14 DAY TRIAL // Plenty of fans of the coming virtual reality revolution have been a little disappointed when the team working on the Oculus Rift announced that it was offering the device for 599 dollars or 699 Euro and that delivery for pre-orders placed right now would start to take place in March.
Now SuperData claims that soon Sony will announce that its own PlayStation VR solution, which will only work on the PlayStation 4, will be priced between 399 and 599 dollars or Euro while saying that the platform will manage to sell around 1.9 million units during the year.
According to the company, the low-end mobile virtual reality solutions will reach an audience of around 27 million users while the GearVR, which represents a high-quality take on the same concept, will probably get around 2.5 million users in 2016.
The Oculus Rift and the HTC and Valve created Vive will sell 6.6 million units together, although that might change if the price drops relatively quickly.
At the moment, the PlayStation VR solution does not have an attached price or a launch date, but given that the Oculus Rift is now taking pre-orders, Sony might move fast to make its announcements in the coming weeks.
According to the publisher, it is working with partners to deliver around 100 titles for the virtual reality solution linked to the PlayStation 4, although a full list has not been offered so far.
Kaz Hirai, the leader of Sony, states, "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."
The creators of the Oculus Rift are also saying that around 100 games will arrive for the platform before the end of the year, again with no attached list.
Virtual reality will need to lower prices quickly to succeed
Palmer Luckey, the leader of the team, working on the Oculus Rift, has recently said that his device offers a lot of value for the attached price and that his company is not making any profit by selling the hardware.
Sony might decide to offer PlayStation VR for a lower price to create a larger install base as quickly as possible, which in turn will mean that it's more attractive for developers to create experiences that use VR.
The Vive is being delayed because HTC and Valve are adding a new front-facing camera to their device to enhance the functionality offered and are working on more enhancements.
Microsoft is working on an augmented reality device called the HoloLens and the company used Minecraft for the official reveal, although it has since said that it plans to use it more for commercial purposes.
The virtual reality field will need to lower the price of the offered devices as quickly as possible to convince more customers to pick one up and then offer a large enough audience to convince game creators to work on the new tech.