The second major permutation of the virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift DK2, has reportedly sold 25,000 units since its pre-order page went live on March 19. After only a month, that number is almost half of what the first development kit, the DK1, sold in its lifetime. Aside from a few tweets and forum comments , this is the first hard news from inside Oculus VR since the company was infamously purchased by Facebook last month.
The 25,000 units sold statistic is according to TechCrunch , but it leaves some questions unanswered. After the news broke of Oculus's purchase by Facebook, the most disappointed place on the internet was the community at the Oculus subreddit, where users threatening to cancel their preorders. It's unclear whether any of those users did cancel, or if this sales figure takes those cancellations into account. We've asked Oculus to clarify, but have yet to receive comment.
Internet outrage and doomsaying aside, the only metric that matters to the minds behind the Oculus Rift—and, as of last month, the shareholders of Facebook's public stock—is units of hardware sold. Oculus VR still hasn't released a finished consumer product, and it's already sold 85,000 units between the DK1 and DK2. Assuming that the number of developers working to support the Oculus Rift continues to grow, this shows that the outrage hasn't been a death stroke for the Rift. Depending on how you feel about the now-infamous acquisition, that's either a cause for celebration or a source of exasperation.
We'll update with more information after we hear back from Oculus. For more on the kinds of gaming experiences we can look forward to when virtual reality finally arrives , check out Andy's excellent VR column, the Rift Report .
