Oculus is ready to accept pre-orders for the Oculus Touch motion controllers. The company said it is prepared to ship the hardware worldwide “in volume” upon its December release, but early Rift adopters can jump the line.
During the Oculus Connect 3 opening keynote on October 6, Oculus finally spilled the beans about its highly anticipated Touch motion controllers. The company revealed the price tag for the Touch package, the date that you can pre-order the hardware, and the date that it will begin fulfilling those orders.
Oculus Touch is Oculus’s solution to bring your hands into VR. The controllers pair with your Rift HMD and provide 6-degrees of freedom tracking for both of your hands. Touch provides similar functionality to the wand controllers that come with the HTC Vive, but Oculus added some features that you won’t find on the Vive hardware. For instance, the Touch controllers have sensors that detect when your finger touches them, which allows Oculus to incorporate natural hand gestures, such as pointing your finger or giving a thumbs-up. Each Touch controller also includes a selection of buttons and a thumbstick that allow you to play any game, including gamepad games, with Touch.
You may recall (especially if you pre-ordered a Rift) that Oculus promised its loyal early adopters the first crack at ordering Touch controllers to complement their HMDs. If you pre-ordered a Rift, Oculus said that your place in line for Touch would mirror your place in line for the HMD if you chose to order a set. Oculus didn’t offer Rift owners an earlier pre-order window, though. Instead, the company is giving existing customers priority shipping status as long as they order before October 27. If you hurried to be one of the first to order a Rift, you can take your time ordering Touch and still receive it on launch day.
“Because you pre-ordered Oculus Rift on Oculus.com, you're eligible for priority status for Touch when it becomes available for pre-order on October 10.Important info about your priority status:Starting October 10 at 12 pmPT, you can pre-order Touch at Oculus.com.You must pre-order using the same email you used to pre-order Rift.You must complete your Touch pre-order before 11:59 pm PT on Thursday, October 27, 2016—after that date, you'll no longer be eligible for priority status,” reads the email Oculus sent to its customers.
Oculus plans to ship the Oculus Touch pre-orders on December 6, and it appears the company learned from the shipping woes that it experienced during the Rift launch. If you experienced massive delays with your Rift order, don’t worry. Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus, said the hardware would ship “in volume” on release day. Oculus has the added benefit of knowing how many Rift HMDs are already in the wild, so it should be much easier to the company to prepare in advance for the onslaught of orders.
Oculus Touch is now available for pre-order on the Oculus website. Oculus is asking $199 for the Touch package, which includes two motion controllers and a Constellation camera. The company also plans to offer additional tracking cameras for $79, which will include a USB extension cable that allows you to setup the Rift in its optional room-scale configuration. The sensors will go on sale "later this month" and ship with Touch on December 6. The Touch controllers and extra camera don’t do you much good if you don’t have a Rift yet, so Oculus also offers a packaged deal. The bundle doesn’t provide any additional savings, though.
