It has been announced that Oculus, which is a virtual reality company owned by Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:$FB), is cutting the price of its hardware pro tempore. The primary reason behind the temporary shift in price is due to the industry trying to figure out why the technology for immersive games and stories has not taken off.
Jason Rubin, the VP for content of Oculus, announced that the company will be cutting the combined prices of its Rift headset and Touch controllers to $399 for six weeks starting Monday, July 10. This cut in price matches the price of another virtual reality set, PlayStation VR, manufactured by Sony Corp (TYO:$6758).
Back in 2014, Facebook paid $3 billion to acquire Oculus and retain its employees. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, said at the time that Oculus, which offers a 360-degree panoramic view through headsets, would “become a part of daily life for billions of people.” That, as one might assume, has not happened, although spectators are still unclear as to whether that is because of high prices, something internal in the technology, or some other reason.
Though some pricing discounts are seen as a sign of weak product sales, Rubin has said that this is not the case with Oculus. In an interview, Rubin stated that he could have reduced the price sooner but wanted to wait until there were enough games, movies and other mediums to keep the audience occupied. As the pace of game releases quickens, Rubin said: “We’re now in a space where the mass market can be much happier.”
It’s not the first time that Oculus has cut its price, however. In March of last year, the virtual reality company dropped its price from $798 to $598. Additionally, in May, Oculus closed the doors of its Story Studio, only two short years after it launched at the Sundance Film Festival, in an attempt to focus on external content makers.
Yet another setback for the Facebook-owned company was the $500 million legal judgment against Oculus in February 2017 when a jury found in favor of ZeniMax Media Inc in a lawsuit accusing both Facebook and Oculus of copyright infringement. Oculus has since asked for a new trial.
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