Virtual reality enthusiasts who don’t want to wait months for Oculus to ship its Rift headsets are getting a second chance this week: Best Buy will sell a limited number of headsets in 48 of its stores later this week. And both Amazon and Microsoft will start selling some Rifts in their respective online stores.
Best Buy is introducing the Rift complete with in-store demos. To avoid long lines, Oculus is introducing a dedicated web tool to schedule 15 minute demonstrations. The company wants to bring demo stations to additional Best Buy stores later this summer.
Best Buy will start selling the Rift on May 7, and Amazon as well as the Microsoft store will offer it for order starting May 6 at 9am. However, Oculus is warning interested consumers that these headsets may be selling out quickly. “Quantities will be extremely limited while we catch up on Rift pre-orders,” according to a blog post.
Facebook-owned Oculus has been struggling to keep up with demand ever since it launched the Rift earlier this year. Oculus started taking preorders for the device in January and intended to ship those preorders before the end of March. However, last month Oculus acknowledged that it had been hit by an “unexpected component shortage,” forcing it to delay some shipments. Consumers currently ordering from the company’s online store are informed that their headsets won’t ship until August.
