Virtual reality pioneer Oculus has announced that it will give a bundle of freebies, including the first consumer release of its Rift headset, to everyone who supported the initial Kickstarter campaign that funded the company’s early years.
Any Kickstarter backer who supported the company with $275 or more back in 2012 will receive a free Rift headset, as well as the two free games that come bundled with it all pre-order buyers, Lucky’s Tale and Eve: Valkyrie. That free headset comes in addition to the rewards the backers were already promised – and given – for their support, including an early development unit of the Rift.
The VR company’s decision to give away free headsets to the roughly 7,500 people who supported their Kickstarter campaign at the higher tiers could serve to diffuse the longstanding criticism that the company raised millions of dollars from crowdfunding supporters, before selling to Facebook for $2bn just two years later.
The sale raised questions about the nature of backing projects on Kickstarter. Were the backers, who paid almost $2.5m, engaging in a purchase (in which case the risk of failed projects seemed overly high), an act of philanthropy (which seems undercut by a billion-dollar sale), or an investment (but one in which they don’t receive a share of the profits)?
Austin Walker, then a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario, told the Guardian that: “People backed Oculus to say: I want to be part of this thing. The backlash comes because they aren’t part of it, and can never be.”
In a message to backers, Oculus wrote that: “As one of the early supporters of Oculus, you helped make this revolution happen. And before we open Rift pre-orders to the world, we wanted to share one more special update with you, our Kickstarter community.”
“You were there at the beginning of our journey – we couldn’t have done it without you. Today marks a new chapter.”
The giveaway comes as the company prepares to open up the Rift for pre-order on Wednesday, making it the first of the big three virtual reality companies to commit to a consumer release this year. HTC and Valve’s co-production, the Vive, and Sony’s Playstation VR are expected to follow later in 2016.
But the company also had bad news for fans, confirming it would be forced to delay the Touch controller, an innovative motion controller designed to be paired with the headset, until the second half of 2016.
