Oculus VR drops Rift and Touch bundle to £399

Facebook-owned Oculus VR has announced a global price cut to its Oculus Rift headset and Oculus Touch controller bundle, dropping the price to below £400 as part of a time-limited offer expiring in six weeks' time.

Following stiff competition from HTC's rival Vive platform and Sony's low-cost PlayStation VR, Oculus has been on a major PR offensive. The company, acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion ahead of the consumer launch of its eponymous virtual reality platform, cut the price of a Rift and Touch Controller bundle to £598 from £749 back in March - but at the cost of ditching the existing £598 Rift solus package, effectively offering the Touch controllers for free - while partnering with libraries to offer increased access to VR hardware and promising more advanced technology to come.

Now, the company is using Facebook's not-inconsiderable cash reserves to fund another impressive - if temporary - cut in the cost of the Oculus Rift and Touch Controller bundle from £598 to £399 - the first time the consumer-grade hardware has been available under £400 brand-new. It puts it considerably below the £759 price point of the HTC Vive and only £49 above the £350 of the PlayStation VR - a saving wiped out if you do not already own the PlayStation 4 Camera accessory required to track the position and angle of the PSVR headset.

Unlike the drop to £598, though, this is a time-limited offer. Oculus VR has confirmed that the new price, which is live at all major retailers now, will be in effect for the next six weeks after which time it will return to £598. Thus far, neither Sony, HTC, nor any of Oculus VR's other competitors in the virtual reality space have announced competing price cuts.