Oculus VR missed its mark in failing to open up preorders for its namesake headset before the close on 2015. On the last day of last year, the company announced that the virtual reality headset's touch controllers have been delayed, but it still maintains that the Oculus Rift's release is still on the rails.

While its "path to perfecting Touch" is a bit longer than anticipated, Oculus VR on New Year's Eve stated that its virtual reality headset "remains on schedule to ship" in the first quarter of 2016. The company said to expect the launch of pre-orders to be "very soon."

"The feedback on Touch has been incredibly positive, and we know this new timeline will produce an even better product, one that will set the bar for VR input," Oculus VR stated. "We appreciate your patience and promise Touch will be worth the wait."

Game Day

Someone's dad or grandpa might have said a platformer wouldn't work, if VR had taken off the first time around instead of making everyone disoriented and seasick. Apparently the developers of made-for-VR platformer Lucky's Tale have found reasons for whatever logic lies behind the arguments of the naysayers.

Playful's Lucky's Tale is a Conker-like 3D platformer that gives players god-like views and controls over a "fun-loving fox" in a charming game world. Filled with puzzles and platforms, Lucky's Tale is packed with adventure and it's fun to play, according to Oculus VR founder and CEO Palmer Luckey.

"We always believed there was an opportunity for platformers in VR, but it wasn't until playing Lucky's Tale and working with the Playful team that we truly realized its potential to change how people view this genre of gaming forever," says Luckey.

Along with space dogfighter Eve Valkyrie, it'll be tossed into Oculus VR branded boxes next to Xbox one controllers as freebies to accompany Oculus Rift headsets. They're true freebies due to the way Facebook and Oculus VR are pricing the headsets.

Pricing And Release Date

Facebook and Oculus VR finally revealed a price for the Rift, which is now available for preorder. The virtual reality headset is going to set you back by $599 when it ships out sometime in March 2016. 

It's around the same price you would pay for a premium smartphone, and while some people might balk at the price, Oculus says it won't be making a profit at this point. 

"To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware," Luckey tweeted. "High-end VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is." 

Elaborating on the Rift's pricing on Twitter recently, he stated that Oculus VR has the backing of Facebook and doesn't need an immediate hardware profit. 

"A company that has to survive on immediate hardware profit would have to hit with a much higher price - think $1000+. Not greed, reality," Luckey said. "1st gen VR users are being heavily subsidized by major players who want VR business to grow, though few seem to understand that." 

Rift Ready
So with a ballpark figure on price and a general launch window and a pair of killer apps, now is the time to make sure those rigs are ready for the second coming of VR.

Here's what you'll need:
GPU: NVidia GTX 970 or AMD 290 equivalent or greater
CPU: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core*
RAM: At Least 8GB
Video Output: HDMI 1.3 output
USB Ports: Three USB 3.0 ports and One USB 2.0 port
OS Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

*This processor wasn't specifically recommended by Oculus VR, but it has slightly higher benchmarks than a 3.3 GHz Intel i5-4590

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