This is why we can’t have nice things.
You may not have guessed from the plethora of coverage and hype surrounding the Oculus Rift, but its not actually a consumer product yet. Development Kits have been made available to developers and enthusiasts in limited quantities around the world, creating a pretty big demand for something that doesn’t have a lot of supply. Today, it looks like that demand is going to get a little bit higher, as Oculus has announced it will halt distribution of the device to China, due to rampant scalping.
“We need to make sure that we are doing what we can to make sure that resellers that are looking to flip our product for a profit are not taking stock away from legitimate developer purchases globally,” an Oculus rep said in a reddit thread. “Our product, in its current form, is a developer kit, meant for developers that develop VR content. We are looking into alternative ways to make sure that our development kits are getting into legitimate developer hands in China.”
When asked just how bad the “extreme re-seller purchases” was, the rep responded sarcastically “We were forced to suspend an entire country from purchasing. I’ll let you put two and two together.”
Bad news for any of you in China hoping to get your hands on a rift.
