PlayStation VR Will Cost You at Least $400 Says Research Group

I don't know man, and I can't say until I try it. Before the vita came out, Sony hired spaces in many major cities across the UK and let you just walk in and have a shot at it. They really need to do the same with PSVR, even more so than the vita since it's something you need to experience. If it's something that blows my mind away, and there's good support for it, then yeah, I would even consider buying it at £400-500. But not until I get hands on with it. £300-350 should be the sweet spot though.

£300-£350 and I might swing for a day one release (if I get saving). Moving it to £400-500 makes it more expensive than what I paid for the PS4 and I would wait another year or so for the price drop. Which I think is what a lot of people will do if priced high and then developer and device support will suffer...

Do the people who work at Superdata all wear capes and announce the name of their company as Soooooouuuup ER DAY duh!!

Sorry, never heard of'em, so there guess is literally as good as mine. Did they predict $400 for PS4?

$400 doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, but if they guessed this after the $600 Rift was announced that's kind of cheating.

I read the GameSpot article but that didn't explain much either. Question I would drink if that guess is based on cost to manufacture or what House said about it being the price of a new console. Either way we don't know how Sony plans to monetize it, sold at a profit or sold at a loss. Maybe have its own monthly subscription service for those 100 games in development? Between PS+, PS Now and PS Vue they have room for PS VR Gaming. Move had its own budget line of games to accompany it, who can forget that office chair game? Until Sony says it's all just random guesswork.

Sounds about right, though I think they will continue working on driving the price down to around 350 at launch personally. Honestly though, this is such a ridiculous prediction. Who couldn't come up with this? Most of us here have been saying this for almost a year. Does a bloke named Pachter work there by chance? Lol

@SonyInfinity Yeah, it's not exactly a bold prediction, but I think it's interesting to see how people (who perhaps aren't as in-the-know as we are) would react to such a price tag.

For example, I see quite a few people saying that they think it's going to be priced around the $300/£200 mark, which is just madness.

£300 and I'm in depending on games, £350 and I'd still consider it, any more and I think I'll just ignore it for the time being and focus on all the focus at games coming to the console.

With the Rift though you really need a £600+ PC to make it worthwhile making it a total of £1,000+
As long as a PS4 + PSVR costs less than £750 then they're on to a winner. Though that's putting a lot of faith in Sony and the UK to not screw us over with conversion rates. $400 does NOT equal £400

@ShogunRok What is crazy to me is people all over the world are willing to spend many hundreds of dollars on a new phone every year and yet some still say that 400 will be to much for a device that should last you many years. In fact most of what I have read on the interwebs (lol) is stating that psvr will be fully compatible with the ps5. If that is the case and it will be easily attached to the ps5 then this thing could have a VERY long life. That makes a 400 dollar price tag not seem to bad IMO.

@SonyInfinity The difference is, that $700/$800 phone you buy, has access to hundreds of thousands of games and applications. It has hundreds of potential uses out of the box. Its also an evolution of the device you likely already have, which makes the risk factor of investing that much money on a new device, almost nil.

Contrast that to the PSVR/Rift/Vive which is an unproven technology outside of some tech demos, a relatively few hobbiest software/games, with an uncertain future of support. Maybe it turns out to be the next Kinect or PS Move, an interesting device with potential thats hardly ever used and you have more or less a paper weight, or maybe it turns out to be amazing and developers pump out amazing experience after amazing experience. Its a gamble, and most people are not willing to gamble with $600.

As an example, I have the GearVR, its pretty nice piece of tech but has almost no game/software support. It does not matter how good the technology is, if it doesn't have a software library to back it up.

In a way, it should actually cost more than OR since it apparently has hardware inside it to aid in the processing of the games (which makes sense since the PS4 usually couldn't manage 30fps for TW3 yet it's widely accepted that for VR you need to 60fps for each eye, so 120fps overall).

This technology has a relatively high minimum price. If it goes below that, it's like buying a HDTV for £50 - you know it's a waste of money. Sony should package games with it, they need to give people the sense they're buying into a whole new way of gaming (which they are) not just gambling on a throwaway peripheral like Move, the Wiimote or a Balance Board. They also need to give them a greater sense of value and that's better done with throwing in some games rather than cutting corners with the headset itself.

