Last week, Sony announced that it will start accepting pre-orders for its upcoming PlayStation VR headset from the 22nd of this month. Now that the day has finally arrived, various online retailers around the world have started accepting pre-orders for the device which comes as a package that includes not just the PlayStation VR core bundle but also a bunch of other goodies as part of the specially-curated launch bundle that includes a whole lot of additional hardware and software. One thing to note here is that as of today, Sony is only accepting pre-orders for the launch bundle, which comes with all the add-ons and cost $499. The company says it will start accepting pre-orders for the no-frills $399 core bundle from 7:00 AM PT next Tuesday (March 29th).
Coming to a few more details regarding the difference between the $499 launch bundle which has gone on pre-order today and the $399 core bundle that is slated to go on pre-order next week, while the core PlayStation VR bundle includes the headset, the VR cables, stereo headphones and a PlayStation VR Demo Disc, the launch bundle additionally come with a PlayStation Camera, 2 PlayStation Move motion controllers and a PlayStation VR Worlds disc. All that for just a hundred bucks extra probably sounds good enough to quite a few gaming enthusiasts, especially as the two nearest competitors of the PlayStation VR, the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, both come with price-tags that are significantly higher than Sony’s VR offering. While the Oculus Rift comes with a $599 price-tag, HTC is asking as much as $799 for its VR headset.
While pre-orders for the PlayStation VR launch bundle have already started in many regions around the world, Amazon’s American and German websites are already out of stock as of press time. However, Amazon UK is still accepting pre-orders, so the site presumably still has some stock left. Other UK retailers like GAME apparently are also taking pre-orders, so VR enthusiasts in the country still have ways to book their unit right now. Having said that though, Sony says it will offer its customers more chances to pre-order the device before it is eventually launched this October, so those not being able to snare one in this round, thankfully need not despair.