While most people with sense (at least, the ones without sacks of cash) have slowly disembarked from the VR hypetrain, there is still hope. The Oculus Rift’s first consumer Head Mounted display will cost an eye-watering $600. In our local currency – once you’ve factored in shipping, handling, customs, VAT, our increasingly depreciating Rand, and the usual being-on-the-arse-end-of-Africa tax – it will probably set you back about thirty five and eleven and three thousand Rand. Or something.
That sort of pricing gives VR competitors HTC’s Vive and PlayStation VR a bit of a leg-up when it comes to announcing their own costs. If they manage (though I highly doubt they will) to undercut the Rift by a fair amount, they could end up cornering the market.
The one with the biggest opportunity there is PlayStation’s one – though I’m expecting it to cost quite a bit. Sony’s previously said it’ll likely cost as much as a console, which is a heck of a lot of cash to throw down on something that – like Kinect and PlayStation Move – may never see its full potential realised.
If it helps ease your mind at all, Sony says there are over a hundred titles headed to PlayStation VR.
“We are working on over 100 titles that will play on PlayStation VR,” said Sony boss Kaz Hirai at CES. “This is a testament to the kind of support we are getting from the content creation community. So we have a lot of support and I think it will be great product when it comes out later this year.”
Of course, that doesn’t really matter much if those titles are throwaway experiences that you’ll play once and then never bother with again. That said, there are some interesting VR titles on the horizon, destined for Sony’s VR system. Mike Bithell’s Volume is going VR, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s coming out of semi-retirement to from Rez to VR and Ubisoft has a vomit-inducing Assassin’s Creed Eagle experience. There are also countless horror games on the way, and it’s likely that Capcom’s going to turn its apparently frightening Kitchen demo in to a fully-fledged game.
There’s Summer Lesson, the rather questionable VR game that puts you inside a Japanese Schoolgirl’s room, and Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 will have VR support too. On that note, it will be harder (no pun intended, of course) to get VR porn on Sony’s System – and if we’re being honest, that’s very likely going to be a big driver for Virtual Reality.
Last Updated: January 8, 2016
Original Heretic
January 8, 2016 at 09:06
Even if PS VR is the same price as a console, it’ll be cheaper than the Oculus.
Hammersteyn
January 8, 2016 at 09:08
100 titles and 100 people to play those titles price depending
Ir0nseraph
January 8, 2016 at 10:26
Yip no to VR for me on launch, maybe in 2 years from now.
Did you look up wildlands ?
Hammersteyn
January 8, 2016 at 10:41
Yes! I think I want that more than The Division
Ir0nseraph
January 8, 2016 at 11:46
That makes 2 of us.
Jan Prins
January 8, 2016 at 09:09
So. You gonna watch porn on a device that will not let you see or hear (if you wear earphones) what is happening in the real world? I can imagine all the candid shots of people playing ‘games’ flooding the internet right now.
Captain JJ 4x
January 8, 2016 at 09:16
They can rob you blind and steal your dog while you’re still staring at animated women.
Captain JJ 4x
January 8, 2016 at 09:16
Haha.
Luckily we all knew it was going to cost around $600 for the Oculus. They said around $599 from the start.
But in Randelas, it’s a no go
Hammersteyn
January 8, 2016 at 09:22
Price in rands…
http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a577qbg_460sa.gif
Captain JJ 4x
January 8, 2016 at 09:23
Haha. Yea man. I’m busy doing some payments to the US that can’t be avoided and I’m kakking af.
Hammersteyn
January 8, 2016 at 09:26
I bet it’s child support you dog you 😛
Captain JJ 4x
January 8, 2016 at 09:29
LOL
Ir0nseraph
January 8, 2016 at 10:26
XD
Mistake Not...
January 8, 2016 at 09:28
I’ll have to buy one of these second… no, sixth hand to afford it.
Hammersteyn
January 8, 2016 at 09:29
Or steal one, cuts the waiting time down nicely
Captain JJ 4x
January 8, 2016 at 09:31
Robin Hood taught us it’s okay to steal if it’s for the poor.
And we’re the poor
Hammersteyn
January 8, 2016 at 09:33
Zuma must be broke then
Mistake Not...
January 8, 2016 at 09:31
Just sneak up on the guy wearing it. He’ll never see me coming…
Julia Candy
January 8, 2016 at 16:37
Interesting, will it be working with http://vrphub.com videos?
Mistake Not...
January 8, 2016 at 19:32
Should have told me to go incognito before clicking the link XD
ElimiNathan
January 8, 2016 at 09:28
Over 100 titles, where Oculus is getting titles that are already out converted to support it and prob way more than 100 titles after that
Captain JJ 4x
January 8, 2016 at 09:30
Yea man, and the indie games that already have oculus support and how many are in the process of bringing support.
konfab
January 8, 2016 at 09:44
Not to mention the computer you need to play Oculus…
ElimiNathan
January 8, 2016 at 10:43
For the people fortunate enough to have a PC that can play Oculus, they wouldn’t bother with this
oVg
January 8, 2016 at 10:38
Not to mention the cut backs that these consoles do when they are prepared to take a loss per unit. The PS VR will be half the price of the OR. Chuck in first party support and I imagine it will Kill the oculas.
oVg
January 8, 2016 at 10:41
“thirty five and eleven and three thousand Rand. Or something.” BWAHAHAHA YOU SO FUNNY 🙂
RinceThis
January 8, 2016 at 12:28
thirty five and eleven and three thousand Rand. Damn Geoff, you can finally count.