@thedevilsjester It's not an evolution of anything, it's the same thing you already have with some completely pointless differences. It's like buying a whole new house because this new one has a larger fridge and you like the curtains.

You can't really use the games as part of the value proposition for a phone. People aren't paying £500 to play Flappy Bird and 10,000 clones. My idiotic friend upgraded his phone rather than just letting the contract expire and going for a £4-a-month SIM only contract on his existing phone. Now he's paying £50 a month, or £600 a year. Why did he upgrade? Because the new model has a fingerprint scanner on it. Same "games", same apps, same ability to ring up someone and say a few words to them.

i dunno between £300-£400 maybe, depends on what kind market they are aiming for

@Matroska Its a misconception that the current batch of consoles cannot handle 30 fps or 60 fps (at 1080p). They both can, every time, in every game, if the developers targeted that. Instead the developers try and push the envelope of graphics quality and effects, which leads to sacrifices in fps. If developers would stop trying to push graphics as far as they can, and just dial it back a bit, then every developer would hit 60 fps @ 1080p everytime. A VR experience can easily hit the fps target so long as you are not trying to accurately model rain drops and how the wind affects each strand of hair.

@Matroska Thats exactly what an evolution is. The same thing, with a few differences. The newer phones are faster, the newer phones get newer versions of the OSes, the newer phones have a plethora of new features (such as wireless charging, contact payment, NFC, and as you mentioned, a finger print scanner). Just because these are features that you don't care about, or they don't make the value proposition worth it to you, does not mean that they don't exist. Saying you cannot use games and apps as part of the value proposition is just absurd. The majority of people I know, rarely ever use their phones for phone calls (personally, I think I have made maybe ten calls in the past year). They use them to browse the web, they use them to send instant messages, or play a game, or use some other app or utility. Knowing that the device you are going to buy is going to have hundreds of things you can ALREADY do with it, hundreds of thousands of apps/games you can ALREADY use, without waiting to see if developers will eventually pick it up, is the biggest sell for devices like phones. Also, they can be assured, that worst case scenario (if they just want to make calls), they over paid for a "phone". Worst case for the VR headsets? You bought a paperweight that runs a couple apps and games.

@Matroska To be clear, I think the value proposition for the PSVR if its around $400 is more than worth it. I might even go so far as to up my "will buy" price to $500 knowing that it has more tech in it (like the PSVR box you mentioned), and knowing that Sony has been making high quality head mounted displays for decades. At $600 I think its DOA, not because its not a price I am willing to pay (I would gladly pay $800 if it were a guaranteed experience like a phone upgrade), but at $600 most people wont buy it, so it wont get developer support, so more people wont buy it, and it will be the PS Move or PS Vita, etc..., all over again. A great device, with great potential, that because of low sales, starts a spiral of death.

I first realised I could get motion sick gaming when playing Everybody's gone to the rapture; I would need some serious game time with this before committing. I'd be willing to pay based on how good it is, sadly that means probably waiting for a sufficient library and I imagine many will be the same with VR and we're likely stuck in a catch 22 situation. That's why I'd hope they'd sell at a loss, but would Sony do that when they must clearly be making enough money off software on the PS4, does selling an accessory at a loss increase their bottom line by substantially improving game sales when these people already have a ps4 so are already invested in their game library? Basically, VR buyers would be people like us, gamers, who probably spent £500+ on games a year anyway, so does selling at a loss make sense at all? Short term, probably not, But for the success of VR as a whole, maybe.

@BrizzoUK When 3d (as in Wolfenstein, Doom, etc...) became a thing, quite a bit of people got motion sickness. When smartphone/tablet gaming started to become a thing, quite a bit of people got motion sickness. VR is no different. Its a new way for you to experience motion in a 3d world, and since our brains have not been trained for this new way, its going to cause a lot of motion sickness until we get used to it as a society (and even then, my Wife still can't watch me play any 3d game without getting sick).

@thedevilsjester yeah true, I hope VR gets the investment in time so that issues like that get ironed out, I want to love it, but like many things that get written off as gimmicks because they didn't hit mainstream success, I can certainly see it struggle. Not that that would put me off, I mean I'm an enthusiastic Wii U player as well and that hasn't exactly gone far!

