Sony held a press event today at the Game Developer’s Conference, and it revealed the price and release window for its upcoming virtual reality headset. PlayStation VR will cost $399 and release in October of this year.
Andrew House, Sony Computer Entertainment President, had this to say:
“To make sure that we are able to prepare and deliver enough units of PS VR and a wide variety of software titles to consumers worldwide, we have decided to launch PS VR in October 2016.”
House went on to say that we will see 50 games launch on PlayStation VR this year, which is impressive given the short three months on the market.
The headset will come with Play Room VR, which is a Sony-developed set of mini-games. It was also revealed that over 230 developers are currently working on PlayStation VR games. In other huge news, a Star Wars Battlefront game was revealed as an exclusive for PlayStation VR, though nothing more was revealed about that particular title.
A price tag of $399 puts PlayStation VR ahead of the competition, with the Oculus Rift launching at $600 on March 28, and the HTC Vive launching in early April at $800. Just last week, Sony’s Masayasu Ito said PS VR might not be just as high end as Oculus Rift, but the company is catering to a wider market and therefore will price the system as such.
At this price point, and with the simplicity of using PS VR compared to it’s rivals, it seems Sony has the upper hand in the virtual reality race. It’s important to note however, that PlayStation VR requires a PS Camera to function, and that is not included in the box — therefore adding an additional $60 to the price tag if you do not already own one.
Do you think $399 is a reasonable price tag? Will you be purchasing PlayStation VR in 2016? What games would you like to come to VR? Let us know in the comments below. For more on PlayStation VR, stay tuned to GameSkinny.
