I agree it's certainly a considered purchase, but as a breakthrough piece of consumer tech I think it's remarkably well priced, particularly relative to its peers. I certainly wasn't expecting to have consumer-level VR in the home this year for that kind of money.

I don't think anyone, even Sony, is expecting too many people to pay £700 to get started on VR. There would be a console/headset bundle being offered if there was. The target audience here are people willing to spend a chunk of cash on newly released gear. I.E., existing PS4 owners.

For these people, who already shelled out up to £350 on a new platform, is it really that unreasonable to expect them to do it again?

I played the demo for Wayward Sky when it was up for Gear VR about a year ago as Ikarus and I loved it- I'd go as far as to say it was the best use of VR I've seen, so I'm really hyped for this!

Im incredibly excited about psvr, if it lives up to expectations then i will be a very happy puppy. I am by no means wealthy but don't think that just under £400 is that expensive for such an item, and as keeps being pointed out it is far cheaper than the pc option.

what put me off oculus and vive however wasn't the cost, it was the fact you need to have a pc to run it - i am well-above average in terms of computer literacy but hate using anything that has Windows and would never consider a pc for gaming, with all the issues around compatibility of hardware etc. The opportunity to use a vr system that is basically plug and play is the main attraction for me and i am prepared to give up some of the advanced features of vive in order to have an easy life.

My intention is to get a launch day psvr and if it is as impressive as i hope then will get a neo and second psvr unit for the kids.

For a lot of people, yes it is!

If I paid £600 for a TV 2 years down the line I don't expect to be asked to pay £600 for a fancy remote that only works with certain movies (many people didn't even want to spend £20 on a pair of 3D glasses)....and even then you really need a new £600 TV to use it to it's full potential.

^^ Thats a bit misleading, no ones forcing you to buy it, and your more than welcome to wait a few years till it drops to a more acceptable price.

Me personally, I'm not convinced. As I said earlier, there's quite a lot of people with PC's able to run VR, and the take up is not anything like what was expected. It seems the early adopters got theirs, and that's it. It's the same with head tracking, eye tracking hardware it's out there, been there for years, and it's very good, but very few people actually bought it.

MSI have just built eye tracking hardware into their new laptops, I imagine as a counter to VR.

No-ones forcing you to buy PSVR either, I think you're missing the point, the average gamer knows you don't have to buy it so unless they're completely sold on it then forking out the cost of your console again for a peripheral (and a new console to use it properly) is not going to happen.
It's not the sort of thing you'd take a punt on.

Sorry but I do think it's unreasonable. We saw with the PS3 that people thought it was unreasonable to pay over £400 for an incredibly high-tech console that doubled up as the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market.

This may be the cheapest high-spec VR model on the market, but that doesn't mean it will sell. Places like Argos are selling VR boxes for a tenner, and Gear VR is available for under £100. For casual gamers looking to enter the market there are so many more viable alternatives.

The PSVR will sell to hardcore PS4 owners with money to burn. That is a very small subsection of the market. I'm not criticising Sony for their pricing as I know it's new tech, but part of me does wonder about the timing. I think had they waited one more year they could have caught lightning in a bottle with a cheaper - and likely more powerful - accessory.

Theirs is no comparison to gear VR or ten pound VR solutions. They are many ways totally different products.

The PS3 despite is launch woos manage to out sell a console that was out earlier and cheaper on the market. It manage to shift some incredible volumes of software considering the expense, and third party devs favoring the 360.

Only time will tell however I feel considering it's price, and the fact it's highly likely in someway officially or none officially going end up working on the PC, opening it up to entirely different market than intended.

I do think it will sell reasonably well and do not think it only has the ''hard core gamers''' to appeal to. I'm sure theirs many people like myself who could not justify going and paying 600-700 on VR hoping to modder will get this VR solution that's half price on pc.

Then theirs 40 million PS4's out that good number of them will each year go out buy the same games they buy each, theirs good chance a lot of those gamers will go out say look heres something new to try, instead playing the same game with different settings.


Now if tech companies took that approach we would see anything tech evolves insanely fast rate, they could made better headset 12 months on but they could wait 2 years 4 years when do you stop waiting ?

Anyone going to EGX his year? Playable PSVR games at the event are -

Batman: Arkham VR
Battlezone
Driveclub VR
Farpoint
PlayStation VR Worlds
Resident Evil 7
RIGS
Robinson: The Journey

But for the casual user, they will be thinking that a ten pound VR box gives them the experience of Virtual Reality, so why spend literally over £300 more?

Gaming on mobile/console/PC happily co-exists and appeals to different users with different budgets and needs..

Therefore, is it not reasonable to expect that VR on mobile/console/PC can co-exist just the same?

The success of one format does not preclude the success of another.

The Samsung Gear VR uses Occulus technology and is very good, try it and see. It's powered buy a £700 smart computer in the forum of a Samsung Galaxy s7 with 2k screen.

I've used Occulus and Samsung VR, You're wrong if you think the difference is huge difference.

Am missing the joke neither can be being serious surely.

Samsungs Gear VR is very good, it's £80'for the unit and you flip your phone into it. It gives a very very good VR experience. Even Digitaltrends website did a SamsungVR v Occulus rift and it they gave it as a tie. Gizmondo recommends SamsungVR over Occulus, I assume those saying SamsungVR is not as good as Occulus ect have never used either!

