Oculus to frustrated preorder customers: Go get a Rift at Best Buy this weekend

Oculus VR is preparing to launch its retail strategy even before it has fulfilled all of its preorders.

Many people who preordered a Rift virtual reality headset earlier this year are still waiting for their devices while Oculus struggles with component shortages, but that’s not stopping the Facebook subsidiary from offering ‘a small number of Rifts’ at Best Buy and some online retailers this weekend. On Saturday, 48 Best Buy locations will offer people the chance to try out the Oculus Rift, and some of those store will also have headsets on shelves. Additionally, Amazon and Microsoft Store will have Rifts as well starting at May 6 at 9 a.m. Pacific time. This means that someone with no preorder could potentially walk out of a store with a Rift weeks or months before someone who locked down their order way back in January. Some analysts expect that VR will grow into a $40 billion business by 2020, but it’s going to have to fulfill its orders before any of that growth is possible.