Oculus VR has pre-sold over 25,000 units of its second generation Oculus Rift, the company told Tech Crunch. Although the new model of Oculus Rift won’t ship until later this summer, that brings the total number of Oculus Rift prototype units sold up to 85,000.
The VR peripheral manufacturer unveiled its second generation headset at CES earlier this year, known at the time as the “Crystal Cove” model. It introduced several improvements over the original, including OLED displays, head tracking thanks to a new camera that Oculus also created, and less motion blur. Oculus then repackaged that model as the “DK2” (developer kit 2) and showed it off at GDC, with pre-orders beginning shortly after on March 19. The new headset is listed at $350, with shipping expected to begin in July. Like the previous Oculus Rift model the DK2 is meant for developers, but there are no restrictions on who can order one.
It’s difficult to gauge what those numbers mean in terms of the headset’s future sales potential, but the first generation sold 60,000 units and had to stop accepting orders because it ran out of components. The second model shouldn’t have any issue keeping up with demand though, especially now that the company can lean on Facebook’s deep pockets following the social network’s purchase of the VR company. The acquisition generated a vocal backlash directed at Oculus VR and by extension the Oculus Rift, but in the words of Sony, the purchase was “a validation for VR.”
