British gaming retailer GAME has now begun taking pre-orders for the Oculus Rift. And perhaps more surprising, an advertisement for the Rift was found in the store’s Xbox section, suggesting perhaps growing ties between Oculus and Microsoft.
Or maybe not. The Rift pre-order could have made it’s way to the Xbox side because the Rift will ship with a wireless Xbox One controller; imagine a GAME employee seeing the image of the controller with the headset and making an assumption and you can understand what might have happened. (Considering the ad suggests potential buyers “ask staff for details,” we hope they would be better informed.)
Fortunately in-store isn’t the only place people can find out more information about GAME’s plans for VR: Check out the new landing page on the retailer’s site. It shows that GAME will be looking to support all sorts of virtual reality gear, including the HTC Vive, Merge smartphone HMD, and PlayStation VR.
You can’t pre-order online yet, though you can “register your interest.” One Redditor did confirm that you can pre-order in store though and perhaps more interestingly, it’s for £500 ($714). While this is more expensive than the standard $600 pre-order cost, this actually represents a saving, since the Rift + shipping to the UK was almost $760 direct from Oculus.
GAME did say that it may not get stock until May and even then the popular VR headset would likely be in very limited quantities.
The big push with virtual reality could be why GAME also recently dipped its toes back into selling gaming PC components and systems in a partnership with Overclockers UK. That particular gaming component and system seller has made a big push in recent weeks to sell Oculus-ready systems, so it would make sense for both parties to ramp up their VR efforts in the months to come.
Have you seen any brick and mortar stores in your area advertising Oculus Rift pre-orders yet? Let us know!
