Oculus Rift and controller bundle gets a permanent price cut to $399

For many people, the biggest barrier to VR gaming is the cost of entry. That is compounded by the external hardware requirements—a relatively powerful PC—though Oculus just made its headset and controller bundle more accessible by permanently dropping the price to $399.

That makes the Rift $200 less expensive than HTC's competing Vive headset. It also matches the steepest discount to date on the Rift—Oculus dropped the price to $399 for six weeks over the summer, after which it bumped up to $499.

"This new permanent price opens up PC VR to the widest audience yet. And more people in VR means more people to play, connect, and share with, whether you’re diving into groundbreaking new first-person shooters like Arktika.1 or exploring the depths of space in the award-winning Echo franchise," Oculus says.

Each Rift bundle consists of the headset itself, two Touch motion controllers, two sensors, and six free apps.

To recap what you need to run the Rift, here are the minimum requirement:

Intel Core i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or AMD FX4350
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or GeForce GTX 960 / AMD Radeon RX 470 or R9 290
8GB+ RAM
HDMI 1.3 video output
1x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 ports
Windows 8.1 or newer

While those specs will get your foot in the virtual door, Oculus recommends bumping up to a Core i5-4590 or Ryzen 5 1500X processor, and either a GeForce GTX 1060 or 970 if rolling with Nvidia, or a Radeon RX 480 if going with AMD. It also lists "Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or newer" for the OS.

The price cut is in effect immediately, at least if you buy direct from Oculus. Other sites should reflect the update price shortly.

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).