With the race to become the dominating force in the virtual reality space heating up, and units from both Facebook’s Oculus as well as HTC and Valve already available for pre-order, VR is quickly becoming more and more interesting and could very well start attracting more consumers as the actual launch dates approach. Another big name company set to launch their own VR headset this year, at least according to the rumors, is Sony with their upcoming PlayStation VR headset, said to be arriving sometime later this year in the Fall. As of earlier today those rumors are rumors no longer, and Sony has officially announced the pricing details and the launch date for the PlayStation VR.
Today at GDC 2016 Sony announced that the PlayStation VR would be available for consumers to purchase later on this Fall in October, set at a price of $399 which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given that Sony has stated they would not be pricing the headset to cost much more than the already available PlayStation 4 console that people will need to use the headset. Although Sony hasn’t stated the official day in October that the PlayStation VR will hit store shelves, the timing and price make it a ripe offering that is coming to market just in time for the holiday shopping season.
On top of the pricing and launch details, Sony has also confirmed that there will be around 50 games available for the PlayStation VR by the end of the year, although they did not explicitly state the amount of games that would be available to pick up at the time of the actual launch. Having said that, Sony does mention that all 50 games will release between the launch of the PlayStation VR and the end of 2016, with one of those being Star Wars Battlefront, and they’re said to have 100 games already in development. While the price is likely right for most consumers who own a PS4 and are interested in VR gaming experiences, Sony is launching the headset without one piece of needed equipment, the PlayStation camera. The base model of the PlayStation VR also comes without the Move Controllers, although Sony states that games will be playable with the DualShock 4 controllers as well, and at least one of those comes bundled with the PS4. The good news is that Sony will be selling the PlayStation VR in bundles as well, but they haven’t confirmed whether or not those bundles would include both the Move controllers and the Camera, nor did they share any details about the price of those bundles. The PlayStation VR will come equipped with a 5.7-inch OLED display with a Full HD resolution, 360-degree tracking, and an approximately 100-degree field of view.