Gamescom 2015: Will PS4's VR Headset Project Morpheus Be Expensive?

I can't see past 250 and a bundle with controllers and cameras retailing at about 300.

There needs to be demo booths set up in all stores that will carry this product. Have Rigs and The Assembly as demos for the Morpheus booths also.

You need to show off in stores why ppl should buy this thing and why it adds to your gaming experience to justify the price. Most people are happy with just a normal controller, so you need too show a very good reason why this new device will enhance their gaming experience, then people well definitely buy it.

It will be expensive, at least $350 or more if they want to sell a quality product with some room for profit (or just break even or take a small loss to promote adoption). However, I think it'll be mainly within the realm of early adopters and tech geeks. I don't expect mass adoption of VR until at least another generation or so (5-10 years). My co-worker had an Oculus (dev model) and it required at least a GTX 970 to even have a good experience with it (playing Eurotruck Simulator 2). Considering the far weaker GPU of the PS4, the experience will be lacking (unless the unit itself will have some "helper hardware" to support the PS4 GPU).

VR will go the same way as 3D, Motion Control and whatever else they dream up next. The hype is being led by Bloggers and Tech Journalists who get too play with and in many cases own this stuff for free. Here in the UK $300 dollars becomes £300 which is actually $465. Plus who is going to shell out $60 or $70 for games that are glorified tech demos.

"Oh wow I can look around and actually head the ball into the back of the net"

An hour later....

"Umm, is that it?"

Or how about impressing your friends by inviting them round so they can one by one play your Morpheus whilst everybody else just watches them wear a plastic visor and ooh and ahh. You thought the lack of couch co-op and watching your mate play till it was your turn was frustrating. Wait till you can see nothing other than your Mate doing their best Cylon Impersonation or at best watch an underwhelming Move game rapidly converted too work with Morpheus play out on your TV and make little sense as you are not experiencing the VR.

Still at least it may prompt a return to people crafting proper meaty 1st person experiences as they can no longer shoehorn pointless multiplayer in. In order to break even any AAA title that even flirts with VR will have to have a non VR version to actually sell enough copies to make it financially viable. Within 18 months VR will be optional like Move or Kinect if it even moves beyond the sort of short lived "experiences" offered so far. Unless you like 3D Eve Valkyrie clones. They'll be a lot of those..

As for demo units the gaming stores are just not set up to have something that would probably need a dedicated space as well as a member of staff permanently next to it to run the demo's as well as clean up the puke when the experience doesn't agree with the general public.

Sorry too be a Luddite but we have seen this all before. Ultimately as games such as GTA V, Witcher 3 or The Last of Us prove we need a controller, a "flat" image on a big eff off TV (or a small bedroom portable) and an emotionally engaging story. Not silly short lived gimmicks.

@dnky666 Me and my friends will be the beta testers as we're getting it day one. Also, when you have friends over, one person will wear the headset while the other uses the TV. Its already been confirmed for games like RIGS, which is a multiplayer PVP game from the guys behind Killzone.

I wouldn't consider No Man's Sky a tech demo which has just about been confirmed as Project Morpheus compatible. If it was just a gimmick I don't think so many companies would be investing millions of pounds into VR. Facebook spent how much 1-2 billion dollars purchasing Oculus Rift.

Its not like it was with the Xbox Kinnect. That only had Microsoft behind it. VR has multiple companies getting in on the act. Companies like Valve and HTC, Samsung, Facebook and of course Sony.

I've been lucky enough to try it and I could definitely see the potential and it didn't feel like a gimmick at all.

Aslong as they get the price right and have a few good games at launch, word of mouth and the Internet will sell it no problem. At first the best games will probably come from the indie devs with major studios to follow.

It has to be $199 for a bundle with camera, headset and a demo disk, anything more than that would be too much

I agree this is for early adopters. Given we paid our £350 (translate to your region's price) a couple of years ago, paying another £250 to £300 wouldn't be out of the question to get an incredible VR experience, as long as we know the long term support is there for it. That's what Sony need to convince us of.

@DualWielding Lol keep dreaming buddy. No way you'll get all that for only 199. 250 at least for the headset it's self.

OT- I say 250 stand a lone and a 300 dollar bundle with Morpheus Headset, PS Camera, PS Move, and Rigs.

It will not be a financial success. It is just another gimmick.

@freaksloan I think you're wrong about it being a gimmick, but I guess we will know if it is or not by Xmas 2016.

Facebook must see VR as a good investment, otherwise, why would they spend between 1-2 billion dollars purchasing the Oculus Rift.

