Oculus to sell Rift package for $1,500; working on 'holodeck'

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and the computer you'll need to run it, will cost around $1,500 when it arrives early next year, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said at the Code conference here.

Even if you haven't been treated to a mind-boggling demonstration of an Oculus virtual reality headset yet -- or actually bought the Samsung Gear VR which is based on Oculus' technology -- you've probably had more than a passing curiosity about the company. After all, Facebook paid $2 billion to buy Oculus in a deal that closed last July. And Oculus has announced that its highly anticipated Oculus Rift will be coming in early 2016, with Oculus taking preorders on the headset later this year.

Iribe took the Code stage at an intriguing time for virtual reality with competition likely to be strong. Sony is developing Project Morpheus. HTC is teaming with gaming company Valve on Vive.

"We view everybody as pioneers," says Iribe. "Think of the very first Apple II being shipped in 1977. These new entire mediums...are going to take a while to build and define."

At Code, Iribe said that the early days of virtual reality will be for tech enthusiasts. In most instances that means gamers, but you'll also see VR used he says for architectural content, potentially a much bigger market than gamers.

Iribe also said the lines between augmented reality (putting virtual objects on top of the real world) with virtual reality (a completely immersive virtual environment) will blur. Oculus has just acquired Surreal Vision, which does 3-D reconstruction and is closer to the vision of augmented reality.

Meantime, advances have been made in Oculus hardware to the point where Iribe was able to play on one for two-and-a-half hours without worrying about nausea.

When will the line cross between gaming and other forms of entertainment? "It's really up to the community," Iribe says. His own guess: "Right away, there'll be a huge amount of non-gaming.

That said, Iribe recognizes the challenges with producing virtual cinematic 360-degree experiences or live concerts.

Among the company's other efforts, Oculus is working on a "holodeck."

"This is the very beginning of VR," Iribe says. "It'll take many years to get it right."

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