I'm not getting it until it's bee out a year anyway but I reckon it'll be about £300. i'm not going to pay more than £200 after a year but I honestly think the whole PSVR thing will have flopped by then, I hope not i'd love to play decent game's on it I just don't think there will be any.

Price, to me, is mostly inconsequential. Be it $300, $400, or even $600, my decision to buy one will ultimately depend on one thing- the games. If PSVR gets some good games, and I mean GOOD GAMES, not tech demos, then there's no way I'm passing it up.

@thedevilsjester I understand that, but I think we can agree that most of those apps are pretty useless. Plus the psvr will be very useful in theater mode, with access to Netflix etc and watching your movies and aying non vr games through it. It won't be used solely for vr specific titles.

@Matroska Completely agree, and how many of these phone apps are considered "killer" apps. Slim to none, and upgrading to a new phone doesn't unlock some new awesome apps you can't use on your old phone, yet people still buy new ones every year.

£300 is perfectly fine and I'll definitely pick one up close to launch, I've not seen anything to tempt a day one purchase yet

It's more important what'll it come free with. If it's nothing and they start charging daft prices for games then it's going to be a tragedy.

As long as they under cut HTC and Oculus, they will win the gen 1 market.

Its costs what it costs not point in speculating anymore until a price point is announced. What I dislike is the disparity in pricing. Paying more in Europe for it than in the US.

If it came with a game I think I'd be willing to go to £300 or so. USD seem to very often translate directly to GBP but I don't think I would be prepared to spend £400, especially as I only spent £250 on my console. If it launched that high I'd probably end up being a bit stubborn and waiting until it hits the £200-250 mark, even if it meant arriving seriously late to the party.

I haven't seen any must have games for it yet, develop a western Rpg with guns or swords and I'm in.

@SonyInfinity I agree, though you are making assumptions about the PSVR, logical assumptions to be fair, but assumptions nonetheless. I would have assumed, logically, that the Playstation TV would at least have Netflix (arguably one of the most important apps for a TV media box), but it didn't. The point is that you are buying into the unknown, and thats costly. Also, Netflix on GearVR is...interesting, but its low resolution (remember that with VR you are effectively getting half the resolution, since it needs to show nearly the same image per eye), and inability to actually have a "full screen" (since there is no such thing in VR), make it a subpar experience. Its fun to show around to family, but I would not enjoy watching a show in it.

A new smart phone is not the unknown. More people are willing to pay more for a guaranteed experience than they are for something unknown. Even the first iPhones, you got at least an iPod and a Cell Phone. Even if it never went further than that, you would still have a device that is extremely useful. With the PSVR, if it turns out to be like the PS Move (for example) you would have an expensive device, that has one or two interesting experiences, and little more. Its harder to convince yourself that its worth that risk.

Now I know that gaming is a hobby, and one that should not be seriously attempted if you don't have a reasonable amount of disposable income, which is why the price doesn't worry me directly. It does worry me indirectly though, because even if I bought the device, if a certain critical mass does not, then developer support will drop off and die, and my purchase will become a paperweight.

Lets not confuse a mobile phone - social acceptance, hundreds of uses, calls, text, facebook, games, personal organiser, alarm clock, photo album etc etc with PSVR.

People don't pay hundreds for a mobile - marketing departments a salesman and peer pressure make people buy mobiles for hundreds of pounds. You can get a fully working smartphone for £50.

I'm sure Sony said it was around the price of the console at one point?
I'm guessing £350 with a game. The problem is it needs to bundle the camera as well right? And then depending on the game you might want move controllers or the possible replacement.

@themcnoisy Its an important distinction. You get a lot of features in a smart phone, and most of those can be had, almost indistinguishable from their expensive counterparts for cheap, and last years "amazing model" (which isn't that different from this years) can be had for pretty cheap too. You dont get that with VR.

@AyanamiReign Keep in mind that ~13 million people have PC's capable of running the Oculus Rift, out of the box, and ~15 million people already have PS Move. And a lot of people have the Playstation Camera as well, so these are not requirements for a large number of people. As for "or the possible replacement" part of your comment, thats unlikely to happen. Sony has been using it as an advertising point to developers that it utilizes the PS Move controllers that have been around for years and developers have had ample opportunity to learn how to work with them.

Supposed Amazon leak has PSVR 800 US Dollars. Of course Sony is saying it is incorrect, very interesting indeed.