@Dohv

I know the $199.99 with everything won't happen, but it's what has to happen for it to have any chance of success

didn't someone already state that it would cost several hundred pounds at launch? £450 would be my guess, I also think it will fail miserably

link for anyone interested http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/15/8782385/project-morpheus-to-cost-several-hundred-dollars-according-to-sony

299.99 Dollars i reckon, then of course Europe will be shafted...

I too feel a pricedrop is coming for the PS4. In Europe major retailers got a mailing from SCEE to start dropping the prices of bundles like the Batman and MGS one in June and it seems most outlets are clearing old model 500gb stock at this moment. I reckon the 1tb will be going for $399 officially with the 500gb models having an RRP of $359, maybe this will even be bundle prices. Although Sony is ahead and there is no need for a pricecut, manufacturing cost have plummeted even quicker as predicted and it's totally safe for them to offer the same prices MS did last year. But where MS totally undermined the value of its product, ( I mean: what should they cost this Black Friday? $199??) Sony can offer a price that's just right for the product and still make a sizeable profit.

Concerning Polygon's article bout Morpheus: I think we all could've guessed Morpheus would be "several hundred dollars", but the question is if that means $200 or $400. I think both $200 and $400 will be wrong and that $299, or maybe $249, is the only right price. Production costs of a Morpheus unit are still somewhere around $500- $550, and that is after cutting cost and using cheaper materials as initially planned. It's still expensive high tec, but Sony has the advantage it can recycle lots of components and R&D was relatively cheap. But if they charge $399, about the actual cost of a unit in a year or so, they won't sell a lot of units. But if they ask $199, a price people actually still believe is possible, they might as well kill the PS division off right away. So I expect them to take a little hit on it, but they can't afford to practically give it away.

That's why I'm excited for VR from a personal stance, but I feel Sony is not in the position to do this; they don't have the money to kickstart VR and they'll most certainly lose a ton of money whether it sells well or doesn't sell at all. Don't forget that Morpheus has to come bundled with Move controllers, a camera and a game that will proof VR isn't a fad (please let it be No Man's Sky), so we are looking at a bundled price of at least $349. $349 would be the price of a PS4 and is an amount of money that I don't think more than 10% of the user base is willing to cough up, and than I'm even being generous. But even if they manage to sell let's say 10 million units by 2018, which is insane, than that isn't even remotely interesting for 3rd parties to develop games for, so you'll end up with an attachment which is like the Wii U: even if Sony would double down on it, it would still have to little games to justify its price.

But maybe those engineering wizards at Sony found a way to produce it even cheaper. If they indeed go for mass production that could cut cost by a lot. I just keep thinking of Sony's "personal TV headset" they introduced a couple years back, which doesn't have all of these fancy VR features, that cost somewhere around $900 for the cheaper models and wonder if it's possible to produce it for $400 or less. I guess only time will tell. For now I know I'll be picking it up day 1, even if it is $600, because the prospect of a VR headset is like a dream coming true.

My current guess is £499. If they did sell it for £200 (~$240) I'm guessing it would have to be made with some very cheap components (either that or Sony would have to be massively subsidising each unit).

I'll probably buy one on launch day, as long as it doesn't much go over £500.

US - $299.99
EU - €399.99
UK - £1,000.00

That'd be about right given how we normally get absolutely shafted on pricing...

VR is basically two pieces of screen about the size of a 3ds screen with a bit of circuitry and wires wrapped in plastic or hard durable material... I'd say £10 per screen, £20 for circuit, £4 for wires then £30 for the container/headset. plus p&p (£6). Say that's £70. I'm guessing a Google nexus is more complex and that's sold at £150. So sell morpheus between £120-£150 is fair. If the tech becomes norm then design it for different markets similar to headphones. Can imagine in the future we have our own style of VR headset. That's my wish anyways ^_^
ps. plz I do hope it can be used to watch my current films and play current ganes. And act like a standard tv screen.

Agreed on £150 or a bit less, Over £200 is a bit of an exaggeration i'd find it hard for it to find it's ways into peoples homes if it costs too much, seen comments saying over 300, wtf? £150 seems like the perfect fit

Personally, I Love Sony but there history with Peripherals is Lousy, i wanted it to succeed but there is no way i'm going to put the kind of monetary figure there going to ask to be down for it, until i know its not going to end up like the PSP, Vita or Move, or even that Eye Toy thing from the PS2 days.

I'm guessing it would sell for about 300$, simply because the peripheral shouldn't cost more than the console. If it is cheaper, awesome i'll buy day one. If it is more expensive I may wait a few months before purchase to see how the market shapes up.

Funny I remember when I was about 12 and video recorders were just being sold in the UK for around £500-600. Apparently £500 back in 1984 is worth £1500 now. While videos weren't that common in 1984 they weren't that rare either.

Seems like people expect much lower entry prices for new tech than they used to