A total of 48 Best Buy stores around the U.S. will begin offering the new VR headset on Saturday, May 7. While it will only be offered in an “extremely limited” supply, the release does mark the first time the Oculus Rift has been offered in brick-and-mortar stores. Not only that, but if you can’t get to a Best Buy, Amazon and the Microsoft Store will also be offering the headset in “extremely limited” supply.
Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that at Best Buy you’ll be able to test out the headset, so you can get an idea of what all the hype is about before you spend the $600-plus it takes to get one for yourself.
If you have already pre-ordered your Rift, you still have a chance of getting one right away without losing any money — if you happen to be one of the lucky few that gets one at Best Buy, Amazon, or the Microsoft Store, you can contact Oculus to get your pre-order cancelled without any penalties.
It’s fair to say that the launch of the Oculus Rift has been a little rough. The device was back-ordered when it finally started shipping last month. Still, Oculus has said that pre-orders wouldn’t affect retail plans, essentially meaning that you’ll be able to go buy one at the store before some pre-orders are even shipped. It would be fair to be a little frustrated by this if you have pre-ordered the headset — you should be getting your headset before anyone, right?
If you do want to try out the Rift, you can search nearby locations online and schedule a demo up to a month in advance. During the demo you’ll get to try out some of the more finished Oculus releases, including Dreamdeck and the recent rock-climbing game The Climb. According to Oculus, demos will also go beyond the U.S. in coming months, specifically to Europe and Canada.
