Oculus hasn’t commented on its problems beyond noting that it was facing an “unexpected component shortage” late last March, but these problems would be easier to understand if the company was still a scrappy Kickstarter project rather than a self-described industry titan that wants to upend PC gaming, reinvent how we interact with computers, and backed by Facebook’s cash.
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You’ll have to wait a bit longer to escape reality as both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are experiencing delays on shipping headsets because of several problems.
Oculus apologised for the Oculus Rift launch delays in the 2 April and offered free shipping to those affected. The company has since apologized to customers and have also waived the shipping fees as a token of their apology. Anyone ordering a headset in April won’t see their orders arrive until August, which is four months away, meaning that customers probably have a good right to get upset.
The official email going around from Oculus reads: “We’ve updated your Order History with a new shipment window for your Rift”. However, HTC has also been reporting some shipping issues, and manufacturing shortages surrounding the Vive, but it appears that HTC is confirming that customers can expect to receive their Vive headsets the same month cited in their confirmation email – a big difference from the continual revisions that Oculus has sent out of its own Rift shipment dates.
As you can imagine, a lot of customers aren’t too happy about the level of communication from Oculus during this time, with plenty of annoyed customers posting in the Oculus forums and on the subreddit. But some members of the Oculus sub-reddit have reported delays of two-plus months.
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Oculus seems to have no good excuse in not getting orders out to early buyers, particularly those who donated to the Kickstarter campaign. Did any of you pre-order a Rift?
