Virtual Reality has come a long way in the last few years. With Oculus’ successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012, it showed that VR was certainly a technology to keep a close eye on. However, with nothing to be heard from other potential manufacturers of virtual reality products for a while, it seemed that VR wasn’t going to be as big a deal as was initially hoped, and likely would just be confined to the PC market. And yet, as more and more developers started using the development kit, we’ve seen more manufacturers embrace the technology to the point where VR is set to be much bigger than expected.
All of a sudden we’ve had a wave of VR peripherals from all corners of the industry, all wanting to make you look like Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge. Suddenly it’s like the days of the Nintendo Virtual Boy, when people thought you looked (justifiably) idiotic, are a distant memory, and now we live in an age where people are so intertwined with technology that the sight of a plastic brick in front of your head is becoming the norm. Even if it does still look idiotic.
With so much competition now from other players in the virtual reality market, the price of these VR devices will most certainly drop to mass consumer adoption levels in the next few years, but it’s a niche product that needs to sell the early buyers on it to the point that positive talk spreads and sales can rise. The question is: will that be easier or harder for VR on PlayStation?
You see, for the PC you have Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. For mobile you have the Samsung Gear VR and Google’s new VR device, which is to be a proper Cardboard successor, and there are many other companies that have joined the train such as Razer. For the PlayStation there is only PlayStation VR.
We will have to wait and see what the market will be like for VR this year and next, but when it comes to competition, nearly all corners of the market have some competition, except for the console market. Consequently, it gives the PS VR some advantages and disadvantages when compared with other headsets out soon.
There has been a lot of talk about VR’s pricing in recent months. Samsung’s Gear VR costs £100 or your regional equivalent – assuming you already own a Samsung S6 of some type. If you don’t already have one of those, then you’re looking at quite a high price of entry (or an extravagant contract at least). Samsung’s newly announced S7/Edge will be giving the Gear VR away for free with pre-orders, but once released you’ll have to purchase the Gear VR again.
Oculus Rift was announced at $600 USD and HTC Vive has more recently been pitched at an even higher price, so what would this mean to the average PlayStation gamer interested in VR? With the prices of these devices now out in the open, Sony can make a judgement on what they feel the cost of entry will be for PlayStation VR, what options they can give the end-user, and from that, gauge feedback.
Other than pricing, PlayStation VR is in a very unique position right now having zero competition on their platform. Sony are well known for being their own worst enemies with introducing technology in the past, but here’s hoping they’ll be more perseverance and that they keep on top of support (and deliver the right support) for the device. If they get this right, then they could be the pioneers of pushing VR further than any of the other devices in the gaming space, especially if the cash required to obtain it is reasonable enough to lure in more than the super keen and financially unburdened.
The barrier of entry for the PlayStation VR is already much lower than the others formats before any talk of headsets and controllers. Most people will already have a PlayStation 4 but if not, then you’re looking at nothing more than £300, The headset most likely will be around the same figure, if somewhat lower, at least for a few months anyway. However, what exactly is essential for the PS VR experience is where things could get a little difficult in ascertaining a decent price for it, and seeing just how attainable and desirable it is for consumers.
In order for PlayStation VR to work, you will require the already existing PlayStation Camera. The current adoption of the camera is unknown, but that is something to consider. Also you have the controllers: will the PlayStation 3 Move controllers work on the PlayStation 4? It certainly seems so, but for many they would not own these controllers, so it’s an additional cost.
Sony could play this very smartly by releasing 2 SKUs, the headset and everything else being sold separately, or everything bundled together. If the latter was the only option, then many will be unhappy having to purchase another camera or extra Move controllers if they already own them. For those without either this would obviously be a cheaper option than to purchase them separately. The hope would be that we shall see some clarification next month, and we’ll see if Sony can come out of the blocks with new hardware, without stumbling.
Are you looking forward to PlayStation VR? Do you think Sony has real competition? What do you think PlayStation VR will be priced at?