The leak I saw seems like a fan boy went in and posted that ridiculous price to stir up console war flames(although im not sure how they could post somerhing incorrect on the Amazon site, im not very versed in things like that)I may be wrong but Sony is definitely refuting it.

@KingofSaiyans I think you may be confused about what the Samsung Gear VR actually is. Its not a VR unit by itself. For $99 you get a shell with a touchpad and some lenses that requires one of Samsungs ~$700 phones to provide it with a screen, a cpu, a gpu, etc...

To answer your question, I have a Gear VR, and it has a decent FOV of 90 degrees (the PSVR has a 100 degree FOV) but it could be better. The graphic quality is more or less whatever your phone is capable of, with the resolution cut in half. The (horizontal) resolution is cut in half because it has to generate an image for each eye, and those images are almost exactly the same (needed for the stereoscopic 3d). This is the same for any VR unit.

The problem with the Gear VR is lack of content. It has a limited selection of some indie VR games (most don't really look interesting to me), a couple experimental "experiences" and then just 360 video and photo viewing. The problem with all of this, is resolution. Even though your phone is 1920x1080, you really are only watching at a maximum of 960x1080, and even then the image doesnt take up the entire 960x1080, its more like 900x1000 then there is a lot of "VR" around the actual video that you get an effective resolution of something like 700x800 (maybe).

I have tried all 3 major headsets and I have to say in terms of comfort and ease of use, it's psvr by far. Was able to see Eve Valkyrie on Rift and psvr and I literally couldn't tell the difference, though I was told by rift enthusiasts that there was a difference. The cool factor is definitely in psvrs favor as well. It comes down to target audience though and I don't think these two will really be competing for the same market.

too much for me. I would rather use that money to buy a Nintendo NX.
I've never played with VR yet (so I can't say my opinion is very educated), but if I had to guess, I would say that it will be cool, with quite a few adopters, but for the most part under-utilized and in the end sort of forgotten. I think it's too early for VR. However, next console gen, not only will the technology be more advanced, but the price more accessible. I think PS5/ Xbox 2 will be the consoles where VR will really take off.

@get2sammyb according to NCIX, the psvr pricing was accidentally leaked on Amazon Canada yesterday before it was taken down, was priced at $800, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn2frNwY8z0
at the 3.20 mark, not confirmation, and was an accidental post,

@thedevilsjester Considering you can use it in theater mode to watch any movie or tv, why wouldn't you be able to use netflix? From the reports literally anything that is coming out of your PS4 can be viewed with the headset in theater mode. That doesn't mean it will have head tracking and all the cool tricks, just strictly as a viewer. I think that helps the appeal immensely.

@Sunnyviji To be fair, Sony is refuting the price and even Amazon said it was incorrect. 800 seems a little outlandish and rumors are that it was a "joke" to stir up trouble and maybe force Sony's hand in releasing more info, especially with all the vr talk the last few days because of the oculus listing. Of course that could all be wrong and it could be 800, I'm all in either way, lol, but would rather it not be that much:)

@SonyInfinity Netflix in VR is interesting but not very enjoyable. You cut the resolution down by more than half of the same resolution you would get watching it on your TV. That's hardly a selling point. I tried watching an episode on the GearVR (same resolution as the PSVR) and I couldn't make it through an episode. The drop in resolution is just too much.

To get a clearer picture of this, turn your phone sideways (assuming you have a 1080p phone) imagine it cut in half vertically, then in one of the halves draw a circle (well, heavily rounded square), and in that circle draw an approximately 16:9 horizontal rectangle. The resolution in that small rectangle is the maximum resolution of the Netflix video. It's pretty ugly.

@get2sammyb Yep, no major gaming sites will even report it, that should tell you something!

@thedevilsjester The option is there though, and that was my point. There isn't a question of if it will have netflix, it already will be able to and may have an advanced vr Netflix app in the future (we hope). It's there for people to use and alot of folks who stream Netflix aren't getting true HD anyway. I guess what I am saying is you seem to be very negative about all of them, and that is fine. Many of us here are excited and happy that they are trying these new pieces of tech and would rather stay positive. Plus making a statement like it may not even have Netflix is just patently false.

i did think that price was way off, an accident or maybe even a joke, but did make me think about on what is inside the PU break out box, and that will ultimately be a major factor to pricing, i am hoping for no more than a £350 price point, and plan on getting the camera in the next few weeks to lighten the load b4 the arrival of psvr, and have 2 move controllers a nav controller and even the sharp shooter ready and waiting, am really excited for this new tech, i probably wont even try before u buy, as i have limited mobility and dont get out much nowadays, still in recovery mode, and due back on the operating table in a few weeks, vr is a good thing for ppl in my situation not just as a gaming device, the potential is there to help in many different situations, so i am all in too.

