Virtual Reality (VR) is the next big thing in gaming. Sony has their Morpheus Project, Google has their Cardboard, even India have a VR project in Absentia. But Oculus, which started off as a Kickstarter and was then bought out by Facebook has been the leader in the VR race when it comes to PR and release date.
Recently the Oculus Rift was announced to be priced at a whopping 600$, that’s about 36,000 INR excluding the taxes which will bump up the price to about 50,000 INR. Nearly the price of a brand new gaming rig. The device went up for preorder on January 6 and hence we are anticipating an early 2016 release. But is price the only deterrent when it comes to accepting Oculus? We think not!
Our main concern is not the price of the device itself, rather the games and the compatibility is what has us worried. The minimum requirements for the device are:
Nvidia GTX 970/ AMD R9 290 OR better
Intel i5-4590 or better
8 GBRAM or more
Compatible 1.3 HDMI video output
2X3.0 USB ports
As you can see above, the requirements are not extremely high but also do not favour the budget minded people. You may get away with a lesser powered machine but then the experience will definitely get hampered.
A PC of the aforementioned configuration is rare to find in India. Not many people rock a GTX 970 in their systems. We know that the trend is changing, but it is going to take some time for such GPUs to settle in the Indian market. And you can imagine that when you’ve a device that costs as much as the rig, the product is destined to have low selling stats. If you do have such a configuration, either you are an enthusiast and have invested a lot into the rig, exhausting all your financial credits or you just have enough money to throw around so as to buy such a beast of a PC. If you are among the latter group of people you’d consider buying Oculus, even if it stings your budget.
Another major issue, which should be of utmost concern is the availability of games on the device. I’m definitely not going to pick up a device on DAY 1, which does not support a majority of my games. We all know that some time or the other, the games will eventually arrive, but till then it will only be a device gathering dust. Some of the games that any PC gamer would like to run on the Oculus would be Crysis, Battlefield, GTA V etc. Well, it seems like you people will have to wait. These games have not been confirmed for the VR. Some of the reputed games that are confirmed or will be available post release of the device are Half Life franchise, HAWKEN, Grid: Autosport and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. But you would surely notice that none of the games above will probably make you go “Holy shit! That’s epic”.
But you would surely notice that none of the games above will probably make you go “Holy shit! That’s epic”.
Talking about it’s future in India, the rarity of the device will be prevalent for quite some time after it’s international release. Maybe if some games are bundled with it or if some hardware company bundles the device itself with the PC, we may get to see an increase in the market value of the product. Being an independent device really makes it unsuitable for the Indian market.
What are your thoughts about the Oculus Rift? Are you planning to buy it? Have you experienced VR before? Let us know in the comments below. Peace out.
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