Pre-orders for Oculus Rift begin on 6 January

Oculus will begin taking pre-orders of the Rift headset on 6 January

Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will be open from 6 January, says the Facebook-owned company.

It will be taking orders from 08:00 PCT (16:00 GMT) but has given no guidance on price or when it will ship units.

"We'll be sharing everything you need to know... on Wednesday," it said in a blog posting.

Pre-ordered devices will come bundled with video games Lucky's Tale and Eve: Valkyrie, free of charge.

The launch coincides with the CES tech show in Las Vegas, where the headset will be on display.

Immersive experiences

Industry watchers are keen to learn the cost of the device, which is not expected to be aimed at casual users.

In May, Oculus boss Brendan Iribe said a Rift and a PC capable of powering it should cost $1,500 (£1,000) in total. The firm has said the finished consumer-ready headset should be in the "same ballpark" as the $350 cost of its earlier prototypes.

Before now Oculus has only released prototypes of its headset, which promises users "immersive" video gaming experiences.

Facebook, which bought Oculus for $2bn in 2014, said it planned to expand the use of its technologies, to include "communications, media and entertainment, education and other areas".

More updates

It said the firm's founder, Palmer Luckey, would be answering questions about the Rift on a Reddit Q&A session on Wednesday at 18:00 PCT (02:00 GMT).

The firm hinted it would provide more updates this week, adding "We can't wait to share what's coming next!"

It follows news that a motion controller for the Rift, called Touch, would be delayed until the second quarter of 2016.

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