Valve’s High-End Virtual Reality Kit Has Sold Out in Less Than 30 Minutes
The high-end and high fidelity Valve virtual reality headset, the Valve Index, has already sold out and the “Buy” button on its website has been replaced with “Reserve”. The virtual reality headset was launched officially just three ago.
The VR headset looks good and has some really impressive specs with finger-tracking controllers, cutting-edge off-ear headphones that deliver a more immersive sound along with a superb 120Hz refresh rate. It’s currently the best of the first-generation virtual reality headsets.
The fancy specs drove the price to an eye-popping $999 and many thought the price would be a hindrance to the uptake by the average gamer but it doesn’t seem to have dented the initial demand for the VR headsets. The virtual reality enthusiast’s market seems to be quite huge and the VR kit had already sold out in the US within the first 30 minute of the pre-orders.
That means that there will be no new shipments any time soon. Prospective buyers can still ‘reserve’ the full VR package but the new shipping date was initially listed as ‘by September 30’ which means it could be a long wait before you get your shipment.
It is not known how many of these devices were available for buyers in the pre-order. It could be that anticipating a low demand for the full VR kit, Valve only made a few headsets which were quickly overwhelmed by a moderately high demand. However, for the hefty $1000 price tag of the virtual reality headset which had just been announced, it is a good sign that there is an enthusiastic market out there that’s willing to give virtual reality a shot.
The kit can be reserved on Steam and the whole package consists of the Valve Index virtual reality headset, two base stations and two controllers. The sites says ‘reserving’ will not obligate the users to purchase the headsets when they are finally ready but they’ll receive an email notifying them when the kit is available to purchase again. You won’t have to provide any payment details when ‘reserving’ until you finally decide to purchase the offer. However, if you ‘reserve’ and wait for too long before acting, it’s possible Valve might switch your spot over to someone else on their waiting list.
Just to clarify. The ‘Ship by Date’ has now been switched to August 31 from July for US customers. Earlier, the date had been shown as September 30 but there is need to qualify that as various components will ship by different dates. The new changes for US customers are as follows:-
- The complete Index VR kit including the headset, controllers and base stations will ship by September 30.
- The headset and controllers (without the base stations) will by August 31
- The headset alone will ship by July 31
Currently, users can still purchase the Valve Index controllers and the base stations separately and these will ship by June 28.
https://virtualrealitytimes.com/2019/05/03/valves-high-end-virtual-reality-kit-has-sold-out-in-less-than-30-minutes/HardwareValve IndexVR HeadsetsThe high-end and high fidelity Valve virtual reality headset, the Valve Index, has already sold out and the “Buy” button on its website has been replaced with “Reserve”. The virtual reality headset was launched officially just three ago. The VR headset looks good and has some really impressive specs with...Sam OchanjiSam Ochanji[email protected]EditorVirtual Reality Times - Metaverse & VR