Both the Oculus Rift headset and Oculus Touch controllers are getting a dramatic price drop, significantly undercutting its chief competition, the HTC Vive. Upload VR reports that they're being reduced by $100 apiece, from $600 to $500 for the Rift and from $200 to $100 for Touch. That makes the combined price around $600. By comparison, the HTC Vive costs approximately $800, and includes its own controller. Rift sold its controller separately, but the combined price had matched the Vive until this drop. 

The hardware had been said to be taking a loss for Facebook, but new Chief Operations Officer, Hans Hartmann, has reportedly brought costs down since taking the post last year. Head of VR content Jason Rubin said this will facilitate expanding the VR ecosystem, and that this price is "sustainable." We can probably expect it to stay at this price for the foreseeable future, since Rubin said, "this is the kind of thing you look at every six months to a year."

If you purchased Touch in the last 30 days, though, you aren't entirely out of luck. Facebook will be offering $50 in Oculus store credit to recent purchasers to soften the blow.

This is heating up the VR race, but Valve isn't resting on its laurels. We learned this week that the company is preparing a new version of the Vive with eye-tracking tech.