The PlayStation VR head-mounted display (HMD) from Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) will be launching later this year in October, retailing for £349/$399 for the base kit. That price doesn’t include the PlayStation Camera or the PlayStation Move controllers, which SCE has received criticism for online. In a recent interview Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s Head of Worldwide Studios has now addressed those concerns.
Talking on Kinda Funny’s PlayStation podcast and transcribed by TwinFinite, Yoshida said: “Yeah, ‘PSVR is not $400 it’s $460!’ Yeah. I saw these comments. [Laughter] Pretty early in the process, we decided to not bundle the camera because we know that many people already own the camera. Especially people who purchased the PS4 in the first year. So those people, if we bundle, as a standard, a camera — another one — you know they would be mad. You know because they can’t do anything with it because the PS4 can only accept one camera. Maybe sell it on eBay or whatever. And the same thing with Move. The camera is required, but we know many people already own it. So we don’t put it in the basic product. This week’s announcement [GDC announcement] for us is to announce the base unit. That’s consistent globally and for people we know…who already own cameras. We don’t want them to spend more money than necessary.”
So the decision has been done in a lot of PlayStation 4 owners best interest it seems. For those that don’t own the accessories, in the UK retailer GAME is doing a bundle with the camera for £389.98. While in the US several online retailers had a pre-order bundle which featured the camera and the motion controllers for $499, although the majority of these seem to have been allocated now.
While the camera and controllers aren’t necessarily needed (the Duelshock controller packaged with the PlayStation 4 can be used), for the full immersive motion-tracked VR experience, they are.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of PlayStation VR, reporting back any further updates.