@SonyInfinity I am not negative about them at all. I am very excited for PSVR. After getting a taste with my GearVR, I am eager to see what someone like Sony will do with it. That being said, it's still a huge risk for people because of the lack of content.

@thedevilsjester Sorry mate, thought you were coming off a little negative. Of course a lack of software and games is always a worry with new tech lile this. The one thing that really gives me hope is the rumors that it will very much compatible with the ps5, giving it long legs. I also hope that since it is for the ps4, a set console, that developers will be able to make quality experiences much easier and be more inclined to develop for it not needing to worry about multiple pc configurations lile the oculus. I am all in because I want to support it and Sony and want it to do well, plus it just looks to cool!

@thedevilsjester Hopefully the massive popularity of the ps4 itself will stifle any fears developers have. That being said I still expect early games to come directly from Sony studios and smaller teams. If and when it catches we may see the big boys join the fray.

@thedevilsjester Hopefully the massive popularity of the ps4 itself will stifle any fears developers have. That being said I still expect early games to come directly from Sony studios and smaller teams. If and when it catches we may see the big boys join the fray.

@thedevilsjester
the content will slowly come, i have faith in vr, sony alone has over 200 developers onboard, be it mainly indies, but dont forget whereas move and kinnect were solo effects, vr is being backed by a lot more with a lot of investment, look at all the companies invested in this tech, htc, samsung, sony, nvidia, amd, steam, oculas, facebook, yes the uptake may take a year or two before it becomes mainstream, and with billions invested, i cant see them all just going to give up on it, from what i have seen and heard the majority of ppl who have tried it are pretty much sold on it, and i have not come across many negative views on any of the vr products, and as sony says that will push the tech forward, word of mouth, thats why i believe it is here to stay, and in 2 years the tech will be even better, in time for the next gen consoles and 2nd gen vr headsets, this gen consoles will be a short lived one,

I don't see myself paying more than $400(and this is steep) for any technological device that is not a television. The Oculus has not attracted me one bit to pay $600 for that contraption. I want to use virtual reality but Sony has not sold me either. I am not forking over my money until it will be worth it. Show me something different that is cutting edge.

I hope they put more effort into the PSVR than they do the shockingly crap DS4 i'm taking my 4th controller back to the shop today because this one is also faulty and i've only had it 2 month's. This will be my 5th controller in the PS4's lifetime the console is far superior but anything else Sony bring out for it just feel's like cheap tacked on rubbish that almost feel's like it is supposed to break so we have to spend to get another.

@xMEADx I genuinely think you were very unlucky.

I think whatever price they choose below 600$ is acceptable since it's a new high tech device and where phones get released every year with nothing new and its as expensive or more, So for me I'm hopefully going to buy it day one but i won't throw my money on its games I'm only gonna pick whats essential

@finalstan Maybe or maybe we don't play the same game's? I don't know. The latest problem I noticed with this controller is when I turn right with the right analog stick if it's slightly below the 90 degree angle it doesn't connect enough and my character judder's when it turn's, when I move the stick slightly above the 90 degree angle it works perfect. This is enough for me to take it back as it's vital on FPS that I turn as quickly as possible.

If it's $300 or less, I'll pick it up, anything higher, and it will be waiting for the price cut...however, if they make a good bundle for it (VR, The Camera, Move Wands and a game that's good), then I'll think about it...other than that, too many other things that Sony made that I bought at full price, and then watched it flop and go down drastically in price (Move, Wonderbook). I really hope it lasts, but I'll probably end up giving it a year to see, before I pick up. Bought the Wii U on day one, and became disappointed at that (lack of really good and enjoyable and deepening games for it...there's some, but not enough to make me want to play it 20-30 years down the line). Plus, I'm looking forward to nintendo's next console, so I'll hold off for that instead.