Oculus founder Palmer Luckey personally delivers the first consumer Rift

Oculus Rift
Ross Martin (left) and Palmer Luckey (right).

If you've placed a pre-order for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift then you're probably already excited this weekend, as units are due to start shipping on Monday. Software developer Ross Martin got an even better surprise, as Oculus founder Palmer Luckey travelled to Alaska to deliver the VR headset in person.

"I've been working on this thing for so long, and you're the first person to actually get one," says Luckey in the video broadcast on (of course) Facebook Live. "So it's kind of like me taking all this work and handing it off to you so you've got to make sure you have fun with it or something."

Martin tweeted pictures of the meet-up and his signed Oculus Rift package, although being at work he didn't have his gaming PC available - so rather than booting up the Rift for a VR gaming session he had to settle for some small talk with the man behind the company that made it. Martin was the first person to pre-order the consumer edition, which is why he got the personal touch.

The Oculus Rift is now on sale worldwide for £499/US$599/AU$649, with orders placed today due to ship in July, and it's going to be followed by the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR in the near future. If you don't have the cash available right now for a Rift (and the PC required to run it) then you could always wait for the next version.

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David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.