and more Rifts to Best Buy retail outlets, however, they still haven’t given a date for pre-order shipments. Fans are left questioning why Oculus felt the need to release Rift to retail before appeasing the thousands of pre-order customers that have been waiting for months.
