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Oculus Rift Gets ‘Sticker Shock’ Discount With Alienware PC, World’s First OLED Gaming Laptop Introduced

By Tony Smejek
Published on: 09:42 PST, Jan 8, 2016

The “sticker shock” for the Oculus Rift seemed too much to handle for some gamers, so as a result, a discount was created if a customer would purchase an Alienware x51 model bundled with the Rift, at a savings of $200, according Alienware founder Frank Azor, as reported by PC World. The device by itself costs around $600. That being said, this could likely keep gamers satisfied financially, but Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey did come to the defense of this high priced piece of head gear.

Luckey explained the Rift pricing when people reacted to the cost, as he made a comparison that the amount wasn’t much different from other current electronic devices such as a smart phone or mid-range TVs, according to his statement on Reddit.

“It is expensive, but for the $599 you spend, you get a lot more than spending $599 on pretty much any other consumer electronics devices — phones that cost $599 cost a fraction of that to make, same with mid-range TVs that cost $599.”

The complexity with the Alienware x51 is quite minimal and ready for usage right out of the box. And Luckey mentioned that by the end of the year, there should be at least 100 game titles available.

The Oculus Rift is recommended to be used with the GeForce 970 graphics processor. Though a discussion was brought up on whether it would work optimally with the product for gaming purposes. The specifications refer to it as being “recommended,” however, Luckey said it wouldn’t be necessary to go beyond that, although an upgrade “wouldn’t hurt.”

The display of graphics can’t be compared by the same standards as those of a regular display, as there are certain configurations on a monitor to consider that don’t apply to that of the Rift.

A question was asked by a Reddit user involving the use of the Radeon R9 290 and GeForce 970 and ascertained that pretty much anyone who has purchased a Rift would be running at max graphics settings. He also questioned what Palmer would be running as well. As it turns out, he said he’d be using a 970.

“You won’t necessarily be able to play all games at MAX settings on the recommended spec. You will be able to play everything in the Oculus store at a high quality level (90 FPS) on the recommended spec. Personally, I am going to be running the standard rec spec rig to make sure I get the same experience as most users.”

Orders for the Rift were submitted Wednesday, so there does seem to be a demand regardless of the sticker shock as core gamers were the consumer target of Oculus. They were informed that the product wouldn’t be expected to ship until June. The launch is happening in March, and there is a large demand for the Rift. CEO and creative director of Cloudhead games, Denny Unger, subscribes to this demand, according to ARS Technia.

“[The price] is likely not a huge barrier to entry for core-gamers and early adopters like those we are targeting.”

So it looks like the sticker shock isn’t too shocking for some.

Other goodies from Alienware will come the world’s first OLED (organic LED) gaming laptop. It’s slated for release this April. Two of its significant features is that it has a darker back with no need for back lighting. This is thanks to the OLED technology. The other feature is that it has less than a millisecond of reaction time. The gaming laptop comes with a 13-inch screen with a resolution of 2560-by-1440 all at an affordable price of $1,499, according to PC World.

This year Oculus Rift and Alienware indeed can have hardcore gamers excited for this new technology.

[Photo by Dan R. Krauss/Getty Images News]

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