Facebook slashes price of its Oculus Rift VR headset to $399 for limited period

Oculus, the virtual reality company owned by Facebook, is temporarily cutting down prices of its Rift headset to $399 — two-thirds of the price the company was charging less than five months ago.

In a blog post, the company said the new price for its immersive headset will be available for a "limited time" as part of a summer sale. The new price range matches that of another virtual reality headset, PlayStation VR, made by Sony Corp, which has emerged as a leader to bring VR to the masses.

Facebook paid $3 billion to acquire Oculus in 2014. At that time Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 'the medium which offers a 360-degree panoramic view through headsets would become a part of daily life for billion people'. Unfortunately, that has not happened so far. And it's unclear if it is the pricing issues of the headset or some other reason that the technology for immersive games and stories has not taken off among consumers.

Jason Rubin, Oculus vice president for content, however, says that "Pricing was not an issue with Oculus. We could have cut the price earlier but wanted to wait until there were enough games, movies, and entertainment to keep a broad audience busy." "The pace of game releases has quickened, making a wider appeal possible. We're now in a space where the mass market can be much happier."

Oculus dropped its price from $798 to $598 in March earlier this year. The question, however, remains that who all will take advantage of this discounted price, as the still emerging VR industry tries to find a sustainable user base.