Sony today announced the cost of its upcoming VR headset at the Game Developer Conference (GDC).
The PlayStation VR is set to cost $549 CAD ($399 USD) and will launch in October. Additionally, the $69 CAD PlayStation Camera is required for the headset to operate, and doesn’t come included with the device, bringing the price up to $618. PlayStation Move controllers, which are expected to be required for many PlayStation VR titles, also cost an additional $49.99 CAD.
Sony also announced more than 50 games will launch on the platform throughout 2016, including an exclusive virtual reality experience related to the recently released Star Wars Battlefront. Sony also says that over 250 developers are currently working on PlayStation VR related projects. Moreover, all PlayStation VR units will ship with a piece of included software called The Playroom VR. Sony did not show what this piece of software looks like running the device.
“It’s been a long road for virtual reality, one that’s gone back and forth from the research labs and taken a lot of twists and turns into and out of the consumer consciousness,” said Andrew House, the president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, during the presentation. “One could argue that VR is a natural extension of the kind of experience that PlayStation has always tried to deliver to gamers.”
Notable upcoming PlayStation VR titles include Eagle Flight, EVE: Valkyrie, Headmaster, Rez Infinite, Wayward Sky, RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Tumble VR and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. Unlike the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, two high-end VR headsets that feature two 2160 x 1200 pixel displays, Sony’s PlayStation VR features a 1920 x 1080 pixel display, resulting in a more distorted image when compared to competing headsets.
All in, PlayStation VR is set to cost more than the PlayStation 4, which is currently priced at $429. Still, its price tag is less than both the Oculus Rift ($914) and the HTC Vive ($1,149), which also require a high-end PC, adding an additional cost between $1000 and $1500 to the price of the headset.
Patrick O’Rourke also contributed to this post.
[source]Sony Canada[/source]
