Oculus is touting the Rift as a VR experience that’s “unlike anything else you’ve experienced,” which is odd since virtual reality essentially recreates you know, reality, just with a focus on its cooler parts, like hanging out on the Enterprise-D. (But on not the holodeck, that’d be too meta). But the Facebook-owned company, having witnessed how quickly preorders for the headset sold out, is stepping up its game to provide consumers with the ultimate mundane experience, namely, standing in line for hours at a Best Buy to buy the damn thing (sleeping bags not included).
A “small number” of Oculus Rifts will be available for IRL purchase at 48 Best Buy stores in the United States on May 7, affording nerds with the pertinent overlapping interests a brief respite between this and Star Wars Day. The Rift will also be for sale online via Microsoft and Amazon on May 6, but screaming at the pinwheel of death is just no substitute for having someone with cleats step all over your face while trying to snag one of the “extremely limited” units in select Best Buy locations.
If you’re a rabid VR fan who can’t wait for the preorders to be filled and manage to buy a Rift using your boring old body instead of your laptop, your preorder will be canceled, but you won’t lose your place in a completely cyber different line, i.e., the one for Oculus’ Touch motion controllers. Despite this brick-and-mortar push, Oculus reportedly still wants to sell the bulk of its Rifts via preorder, which just makes the experience of fitting yourself with a catheter so you can sleep outside for a day or two to purchase the headset all the more exclusive.