PlayStation VR PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Here's some good news for PlayStation VR: Sony has suggested that it's not looking to profit on the initial hardware launch. We've been saying for a while now that if the headset has any shot at succeeding, the platform holder needs to eat the cost on the peripheral – and that's exactly what Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has suggested that it will be doing.

"We tend to price hardware not to make money from it but to get as many install base so that content can be sold," he told Digital Spy. "This is the same kind of thinking in the way that we are approaching PlayStation VR." In other words, the manufacturer's trying to get the install base as high as it possibly can, with its business model enabling it to hopefully recoup costs from software sales.

Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube150k
Watch on YouTube

Of course, on the surface this appears to contrast with comments made by SCE president Andrew House, who seemed to indicate that the headset would cost the same as a new console. But perhaps what the British businessman was really trying to say is that it's adopting the same strategy as a new system with the add-on, by pricing the hardware low and making money elsewhere.

None of this rules out a robust RRP, sadly, but it at least gives hope that the Japanese giant's going to go as low as it possibly can. Honestly, we reckon that any more than $200 will restrict the add-on to a very niche audience – but if it can hit that or go lower, then there's enormous potential here. Sadly, that's a pretty big 'if', isn't it?

[source digitalspy.com]