Oculus VR apologises over two-month schedule slip

Oculus VR has again apologised for component shortages which have seen some of its customers have their Oculus VR headset orders bumped back a whopping two months.

One of two heavily-hyped virtual reality headsets to launch in recent weeks - the other being HTC's Vive - the Oculus Rift CV1 enjoyed considerable interest from pre-order customers. Sadly, despite having shipped two small-volume runs of its Developer Kit hardware and boasting the considerable financial clout of corporate overlord Facebook behind its sails, all is not well with Oculus VR's first commercial launch: buyers are being warned that their orders, originally scheduled to ship in April, are now unlikely to reach them until June.

Although those who managed to get early enough in the queue - including some members of our own forums, who have shared their experiences in the VR Thread - have received devices, the majority of pre-order customers are being warned of a two-month delay due to ongoing component shortages. Gaming site Polygon has gathered a selection of complaints from customers, along with a statement from Oculus VR apologising for the continuing issues.

'The component shortage impacted our quantities more than we expected, and we’ve updated the shipment window to reflect these changes. We apologise for the delay,' the company explained in its statement. 'We’re delivering Rifts to customers every day, and we’re focused on getting Rifts out the door as fast as we can. We’ve taken steps to address the component shortage, and we’ll continue shipping in higher volumes each week. We’ve also increased our manufacturing capacity to allow us to deliver in higher quantities, faster. Many Rifts will ship less than four weeks from original estimates, and we hope to beat the new estimates we’ve provided.'