After a slow drip-feed of teases and details, we now know a ton about Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 headset for the PS5 including its launch lineup, release date, and price point. That last bit will no doubt be the most controversial. Sony revealed on Wednesday that PS VR 2 will cost $US550 ($AU865), even more than the PS5 required to run it.
Editor’s note: Pricing in this piece is based on those announced in the US. We’ll update this piece when we have official Australian pricing (which we expect to be even steeper) — David.
And that $US550 price point, itself higher than the original $US500 PS VR bundle for the PS4, doesn’t even include any games. As revealed in a PlayStation blog post today, those will cost extra. The Horizon Call of the Mountain pack-in bundle, which includes the VR spin-off of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn series, will cost $US600 ($AU943). So what does the base price get you? The $US550 package only includes the PS VR2 headset, PS VR2 Sense controllers, and stereo headphones. Even the charging dock comes separate for another $US50 ($AU78). If you are a true VR enthusiast, that means the entire package, PS5 included, will run you over $US1,000 ($AU1,572). That’s a big ask despite the impressive specs.
Sony also revealed more about the PS VR2’s launch line-up. In addition to the Horizon VR game, there will also be the following 11 ports and releases:
- The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR | Developer: Supermassive Games
- Crossfire: Sierra Squad | Developer: Smilegate
- The Light Brigade | Developer: Funktronic Labs
- Cities VR – Enhanced Edition | Developer: Fast Travel Games
- Cosmonious High | Developer: Owlchemy Labs
- Hello Neighbour: Search and Rescue | Developer: tinyBuild Games
- Jurassic World Aftermath Collection | Developer: Coatsink
- Pistol Whip VR | Developer: Cloudhead Games
- Zenith: The Last City | Developer: Ramen VR
- After The Fall | Developer: Vertigo Games
- Tentacular | Developer: Firepunchd Games UG
You can read more about how each will make unique use of PS VR2’s tech on the PlayStation blog, but none of them seems particularly likely to convince anyone who’s not already a VR believer to jump on board. While some are great games, none are the Half-Life: Alyx-style blockbuster that might appeal to the audience Sony has cultivated over the last console generation with games like God of War and Ghost of Tsushima. We’ll see if Horizon Call of the Mountain can fill that void. The launch lineup will have big shoes to fill, though, since PS VR2 isn’t backwards compatible.
Sony’s pricey VR push comes just after it recently raised the price of the PS5 globally, and as the new console still remains hard to find on store shelves. It also arrives just as Meta, formally known as Facebook, saw its stock price continue to tank as it spends $US10 ($AU15.7) billion on acquiring new VR studios, developing new headsets, selling its existing ones at a loss, and trying to make feet.
Though Meta also raised the price of the wireless Quest 2 headset earlier this year, it still remains a more approachable point of entry at just $AU630. Even then, it’s still only sold just north of 15 million units. Better than the Xbox Series X/S, but not necessarily enough to drive mass adoption or win over the biggest game studios and publishers to start developing games for it.
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