Best Buy closes 200 Oculus Rift demo stations. Workers paint a disinterested picture.
Best Buy is closing 200 Oculus Rift demonstration areas, nearly half its US total, in the face of what workers describe as poor sales and customer disinterest. US high-street retailer Best Buy is to pull nearly half of its Oculus Rift demonstration stations, following what is claimed to have been poor consumer traction.
Having partnered with Facebook-owned Oculus VR for the retail launch of the company’s eponymous Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, Best Buy went in deep by launching 500 demonstration stations in stores across the US. By visiting a Best Buy, users could strap on the Rift headset and try virtual reality for themselves – before plonking down their hard-earned cash for a headset and, Best Buy naturally hoped, a beefy gaming PC with which to drive it.
Now, though, Best Buy is to close 200 of its 500 Oculus Rift demonstration areas, though the two companies seem cagey on exactly why.
