Oculus confirms component shortage is delaying some pre-order shipments

More proof, if proof were needed, that being an early adopter often involves being sucker-punched by the very tech company you are idolizing… Some of the earliest Oculus Rift pre-orderers are facing further delays to get their hands on the long-awaited hardware — pushing the ship date to more than two months after the official launch, in some instances (via RoadToVR).

In a statement provided to TechCrunch, the Facebook-owned VR startup confirmed the delay and blamed it on a component shortage. It declined to answer any specific questions — such as how many Rift pre-orderers are being affected by the delay, or why this specific group is being affected. Oculus has been shipping Rifts to some buyers since the end of March.

The company also declined to detail how many Rifts it has shipped at this point.

In its statement, Oculus said: “The component shortage impacted our quantities more than we expected, and we’ve updated the shipment window to reflect these changes.”

Some Rift pre-orderers have reportedly had their shipping estimates pushed from May to early June, or from early June to late June, according to RoadToVR.

“We apologize for the delay. We’re delivering Rifts to customers every day, and we’re focused on getting Rifts out the door as fast as we can,” Oculus added. “We’ve taken steps to address the component shortage, and we’ll continue shipping in higher volumes each week. We’ve also increased our manufacturing capacity to allow us to deliver in higher quantities, faster. Many Rifts will ship less than four weeks from original estimates, and we hope to beat the new estimates we’ve provided.”

Another previously announced Rift-related delay involves the two Touch controllers intended to be used to enable people to interact with the VR content. These are not shipping with the main rig — having been delayed to the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, rival VR rig the HTC Vive started shipping earlier this month, along with its two proprietary controllers.

Hardware delays aside, the bigger issue faced by VR rigs is the need to offer buyers compelling content. Early virtual reality buyers on all sides are going to need to exercise considerable patience on that front.