Games By James Plafke Feb. 21, 2014 4:08 pm
The folks over at Oculus VR have been hit with an age-old video game problem — they cannot construct additional pylons, for they have run out of resources. The result of this shortage is that, at the moment, development kits have ceased production, and thus, units will be unable to ship when the current stock runs out.
The good news is that Oculus has not run out of money as the result of, for instance,*hiring John Carmack full-time or because that sort of thing tends to happen with Kickstarter projects. The problem is that the company has manufactured and sold so many Rifts — there are about 50,000 currently out in the wild — that it ran out of parts with which to build more units. Remember, the dev kit currently*is the Oculus Rift you have all come to know and love, as there isn’t a separate retail product just yet. Oculus will sell the remaining stock until it dwindles away, and is already limiting orders to the United States, Canada, Japan, countries in the European Union, Australia, South Korea, Switzerland, and Norway.
A company representative has also stated that though supply is limited, there is still a reserve for RMA purposes, so if your Rift is on the fritz, there should be stock to exchange it.
Oculus doesn’t mean to let this lack of parts stand in its way, and it’s looking for a new source, but the company does not know when production of the kit will begin again. The spokesperson also did not specify which parts are in demand — for example, lenses, electrical components, or displays — so it’s tough to speculate where Oculus might turn in order to fulfill the need for new parts.
Recently, Oculus VR unveiled a new, upgraded prototype of the headset — dubbed Crystal Cove — and it has been on display at events like CES 2014 and*IndieCade*East 2014. It contains fancy new OLED screens, and a camera and IR dots on the headset that can track the position of the wearer’s limbs. If the first version of the kit has run out of parts, perhaps the new supply will help manufacture Crystal Cove dev kits.
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The good news is that Oculus has not run out of money as the result of, for instance,*hiring John Carmack full-time or because that sort of thing tends to happen with Kickstarter projects. The problem is that the company has manufactured and sold so many Rifts — there are about 50,000 currently out in the wild — that it ran out of parts with which to build more units. Remember, the dev kit currently*is the Oculus Rift you have all come to know and love, as there isn’t a separate retail product just yet. Oculus will sell the remaining stock until it dwindles away, and is already limiting orders to the United States, Canada, Japan, countries in the European Union, Australia, South Korea, Switzerland, and Norway.
A company representative has also stated that though supply is limited, there is still a reserve for RMA purposes, so if your Rift is on the fritz, there should be stock to exchange it.
Oculus doesn’t mean to let this lack of parts stand in its way, and it’s looking for a new source, but the company does not know when production of the kit will begin again. The spokesperson also did not specify which parts are in demand — for example, lenses, electrical components, or displays — so it’s tough to speculate where Oculus might turn in order to fulfill the need for new parts.
Recently, Oculus VR unveiled a new, upgraded prototype of the headset — dubbed Crystal Cove — and it has been on display at events like CES 2014 and*IndieCade*East 2014. It contains fancy new OLED screens, and a camera and IR dots on the headset that can track the position of the wearer’s limbs. If the first version of the kit has run out of parts, perhaps the new supply will help manufacture Crystal Cove dev kits.
More...
