PlayStation VR Finally Arrives This October Costing £349

Sony has at long last revealed a release month and price for its virtual reality gaming experience, the PlayStation VR.

The announcement of an October release and a £349 price tag for PlayStation VR arrived at this year’s Games Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, the same event where the headset was first spotted two years ago – which gives you an idea of how long we’ve been waiting for a “when?” and “how much?” and why today’s news is so exciting. As well as the confirmation of these important sales details Sony also told a bit more about how PlayStation VR fit into the brand eco-system and also what will be available from day one.

Out of the box PlayStation 4 owners will get the headset with 5.7″ display, power adapter, earphones and HDMI/USB leads and will immediately be able to enjoy PlayStation VR for free with a selection of Playroom VR games when hooked up to the PS4. The current Playroom for PS4 offers a range of casual games – quick and fun, mostly non-serious titles that can be picked up at any time. A similar scheme will be available for PS VR giving new buyers an introduction to what the new platform can do before unleashing the full virtual reality potential with starting line-up of 50 titles such as Until Dawn: Rush of Blood available from launch and a future Star Wars: Battlefront gaming experience was confirmed as coming soon after the headset’s release.

Addressing the long wait Sony said: “To make sure that we are able to prepare and deliver enough units of PS VR and a wide variety of software titles to consumers worldwide, we have decided to launch PS VR in October 2016. For those who are looking forward to its launch, we would like to thank everyone for their patience and continued support. We are beyond excited to deliver to consumers the amazing experience that PS VR offers.”

Sony also stated that 230 developers will be ready and waiting for October with a line-up of specifically designed games and software for PlayStation VR and as well as the dedicated games, existing PS4 games, movies and the PS4 XMB menus can also be viewed inside the headset viewer through a Cinematic Mode. Users can also immerse in their own photos and videos which can be screened inside the personal headset.

Interestingly it will be essential to use the PS4 Camera to use the PS VR motion control but Sony have chosen to keep the camera separate. PS VR also works with the PS Move handheld controllers and these are also absent from the box. Dualshock 4 controllers are also an option.

As far as the specs for PlayStation VR go the display inside the headset will offer a total combined resolution of 1920 x 1080 (960 x 1080 per eye) with 360 degree tracking and 100 degree field of vision, less than 18ms latency and 90 to 120Hz refresh rate. Notably not as powerful or visually capable as the Oculus Rift or HTV Vive but for a fraction of the price who can complain? Despite its 187 x 185 x 277mm dimensions the PS VR headset weighs just 610 grams so its design to be worn comfortably for a reasonable period of time (Sony hasn’t however released any suggested use/rest times for the headset.)

We await a specific release day in October for when the PlayStation VR will arrive and hopefully Sony will be able to reveal even more in the coming weeks. Amazon is offering a pre-order start date of Wednesday 16th March from 11:00AM.

Source: PlayStation Blog