Oculus Preorders Start This Week

Facebook Inc

-owned Oculus Rift pre-orders begin this Wednesday. It looks like virtual reality (VR) is well on its way to become a reality in 2016. Shares of Facebook were down -1.47 percent in last Thursday's trading session. "We're excited to announce that pre-orders for #Rift will open at 8am PST on January 6!," the company

on Monday. Virtual Reality is the platform of tomorrow. This is exciting news for virtual reality this year, however the first consumer versions, pricing information and release dates have yet to be revealed. Oculus is poised to be a market leader at CES 2016. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey wrote on Twitter just before Christmas, "VR will become something everyone wants before it becomes something everyone can afford." "Future advancements and high volume will make VR available to everyone eventually, but 1st gen will be mostly early adopters. … There are a lot of people who expect to spend a couple hundred bucks and use their existing low-end laptops," Luckey said. The consumer version of the Rift includes the launch game Lucky Tale. Those who pre-orderer are expected to receive a copy of EVE: Valkyrie, a outer-space dogfight game. Facebook's 2014 acquisition of Oculus account for a total of $2 billion. The deal included $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion based on the average closing price of the 20 trading days preceding March 21, 2014 of $69.35 per share). Oculus founder Palmer Luckey will hosting a Q&A, answering VR questions during a Reddit AMA this Wednesday, January 6 at 6pm Pacific Time. Facebook's stock ended at $104.66 on Thursday. The company has a 83.10 percent gross margin and its return on assets is 6.50 percent. Facebook's quarterly performance is 15.07 percent.