The year of virtual reality has officially lifted off with the Oculus Rift officially up for pre-order. The $599 virtual reality headset has been called "obscenely cheap" by Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Oculus. While we won't be seeing the Rift get a price drop any time soon, the community is beginning to question how the Rift will stack up against the PlayStation VR.
The PlayStation VR headset is expected to release with a price tag somewhere around $400 – $500 and be limited to the PlayStation 4, where the Rift is $599, compatible with specific PCs, and able to stream Xbox One games via Windows 10.
According to Palmer Luckey, the main difference between the Rift and PlayStation VR is that the Rift is a more "high-end" product compared to PlayStation VR. This might justify the price difference between the two headsets, but Luckey believes that both headsets are appealing to different markets, which won't have the two competing against one another.
“Their [Sony's] headset isn’t quite as high-end as ours — it’s still, I think, a good headset — and the PlayStation 4 is not nearly as powerful as our recommended spec for a PC,” said Luckey to IB Times. “I think that there’s not many people who already own a PS4 who don’t own a gaming PC who are going to go out and make that roughly $1,500 all-in investment in the Rift. It really is a separate market."
Luckey went on to explain that Sony is filling a gap in the market for PlayStation consumers with the PlayStation VR. “They’re bringing virtual reality to a different group of people who I don’t think were ever really a part of our market anyway.”
Luckey may not be concerned about the PlayStation VR, but we are still awaiting more news on the HTC Vive VR headset that is in development. The Vive might be a direct competitor to the Rift, a competitor who has seen the community's reaction to the Rift's price.
