Virtual reality might be too expensive for some players

Sep 21, 2015 01:02 GMT  ·  By

Many see virtual reality as the next big step in the evolution of video games, but it seems that the price of the coming devices might be an initial problem for many players as Sony offers more hints about the launch of its own Project Morpheus for the PlayStation 4.

Andrew House, the chief executive officer of the company, is quoted by MCV as saying that the coming VR device will be priced like an entirely new gaming platform.

This probably means that gamers will be able to pick one up if they are willing to pay about 350 dollars or Euro or a little less, which is quite an investment for someone who has recently picked up a PlayStation 4 and also plans to get some of the coming titles launched for it.

Sony is not willing to offer a full price reveal for its virtual reality solution, possibly because it is aiming to try and lower the price as much as possible before launch in order to make it more attractive.

Virtual reality also needs to offer interesting gaming experiences when it finally arrives, and Andrew House says that about ten experiences will be ready for gamers to try out in order to see what the tech can offer.

He adds, "VR rewrites the rule book on how you can create games. You’re seeing a large amount of interest and work happening among smaller teams, because it’s possible to create something in VR that is very simple but still very magical."

The Sony PlayStation 4 VR solution is expected to arrive in the first half of 2016.

Other virtual reality devices also lack price reveals at the moment

Oculus Rift is the first device to spark the quest for accessible virtual reality and the most recent statements from the company suggest that gamers will have to spend more than 1,000 dollars or Euro to get the device and make sure that their computers are powerful enough to use it.

The teams at HTC and Steam working on the Vive have also been reluctant to talk about how much it will cost, with an official reveal probably coming before the end of the year.

Microsoft is working on its own HoloLens, which is offering augmented reality rather than VR, and the company has said that it might initially focus on more practical applications for the platform before moving into the gaming space with it.