Oculus Rift will be in stores long before many pre-orders are fulfilled

If you want to get your hands on a Rift ASAP, better plan to camp out at Best Buy

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will be available for demonstration and purchase at select Best Buy stores starting May 7 (and for purchase through Amazon and Microsoft Stores online starting at 9am Pacific on May 6). That means walk-in customers at brick-and-mortar stores will be able to get their headset well before many who pre-ordered the system directly from Oculus months ago.

While Oculus started taking Rift pre-orders in January and officially started shipping the units in March, many early pre-orders have seen their shipping date estimates slip amid production delays. In April, Oculus admitted that an "unexpected component shortage" meant early adopters could have to wait an extra month or two from initial estimates to receive their units. Orders placed on the Oculus site right now are slated for August delivery.

Oculus says that retail availability will be "extremely limited while we catch up on Rift pre-orders." Still, the company realizes that many early pre-order purchasers may try to pick up a unit from the local Best Buy rather than continuing to wait for their online order. Those users will be able to cancel their pre-orders from the Oculus Store while still keeping access to pre-order bonuses like Eve: Valkyrie and priority access to future Oculus Touch controller orders.

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