With a S6 or S7 inside a Samsung VR actually give better resolution per eye than Occulus!

I have used it however not used the vive or occulus, however I did not rate it very well.
Maybe I should of giving it more time before selling. Lot my problem was having very thick glasses, I found uncomfortable.

I have the s6 btw.

So you wear very thick glasses? If the glasses were an issue with SamsungVR they will be an issue with Oculus. Bare in mind Samsung VR was basically designed and built by Occulus.

Spot on.
I'm assuming you'd agree also that the success of VR on any platform could have great benefits for the advancement of VR on all other platforms.

IF sony can make this an affordable mainstream success AND deliver fully-fleshed out games that lift the concept above novelty/gimmick status, this is going to be the massive step forward that VR needs.

Gear VR (and mobile VR in general) lacks something very important - positional tracking.

With mobile solutions your head is in a fixed position from where you can look up/down and left/right. That's it.

With fully tracked headsets (PSVR/Rift/Vive) you can do so much more. These systems track your headset in 3D space, and then translate your movements and position into the virtual world. That means you can crouch down to hide, lean to the side to peek around a corner, lean forwards to take a closer look at objects, take sidesteps to avoid incoming fire, lean back to recoil in horror from a surprise attack.

A great example of this is Headmaster on PSVR, where the fully 3D tracking is so accurate it allows you to header a football as you would in real life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04XZBtOD1DM

In London Heist you can duck behind a desk to avoid incoming gunfire and even lean around a corner to fire from cover.

http://youtu.be/Rc0CM_gc_4E

In Battlezone you can lean forwards to look closely at your craft's instrument panels.

https://youtu.be/4bsIaSd7rRU

Until mobile VR can solve this issue, it's always going to lag way behind other VR solutions in terms of the experiences it can deliver. It's a solid introduction to the format though.


Absolutely.

Sony are in a great position to help move things forwards. They have a great product at a reasonable price and are attracting big names to VR that will resonate with the wider gaming community. Lack of confidence and lack of understanding are VR's biggest obstacles at the moment and PlayStation VR can help break down those barriers.

I hope so, but it's likely going to be a long game. The cheap headsets can give the crucial, if basic, sense of presence, and that's great. Full tracking is a step up, as fastest finger says. Having tracked controllers is another big step up: when you get hands in VR, and you can manipulate things and they respond to what you do, it all becomes more real. Room-scale is another step up. Being able to walk around in VR, without any risk of nausea, makes anything less pall. It gives the space more physicality. At the moment only the Vive delivers that. I'm guessing untethered experiences, and maybe eye-tracking, will also be steps up.

So we have this ladder to climb and I guess it is going to take 5 or 10 years to get to the top. These low-end systems are getting people onto the bottom rung. I hope they act as gateways and people gradually want more. I'm concerned the opposite will happen, and people will think they know VR, and will dismiss it as not being all that because they tried it on a low-end system.

Even on the low-end systems though (and we're talking the most basic of Google Cardboard models and apps), the technology is far superior to the high-end tech push in the 90s EG. Virtual Boy.

I don't think people need to try PSVR to be convinced that its a good idea. I've shown VR experiences to many people on Google Cardboard and not a single person was unimpressed. We're at a stage now where even the low-level technology is good; hence why, despite it obviously being superior in every way, I don't think PSVR uptake will be huge among the casual market.

I'm telling ya, there is not much between SamsungVR and Occulus rift. You're in for a shock if you think there is. An having now tried HTC Vive in currys on Tottenham Court Road it is the best of the 3 but I'm not convinced the difference justifies the extra £700.

Do we have any experience of anyone using the PSVR 3D tracking?
I'm not so sure the PSVR set up of PS Camera, headset and move wands is going to give a very accurate representation of your movements, I expect it to be slightly more accurate than wii/kinect/ps move controls and they were pretty awful control inputs!!

The silence is deafening for PSVR imo, obviously people who are hyped are looking forward to it, as for people not already invested in it, they'll barely know the tech exists.

Less than a month until release and I haven't seen a single bit of promotion.

I haven't tried PSVR in conjunction with PS Move, but I can tell you from experience that the head tracking is flawless.

PS Move on PS3 had very good 3D tracking of the Move controllers, and things have improved since then so I'm very optimistic. I'm hoping to get another go with PSVR next week, and I'll be happy to report back with further impressions.

With regard to promotion, re-orders are sold out. There's not much point promoting anything until they are available in stores. By Christmas you'll probably be sick of seeing TV adverts about it.

In any case, yhe best way of promoting any form of VR is to get people to try it for themselves. That's the point of the demo disc - for us early adopters to show our new toy off to friends and family, hopefully educating them in the merits of VR and creating a sale.

I do wonder what is going on at Sony
First they announce the Pro without a UHD player, I mean what the F**K they own the bloody hardware there's no excuse.

Second it appears they've stopped (for now) the mods on Skyrim and Fall Out 4

I just wonder could they of made their PSVR, PC compatible? surely it can't be that hard.

Hey said long ago they were considering bringing PSVR to PC, but they aren't going to do it unless it makes sense as a business decision.