Oculus Rift Out Of Stock At Some Retailers, Available ‘Mainly Online’

If you want to purchase an Oculus Rift right now on Amazon.com the VR headset may not ship until after the Game Developers Conference in March.We’ve watched stock of the Rift headset closely as reported at various retailers. Over the last few months we’ve seen a number of physical stores run low on units, including Best Buy and Microsoft locations. In January, right before CES, there was a similar hiccup in supply of the headsets. At the time Facebook said they were “replenishing inventory across channels.”This time, though, Facebook provides no assurance of replenishing inventory.“Rift continues to be available across our channels, at this time mainly online (Oculus.com, Best Buy online, Amazon, etc.),” explains an email this week from a Facebook representative. While Facebook representatives generally decline to comment on future products we’ve found code references to Rift S  in the Oculus PC software. This confirms the existence of the follow-on headset first reported by TechCrunch late last year. What we don’t know, however, is when the headset will arrive. The end of March 2019 will mark three years since the original Oculus Rift started shipping — the first headset hand-delivered by Palmer Luckey in Alaska. Over the last three years Facebook added the Touch controllers, better room-scale tracking, optional earphones and a long list of exclusive titles like Lone Echo, Brass Tactics and From Other Suns.