Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset began in early January. However, some people who made the leap to purchase the device on that day are now being told their headset won't be shipped until May or even June.
Oculus hyped up the fact that the first pre-orders started shipping in late March, but later admitted that some customers would see delays, due to unexpected shortages on the components for the headset. Now, reports from customers on the Oculus Reddit thread (via The Verge) state that some Day 1 pre-orders have seen their ship days pushed back to as late as June.
Oculus offered free shipping for Rift pre-orders that were placed on or before April 1. Anyone who orders the Rift today will see an estimated ship date of August for the headset. There's no word yet if these component delays will also affect pre-orders of Oculus Rift PC bundles, which began in mid-February.
Update: Oculus has provided a statement on the shipping delays:
The component shortage impacted our quantities more than we expected, and we've updated the shipment window to reflect these changes. We apologize for the delay.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.
