Oculus Rift dev kit sales suspended in China due to 'extreme reseller purchases'

Pre-orders and shipments of the latest Oculus Rift development kit have been suspended in China due to "extreme reseller purchases" that Oculus fears are preventing legitimate developers for obtaining stock, according to a post on Reddit from customer service lead Kevin Crawford.

China was removed from the Dev Kit 2 pre-order page and interested buyers have taken to the Reddit forums to complain their existing pre-orders for the hardware have been canceled. Crawford explained that this was done to prevent resellers from buying up large quantities of dev kits and then flipping them for a profit. This is not an uncommon occurrence, where second-hand hardware sellers will try to make a profit from reselling merchandise on sites like Taobao.

"Yes, it is a bummer that we've had to suspend sales in China due to extreme reseller purchases," Crawford wrote on Reddit. "We need to make sure that we are doing what we can to make sure that resellers that are looking to flip our product for a profit are not taking stock away from legitimate developer purchases globally.

"Our product, in its current form, is a developer kit, meant for developers that develop VR content. We are looking into alternative ways to make sure that our development kits are getting into legitimate developer hands in China."

The new version of the Oculus Rift dev kits will begin shipping this month for those who pre-ordered. The kit went on sale in March for $350.