Nvidia and Oculus entice VR hardware adoption with free games offer

Getting into VR gaming is not exactly cheap. Nvidia's newest promotion doesn't do anything to soften the financial blow, at least not on the hardware side of things, but it will get you started with a few VR games once you've dropped a wad of cash on the Oculus Rift headset, Oculus Touch controllers, and qualifying GeForce GTX graphics card.

Once you've made those purchased from a participating vendor, you can claim three VR games for free. They include The Unspoken, Superhot VR, and Wilson's Heart.

There are four graphics cards that qualify for the bundle—GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, 1080, and 1080 Ti. That leaves out a handful of Pascal cards, including the Titan X, Titan XP, GeForce GTX 1050, and 1050 Ti. Those omissions are not a big deal, as it would difficult to justify ponying up for a Titan, and on the other end of the spectrum using a 1050 or 1050 Ti for VR gaming would be pushing things.

YouTube

Watch On

"If you are looking to take advantage of this new bundle, make sure the retailer, e-tailer or system builder you purchase your bundle from is participating in this offer—Nvidia cannot provide download codes and coupons for purchases made at non-participating retailers, e-tailers or system builders," Nvidia states.

You can find a list of participating vendors by going here and clicking on your region. In the U.S., for example, only Amazon and Newegg are currently listed. And in the U.K., Nvidia lists Scan as the sole participating online retailer.

It is possible that Nvidia will add more vendors to the fold, especially since the promotion also applies to systems and laptops with qualifying GPUs, not just discrete graphics cards.

The Oculus Rift + Touch runs $598. You can factor in around $200 for a GeForce GTX 1060 (or less with mail-in-rebate).

TOPICS

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).