Sony announced on Friday that its PlayStation VR – available for pre-order on Tuesday, March 22 for $499 – will give you everything you need to get the headset running when it launches in October. Priced at $399, many were ecstatic, especially considering how those same folks felt burned by the prices of the Oculus Rift ($600) and HTC Vive ($800). That is until they learned the base PlayStation VR kit doesn’t include two of the components needed to play virtual reality games on the PlayStation 4.
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Sony has also said that the units of the PlayStation VR launch bundle available for pre-orders will be limited.
The company has also teamed up with development company EA Sports and Lucasfilm for a Star Wars Battlefront game that will be released as a PlayStation VR exclusive. The VR headset marketplace has been getting more active in recent months as vendors have been introducing a wide range of new products aimed at VR fans. And why not? After all, Sony has always been in the gaming scene with its breakthrough console, the Sony PlayStation.
House said he expects over 50 games will be available for PlayStation VR by the end of 2016.
More than 230 developers and publishers are now working on PS VR titles, including EVE: Valkyrie, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, and PlayStation VR WORLDS.
It’s worth reiterating that the PlayStation Camera is required for the VR experience but the Move motion controllers aren’t (you can just use the PS4’s DualShock controllers).
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In a blog post on Playstation.Blog, Andrew House, the company’s president and global CEO, acknowledged that the new date is a little later than previously stated and thanked everyone “for their patience and continued support”. Sony told Polygon that the reason the camera isn’t in the bundle is because some people already own it. Fair enough, but the announcement should have mentioned that extra expense for those who don’t own it.
