Oculus giving free Rift to early Kickstarter backers

Oculus has announced it will reward its earliest supporters with a free Oculus Rift, creating a special edition of the device for those who received the first dev kits.

There are a couple of caveats to this offer. It is only open to backers of the original Kickstarter campaign who pledged enough to qualify for a development kit, although this still includes some 6,955 people, according to MCV.

It will also only apply to any of these backers that are based in one of the Oculus Rift’s 20 launch countries. Anyone outside this will be given the option of alternative rewards, to be decided by a survey at a later date.

Those who are eligible will receive the special Kickstarter Edition of the final Oculus Rift that’s heading to retail. This will include copies of Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale, as will the consumer versions.

Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift go live later today, with more news expected on how much it will cost and when it will appear on shelves.