‘Oculus Rift will drive gamers to physical retailers’

VR giant Oculus says in-store demos for its Rift headset will cause consumers to flock to the High Street.

Oculus head of content Jason Rubin said that retailers are happy to make the trade-off between floor space and demo space due to the fact that it will attract a large number of consumers.

Retailers love it,” Rubin said. Beyond the normal things they think about, it’s drawing people to stores who otherwise would not go there. People are signing up online and going two weeks later, they’re going into stores in the US and playing demos. It’s like going to the movies.

And once they’re in a store, retailers love the fact that whether they buy a drink, a cable or a $2,000 bundle with a PC and a Rift, it’s more people that are in the store.”

He continued: It does take a lot of room to do a VR demo. There is an investment. Retailers are excited to make that trade from retail space to demo space because it’s bringing people into the stores.”