Oculus Rift Pre-Order Is $599 (Plus Shipping)

The Oculus Rift is finally available for pre-order but costs a seemingly hefty $599. The price point isn't too surprising considering the manufacturing cost of the novel technology. (Upon release the Playstation 3 was $499 and $599 for two respective editions). The Oculus Rift is bundled with a wireless Xbox One Controller, EVE: Valkyrie, and Lucky's Tale, but the Oculus Touch is not included and will be released sometime Q2 2016.

The Oculus Rift itself will not be shipping until late March, and the majority of consumers can expect to enter virtual worlds sometime in April, 2016.

Regardless of the sting to wallets across the 20 available countries, today marks a momentous step towards consumer VR. And it is a baby step. Superdata Research estimates the virtual reality video gaming industry will generate $5.1 billion in sales this year—with mobile VR driving consumer adoption.

It's an exciting event to witness, and while the MMO market for VR is small at the moment I'm extremely curious to view the landscape in just the next three years, let alone this coming decade.

Will you be pre-ordering an Oculus Rift, or is the best bet to wait and see how the technology pans out?

For more information head to the Oculus website.