Both the Oculus Quest and the Valve Index were sold out during the holiday season, and that has turned into a shortage of headset for the time being. The Oculus Quest is still tagged as ‘sold out’ and has orders pushed back all the way to the beginning of March. On the Valve side of hardware, the company doesn’t have an exact date, but they are hoping to be back in stock before Half-Life: Alyx hits the virtual shelves. That is also in March. VR consumers could be waiting a while for the best headset on the market.
Oculus
The Oculus Quest 64GB version isn’t expected to be ready to ship until March 3rd. The 128GB version of the headset isn’t expected to ship until February 27th. Both dates can change, and continue to as the orders stack up. Waiting two weeks seemed long, but some will be waiting months now. This isn’t ideal, but the demand of the standalone headset from Facebook and Oculus has been a hit all across the globe.
The Oculus Link official cable from Oculus is also backordered until February 10th. This cable is $79 and is the only cable long enough, powerful enough, and cheap enough to be considered for the Oculus Link software.
If you are outside of the US and looking for the Oculus Quest, you will get it a bit faster than your friends in the states. For the 64GB option, you can receive that as quickly as January 23rd. The 128GB option is a bit faster, expecting to see availability on the 15th of January.
These dates aren’t set in stone and are subject to change. If you order the Quest or Link cable today, you will be getting it around the dates above. Oculus is working hard to meet the demands of the consumer world, as they have the best consumer headset.
Valve
The Valve Index is also out of stock, but Valve isn’t as sure about restocking as Oculus is. Unlike Oculus, Valve has put a ‘notify me’ button next to the headset on the store now. For users signed in, it will send them an email and notification when the headset is back on sale. They aren’t taking any orders as of right now.
The Valve Index is available if 31 different regions and countries. All 31 of those are sold out of the ‘Full Kit’, which is the controllers, headset, and base stations. The only country that isn’t sold out of the headset alone is Japan, although that may change soon.
Valve is targeting to have the headsets out and shipping again before their game Half-Life: Alyx hits the shelves. That is expected to be in March. Hopefully the consumer market can get this headset before then. The game will be playable on all Steam compatible headsets, but will be optimized and made for the Valve Index.
The Valve Index was doing just fine in sales months ago, and then the announcement of their newest version of Half-Life was released. This sparked a new interest in their headsets, especially with the incentive of the headset, if bought before 2020, would come with the game already paid for. Their wish of making a VR game that brings people to the platform is coming true. For more VR news and hardware updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
