Sony has announced the release date and launch price for the Playstation VR headset. The headset will retail in Australia from October at a price of $549.95.
According to Sony, over 230 developers and publishers are working on PSVR titles, and the company expects to have 50 titles available by the end of the year. Such titles include EVE: Valkyrie, Rez Infinite, Wayward Sky, and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. There will also be VR content for Star Wars: Battlefront and a VR version of Sony’s Playroom PS4 app.
Sony also announced that Playstation VR would have a “cinematic mode” that would allow users to experience non VR content in a virtual theatre setting. Besides movies, it will also be possible to play normal PS4 games this way.
The headset itself is built around a 5.7″ OLED display that delivers a 960×1080 view to each eye, with refresh rates of up to 120Hz and an 18 millisecond response time. This will ship with an external processing unit that connects the headset to the PS4 and provides the extra processing power requires by Playstation VR.
The Playstation VR headset requires the $89 Playstation Camera to function. Sony have said that they believe that most early PSVR buyers will already have the camera, and that they will work with retailers on creating bundles for the headset and camera. Additonally, many games will make use of the separate Move controllers.
Michael Ephraim, Managing Director Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand had this to say about the PSVR launch:
“Innovation is in our DNA at PlayStation and PSVR is the single biggest step change in technology I’ve seen in over 20 years at PlayStation. There’s a huge amount of excitement around VR in Australia and I am really pleased that we are in a position to share this news with our fans.”
