Augmentead reality tech firm CastAR is offering refunds to any CastAR Kickstarter backers who pledged enough to merit receiving CastAR developer hardware, and those who still have not received such hardware will instead receive the consumer version of CastAR at no charge in 2017.
What’s most notable here is the refund offer. Over the summer investors poured $15 million into CastAR, roughly two years after the company (initially formed as Technical Illusions) raised over a million dollars on Kickstarter, and as the firm has brought in more investors it has, by its own admission, grown less communicative with its Kickstarter backers.
Now it seems the company is spending some of that money on making good with backers, many of whom were developers who invested in the project so they could get early access to developer hardware — some of which was offered piecemeal (a CastAR headset but no wand controller, for example.)
As the company finalizes the design for a consumer version of the headset, it seems eager to avoid shipping out hardware that’s missing key features of the final headset.
“After much discussion, CastAR has decided to offer Backers who pledged at the hardware tiers a free pair of consumer CastAR at release and will be fully reimbursing those Backers’ Kickstarter backings,” reads an excerpt of a FAQ about the refund offer. “Our Backers were the first to believe in us, now they get CastAR for free once the consumer product is released.”
CastAR is still planning to create developer kits and will be offering them through a more traditional developer program next year.