Whie the world had been waiting for the headset no-one was ready for the price tag which ends up being more than $550.  The company was accused of charging far too much for the technology and strangling the development of VR enough before it became a reality.  Ironic really.

Company founder Palmer Luckey has addressed the issue on Reddit, insisting that his business is not making any money from the Oculus Rift hardware.

"The core technology in the Rift is the main driver - two built-for-VR OLED displays with very high refresh rate and pixel density, a very precise tracking system, mechanical adjustment systems that must be lightweight, durable and precise, and cutting-edge optics that are more complex to manufacture than many high end DSLR lenses," he said.

He added mitted that it was expensive, but for the  price you get a lot more than spending $599 on pretty much any other consumer electronics device. Phones that cost $599 cost a fraction of that to make, same with mid-range TVs that cost $599.

"There are a lot of mainstream devices in that price-range, so as you have said, our failing was in communication, not just price."

He also defended the decision to sell the headset as a bundle with extras including an Xbox One controller and a carry case, claiming that this did not drive the cost up significantly. The Xbox controller costs us almost nothing to bundle, and people can easily resell it, he said..

"A lot of people wish we would sell a bundle without 'useless extras' like high-end audio, a carrying case, the bundled games, etc, but those just don't significantly impact the cost."

Luckey was quick to apologise for initial reports that the Rift would be priced between $200 and $400 at launch, explaining that the discrepancy is the result of a development shift to prioritise "quality over cost".