After years of development, the new wave of virtual reality headsets are finally sneaking out into the public this year. The Oculus Rift starts shipping to buyers this month, the HTC Vive comes out in early April, and as of this afternoon we now know that Playstation VR will be hitting shelves in October. Originally known as Project Morpheus, Playstation VR will work with your Playstation 4 to bring virtual reality into your living room.
$399 is a higher price than the Playstation 4 itself costs, but this looks like the most cost-efficient way to get into VR this year. The Rift and Vive headsets both cost more than the PS VR headset, and both of them require fairly powerful (and thus expensive) PCs to function properly. Of course the Rift and Vive will have more computing power at their disposal, but the Playstation VR should be able to produce impressive virtual reality experiences with the Playstation 4.
Sony also announced a number of game developers and publishers currently at work on PS VR software, from bigwigs like 2K Games, Ubisoft and Square-Enix, to such notable independent firms as Devolver Digital, Double Fine and Polytron/Kokoromi. Major League Baseball Advanced Media is also on the list, which means we might be seeing some kind of VR version of MLB.tv (or even HBO Now, the WWE Network, or, um, Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV, all of which MLBAM helped create). And of greatest interest to Paste’s games editor, aka me, is FarSight Studios, the makers of The Pinball Arcade; clearly we’re getting some kind of VR pinball arcade action with this thing, which is maybe the first thing that makes me really want a VR headset.
Hopefully we’ll have more on Playstation VR as its October release grows closer.