Facebook is reportedly closing down 200 of its 500 pop-up Oculus Rift demo stations across the United States. Oculus later confirmed the report saying that the closings are due to “seasonal changes.”
“We’re making some seasonal changes and prioritizing demos at hundreds of Best Buy locations in larger markets,” Oculus spokeswoman Andrea Schubert told Business Insider. “You can still request Rift demos at hundreds of Best Buy stores in the US and Canada.”
“We still believe the best way to learn about VR is through a live demo. We’re going to find opportunities to do regular events and pop ups in retail locations and local communities throughout the year.”
The term used by Schubert may have simply been a euphemism as she didn’t really give out a specific reason why the demo stations were being closed. Some unnamed sources have suggested that it may have been due to lack of interest from the public, software bugs during the demo, or Best Buy wasn’t doing enough to push the Oculus Rift headsets to its customers, according to CNET.
Best Buy was the first retailer to partner up with Oculus to demo and sell the Rift VR headset back in April 2016. At first, only 48 Best Buy stores had the headset available for live demonstrations. It quickly expanded to 500 stores across the U.S. by August 2016.
Business Insider was even able to talk to a Best Buy worker from Texas who claims that there were some days he/she won’t even give a demo to customers simply because they “didn’t want to.” Another worker from California also said that they weren’t able to demo the Oculus Rift because of software bugs.
When Best Buy released its Q3 2016 earnings report back in November, CEO Hubert Joly said that were able to give 300,000 VR demos in all its stores. However, those numbers may have also included VR headsets from other manufacturers like Samsung and Sony.
Facebook, which acquired Oculus in 2014 for $2 billion, is said to be considering demoing and selling the Rift VR headset by making its own permanent physical store.
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