Available for pre-order
View Purchasing OptionsAs our crowdfunding campaign comes to an incredibly successful end (thanks for the support everybody!), it’s time to talk about what comes next.
We did what we could to secure enough inertial measurement units (IMUs) during this chip shortage we’re all living through, but we ran up against two problems: 1) we were unable to launch our campaign as early as we wanted, and 2) the level of interest in SlimeVR exceeded all our expectations. As a result, neither the chip manufacturer nor our supplier can promise to deliver all necessary chips in time for a March delivery. They’ve said they can ship 8,000 chips in the first quarter of 2022, with the rest coming available in the second quarter. These are not very precise estimates, but they’re the best we can get at the moment, so that’s what we have to work with. As a result, we are pushing delivery estimates for all orders to June 2022.
As you can see, we’ve decided not to put too much faith in that earlier estimate (for 8,000 chips in Q1). Unfortunately, here in the "supply-chain apocalypse," delays are to be expected, and we very much want to avoid over promising. If any or all chips arrive ahead of schedule, backers who placed their orders earlier will receive their SlimeVR trackers sooner. In other words, as soon as we get the chips, we go into production. If you feel like this new schedule doesn’t work for you, please contact Crowd Supply to change or cancel your order. And don’t worry about it. We understand. Though we do ask that you please try to make any such changes before the campaign ends on the 12th of October.
Once again, we are sorry for the inconvenience. We hope the world returns to "normal" soon, so everyone can get their Slimes as fast as possible, but estimates are estimates, and we are not interested in making commitments that we might not have the power to keep. Thank you for your patience!
Even after the campaign ends, SlimeVR will remain available for purchase. Thanks to support from Crowd Supply—and a healthy dose of preordering too many chips—we will be making more than enough trackers to meet demand. So don’t worry. If you miss the crowdfunding campaign, you’ll still be able to pre-order some Slimes. Those who back our campaign will receive their products first, but (supply-chain nonsense permitting) post-campaign pre-orders will be manufactured at the same time and will ship out shortly thereafter.
In the unlikely event that we do run out of Slimes—seeing as you keep beating our wildest expectations!—we will certainly consider a second production run or an extension of the first. If that happens, we will of course let you know. Meanwhile, please be aware that it might take some time before we are ready to sell individual trackers for those who want to "upgrade" their sets. We currently have no such plans until all crowdfunding and pre-order units have shipped. After all, you won’t be needing an upgrade until you receive what you ordered in the first place, right? :)
If you want to upgrade to a larger set, before your order is shipped, please contact Crowd Supply before the end of the campaign.
Below is a sneak peek into our SlimeVR production plans!
There’s a bunch of stuff that has been happening for a good long while – and that will continue happening right up until we ship (and indeed well after we ship):
We’ve been posting weekly updates throughout our crowdfunding campaign. After next Tuesday, we’ll be turning down the volume a little. Don’t worry, we’ll still send updates if we make anything cool and whenever we have important production information to share. If you want to follow the project more closely, though, please join our Discord server. We post weekly updates there, as well as smaller updates in-between, and we plan to create a specific channel to cover minor production updates related to SlimeVR. Our Discord server is also a great place to witness the alchemy through which our community of passionate contributors and DIY enthusiasts develop cool stuff! And of course, if you want to make your own DIY Slimes, then our Discord server is definitely the place to start.
Full-body tracking (FBT) is in its infancy, and SlimeVR is an open source VR platform that’s here to help it grow. Right now, we are focused on making the best FBT possible and on delivering trackers to backers. But this will not be the end of our journey. ;) And we very much hope you will be coming along with us!