Oculus Rift price drops below £500 once more

UK retailers have begun discounting the price of Facebook's Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, reversing a price hike from August last year that saw the cost of the kit raised by 10 percent.

When Facebook-owned Oculus VR first began taking orders for the consumer-ready release of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, it had a key price in mind: £499. By the time boxes began arriving on shop shelves in the UK, though, that had jumped 10 percent to £549 without explanation from the company - though a drop in the value of the Pound Sterling against the US Dollar appeared to be the most likely explanation.

Now, though, it looks like either Oculus VR or the retailers themselves are looking to boost sales with a little financial incentive: Most major stockists of the Oculus Rift, including etailer Amazon, have reduced the price back to its original pre-retail-launch £499 level, with no sign that it's a time-limited offer or exclusive deal.

The discount, however, is only on the base Oculus VR headset itself: anyone wanting a room-scale experience similar to that offered by the rival HTC Vive will require the Touch Controller bundle, which is priced at an extra £189 on top of the purchase price. Naturally, you'll also require a gaming PC beefy enough to meet the device's minimum system requirements, too.

Neither Oculus VR nor Facebook have commented on the sudden and surprise price drop.