We might never know the exactreason for the removal of almost half of the Oculus Rift demo stations scattered around the the US, but we can certainly take a good guess.
Apparently due to "poor performance", the Facebook-owned virtual reality firm is set to close around 200 of its 500 Rift headset demo stations currently available at Best Buy locations around the United States.
While Oculus is attributing the removal of said demo stations due to "seasonal changes", it all comes a little too close to the massive $500 million fine the courts imposed on the company after losing their legal battle against Zenimax last week. Sure, there's every chance that it's just Best Buy making space for something else, but it isn't too hard to image Oculus maybe decided to pull back on spending their cash on so much retail space.
Official statements coming from Oculus spokesperson Andrea Schubert, however, said “We’re making some seasonal changes and prioritising demos at hundreds of Best Buy locations in larger markets... We’re going to find opportunities to do regular events and pop ups in retail locations and local communities throughout the year."
The virtual reality firm partnered with Best Buy to offer these demo stations back in April last year; though only 48 larger stores carried the product at that time. Eventually, the company would expand to 500 within a few months with almost half of those now being removed. There could be a lot more removed in the future too.
