I want to get a VR headset, and the 1080 that I'll be receiving very soon will very much help that. However, while I shore up the cash for the headset, I'm stumped as to which I want to get. I'm heavily invested in the Steam ecosystem, but I don't even have close to the space for a "Room Scale" experience, not that I'm even very interested in it. Is the Vive leading with standing VR, and then everything else is secondary, or is there equal room for both types of experiences? Are third-party games trending to have release parity for both Oculus and Vive as time goes on, or do I have to take exclusives into consideration?

I suggest you go with the Rift because of the Oculus Touch controllers. The two headsets seem nearly identical, the biggest difference I see is that the Vive controllers don't have joysticks while the Oculus Touch controllers have joysticks.

My guess is that this will prove imperative for movement in early VR games, and the Vive is at a serious disadvantage only having touchpads and not joysticks.

May I suggest 1995's hottest VR tech...Nintendo's Virtual Boy.

I would suggest the Vive considering it's less constrained and not owned by Facebook. However, given you non-interest in room scale, the Oculus is probably the smarter choice by virtue of being cheaper.

@sunkistgogoat: None, in all seriousness.

But if you really want one, go with the one that has the experiences games that you want.

AFAIK: currently the Vive can do both the "sit-down" and "room scale" VR, while Rift can't do "room scale" & has no "motion" controller yet. Vive seems to be going along with the PC's open platform while Rift seems to be gearing more towards exclusives. That last part might make Rift seem more attractive, but it's worth thinking about...do you want VR on the PC to go down the exclusives route? There are positives to it, but also potential negatives - like wanting to get a different VR headset later on, but feeling like you can't because the games you bought on your previous headset won't run on another brand. Would you support NVidia/AMD dumping money into game development in order to secure exclusives for their graphics cards, or Acer doing so to make games playable only on their monitors?

It's worth taking the time to read more than one review/article on these devices (assuming $600+ isn't nothing to you)...hope you end up enjoying it and feeling like you picked the right one! :)

Vive seems cooler with the controllers, but without the space it seems pointless so i'd go with the rift.

More power to you for being an early adopter. Im also getting a 1080 and in the process of building a new PC. I decided to wait until this holiday season before making my choice. You might not be able to get one until then anyway.

The reason I'm waiting is there seems to be a lot of late comers to the scene and I wanna see what the choices are down the road. Also I'm hoping a full-fledged Bethesda type RPG will be out by then.

Do not get any VR headset right now. Ask yourself the question, "Is there a game that I cannot live without on VR right now?" If the answer is no (and I'm sure it is at the moment.), then there is no reason to be hasty and spend full retail price on a headset when later on the price will drop, the library will be larger, and some teams will figure out the VR secret sauce to make that hardware mesh best with game play. VR right now reminds me of the launch or early days of Wii where everyone and their mom had a minigame collection out, but only a few games actually ever used motion control in a thought out game concept that worked well. (waggling the remote to swing as link doesn't count...damn, that shit was lame.) I know everyone loves the new shiny hardware, but seriously, put your money away for a moment and wait for something that is exceptional.

I've had a Vive for a month. I use it almost everyday and I love it. But, if you want the best it has to offer, space for room-scale is a must! I use Tiltbrush alot. I've been playing DOOM and experimenting with other non-native VR games using VorpX (DIG it). Have a few games I've purchased to still try. But, not a ton of deep experiences... yet. Several titles hitting soon I'm very interested in though.

I've had zero experience with a Rift, but I recommend the VIve if you can/want to early adopt and help push the platform.