Oculus Rift is suspending production of Dev Kit 1 due to a lack of materials, the company posted on their subreddit. Andres Hernandez, the company’s Community Manager, explained the situation:
Certain components used in the Oculus Rift developer kit are no longer being manufactured, meaning they are no longer available to us for production. As a result, we don’t have the necessary materials to produce additional kits. We still have some stock available, but we’re quickly running out. We are looking into alternate sources for the needed components, and we don’t yet have a timeline for when additional units will be available. We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted.
He went on to say that the only locations they are selling and shipping to are the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Switzerland, and Norway.
Finally, he thanked the supporters of Oculus, saying it couldn’t have been done without them – trying to put a positive spin on this obviously negative situation.
Over at Road to VR, Ben Lang speculates that the missing component is most likely the screen:
The screen is the most likely bet for the component Oculus is missing. The Rift developer kit (DK1) was originally planned to use a 5-inch panel. When it was discontinued before Rift production, Oculus moved to the current 7-inch 1280×800 panel. I can’t imagine that such a panel, previously found in devices like UMPCs, draws much demand in 2014.
He goes on to make the most important point: “High demand for the developer kit is a good problem to have, but suspended sales is not one that you want to have for long; the Rift would be dead in the water without content made by developers by the time it hits the consumer market.” Hopefully there will be news soon on Dev Kit 2.
