Sony Cuts Price of PlayStation VR Headset to $299
by Anton Shilov on March 30, 2018 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- VR
- Sony
- PlayStation
- Consoles
- PlayStation VR
As the VR headset market continues to grow and mature alongside initiatives like Daydream and Windows Mixed Reality, hardware makers have been able to drive down costs over time. Over the past few months, we've seen Facebook’s Oculus VR and HTC’s Vive dropping MSRPs of their first-gen hardware. Now, it is Sony’s turn to take $100/€100 off its headset.
Starting this week, Sony’s PlayStation VR headset (PSVR-CUH-ZVR2) now costs $299/€299, down from the previous price of $399/€399. In addition to reducing the price of the headset itself, Sony has cut the MSRPs of their PlayStation VR bundles as well, to the point that (at least for the moment) there's little reason to buy anything besides a bundle in the US. The PlayStation Doom VFR bundle is now available the same $299 price point as the standalone headset, whereas the PlayStation VR The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR bundle runs for a bit more at $349.99. In Europe, Sony offers the PlayStation VR Starter Pack with PlayStation VR Worlds title for €299. Keep in mind that contemporary PS VR bundles include Sony’s PlayStation Camera that is used for position tracking.
The Sony PlayStation VR head-mounted display (HMD) features a 5.7” OLED display with 1920×1080 (960×1080 per eye) resolution, 90 Hz – 120 Hz refresh rate and approximately 100° field of view. The original competitors for PS VR — the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift — offer a higher resolution (2160×1200, 1080×1200 per eye), but a lower maximum refresh rate. Considering the fact that PS VR has to work with the original PlayStation 4, the somewhat limited resolution is justified by the iGPU of the console.
Sony’s PlayStation VR was the most reasonably priced tethered VR platform introduced in 2016, albeit, at the cost of lower resolution and compatibility only with the PlayStation 4/PlayStation 4 Pro consoles. With the price cut, PS VR retains its affordability leadership: when purchased alongside a PS4, the package will cost $600, whereas a PS4 Pro-powered VR set will cost $700.
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Source: Sony
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JoeyJoJo123 - Friday, March 30, 2018 - link
Is this the end of VR?JeffFlanagan - Monday, April 2, 2018 - link
No. It's the beginning.Crazyeyeskillah - Friday, March 30, 2018 - link
There have been no game changing games like a half life 2 for VR, why would anyone invest in this technology if they can't enjoy it on a regular basis with good content?WithoutWeakness - Friday, March 30, 2018 - link
I know that it is yet another re-release of Skyrim but if Bethesda can put out a quality product with both Skyrim and Fallout VR and the experience translates well then I think more studios may take it seriously. VR is in a weird state where some games are made to be played sitting down and some are built for room-scale movement and it must be hard for devs to really focus on creating a great experience when there's no guarantee of how it will be played by users. There is also such a limited market for VR titles because not many people have $400+ to spend on a headset and controllers on top of a system powerful enough to drive it. If Bethesda can make games that encourage more people to buy into the hardware and create a user base then more developers will develop games for VR.tipoo - Friday, March 30, 2018 - link
Funny you say that, with Valve getting back into making games, and saying their hardware is what they want synergy with on their software titles...Hurr Durr - Sunday, April 1, 2018 - link
Half-Life 2 changed absolutely nothing. Stop drinking valve kool-aid already, it`s pathetic.Death666Angel - Monday, April 2, 2018 - link
Steam would not be what it is today without HL2.Dragonstongue - Monday, April 2, 2018 - link
who has room for anyone elses kool aid when most people are getting full on the Intel and Nvidia brand cancer flavored versions ^.^Samus - Monday, April 2, 2018 - link
It's debatable what influence Half Life 2 had on gaming, and FPS's in general, because it didn't really break any new ground other than having a one size fits all engine that ran on a wide range of hardware, and perhaps the physics engine. But it was mostly an extension to the original Half Life narrative.What isn't debatable is the impact Half Life had on gaming, influencing FPS's in particular for the next decade, including it's sequel, in the areas of story telling, atmosphere, modification, text to speech engine, and so on. Half Life is still widely considered one of the best games of all time and is on virtually every Top 10 games list in existence. And if Half Life 2 is on those lists, it's because Half Life put it there ;)
Simon_Says - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
User name checks out.Half Life 2 was a killer app for PC gaming. It provided a quality experience that proved the capabilities of its platform. That's something VR is desperately in need of right now.