Sony’s PlayStation VR Is Cheaper than Rivals, Could Become a Huge Success

Many industry pundits were shocked when Sony announced that their upcoming PlayStation VR headset would retail for $399 in the US, making it a cheaper alternative to competitors like the Oculus Rift.

And with the VR (Virtual Reality) market likely to explode in the coming years, there is no doubt that Sony is in a great position to take advantage of the public’s growing interest in VR. After all, even if only a small fraction of the PS4’s gigantic user base (that’s a whopping 36 million users) decides to purchase a PlayStation VR headset, Sony would still likely end up with a handsome profit.

Another plus is that developing games for the PlayStation VR would not be as challenging as say, creating them for a competing headset like the Oculus Rift. Because while the Oculus requires a beefy PC, the PlayStation VR works with Sony’s PS4 console, a console for which game developers have been making games for yonks now and which has a fixed hardware configuration.

But there are literally thousands of different PC hardware configurations with a variety of processors and graphics cards, for instance, making developing virtual reality games for PC a more challenging task. And some video game companies like Electronic Arts have even announced VR versions of games like the wildly successful Star Wars Battlefront, which will be available in the near future on PlayStation VR.

Of course, the virtual reality market is still in its infancy and there’s no telling what will happen in the future. But given Sony’s competitive pricing for the PlayStation VR, and the fact that both its rivals the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are more dear (although technically superior, truth be told), plus the huge PS4 user base there is no doubt that the Japanese electronics giant is poised to succeed in the VR arena.

Although time will tell whether the market for VR headsets will take off (or if gamers will feel comfortable wearing a bulky headset just to play a game), whether Sony will be a dominant player or Microsoft will surprise everyone and come up with a better VR concept with their much vaunted HoloLens device, but for the time being it seems the wind is clearly in Sony’s favour.