Oculus Rift pre-orders go live, price revealed

Since 2012 we have been waiting for the official release of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and we are finally one step closer to its release. Earlier this week Oculus announced that the Rift would be available for pre-order — that day has come folks, the Rift is up for grabs!

You can pre-order the Oculus Rift starting today, the headset costs $599.00 and is expected to ship March 2016.

Pre-ordering the Rift doesn't mean you'll be charged the moment you place your order and placing an order won't lock you into a purchase.

"Rift preorders are different from most of the games industry. You don't get charged until we ship – no deposit lock-in, no bonus pressure," said Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey. "We won't lock people into preorders months before reviews come out using our awesome preorder bonuses. We have confidence in our product!"

If you backed the Oculus Rift's Kickstarter campaign back in 2012 and received the DK1 model of the Rift, you won't need to put any money down on the headset. According to the head honchos from Oculus, you'll be getting your very own Rift headset as a thank you from the developers. Be sure to check your email and fill out the survey from Kickstarter before February 1, 2016.

Whether you're getting the Rift as a thank you or paying for it, the headset will be shipped with two VR friendly games, EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale. In addition to the two games, the Rift will ship with an Xbox One controller and the ability to Stream Xbox One games via Windows 10.

Check out the PC specs for the Rift here.

*Note that Oculus Touch controls have been delayed until later this year.