"We are looking at an all-in price, if you have to go out and actually need to buy a new computer and you’re going to buy the Rift … at most you should be in that $1,500 range."
Earlier this month, Oculus revealed what the system requirements were for the upcoming consumer version of the Oculus Rift. This included a GTX 970 and an i5-4590 CPU. If you picked up a new system with all of the requirements, it should run you roughly $1,000. That may indicate that the Oculus Rift itself will run you roughly $500 on release.
There is another cost that hasn't really been talked about much. It is the input methods for Oculus Rift. The first unveiling for what Oculus has cooked up will take place at E3 2015. Iribe notes that in the long term "there's not going to be a single input device." He says that "in VR, it's going to be several different devices." Oh yes, multiple input devices for the multiple VR headsets are on the way. I'm sure everyone is thrilled at that prospect. Hopefully, all of these headsets will still make use of controllers or mouse and keyboard without issue.
I think it's great to see that oculus has acquired new companies and their technologies because I think virtual reality can't survive solely on having a VR headset, it also needs a way to put our body into the game. I'm not saying your body will replace controllers, because we will need those, but it would be great to see the possibility of having the option of both, such as, using controllers when controlling vehicles, weapons and other things, and using your own hands to do more detailed things, like writing on a virtual keyboard, or picking virtual items up...
Maybe even put our facial expressions into multiplayer games
jimykx: "Oculus Rift virtual reality... Better with Kinect!" No? Ok never mind.
Also, I'm thinking that the games specifically built for the oculus rift might be optimized for these PC's with "Recommended specifications", so that they will run at enough framerates to provide a good VR experience on said PC's. If we look at most VR demos they seem a bit limited graphically (some look just slightly better than a WII U game). Now I wonder, does this mean that VR will hinder progress sort of like consoles do? Perharps graphicaly, but otherwise it has so much more to offer and for both developers and players to explore that it completely over compensates it!
On the other hand, I do wonder if AR has any 3D features/crossing your eyes? Because if not, AR would be a better alternative if you need to read something in a digital environment (or better yet, you could... You know... Use an HD monitor). I do know CastAR (I noticed quite a few people forgot about them after Hololens was announced) can do both AR and VR, by either using the glasses and looking at a specialized fabric, or by covering the lens with a similar material.
However, to more accurately answer your question. Lets see how Playstation 4 & future Sony consoles get affected when Morpheus comes out. Supposedly the PS4 is designed for VR, and simply didn't use all of its processing power for regular games. Will PS4 games look uglier simply because it supports VR?