PSVR Gets Unofficial Price Tag

So while Sony still hasn't confirmed a price beyond saying several months ago that the PlayStation VR would be priced like a new game console, a Swiss retailer is now taking preorders of PSVR for roughly $500 each.

This would be $100 cheaper than competitor Oculus Rift and the PSVR headset also comes with an external processing unit that's reportedly about the size of a Wii, so in the long run Sony stands to make far less profit per set than it's competitors are aiming for, which is one of the reasons the PS4 took off so much faster then the Xbox One, but should we bank on that strategy working again? a little, perhaps.

 
Actual retail value is...?

Fun fact: while searching through "Price is right price reveal" images, an image of PSVR turned up. Whoda thunk it?


Is $500 Low Enough?

You see, a few key differences between this event and E3 2013 are that you still need a PS4 to use PSVR, so non-PS4 owners are looking at roughly $850 if they want PSVR, but again, they're looking at far more than that if their current PC doesn't meet the Rift's specs requirements as a new PC that powerful would likely cost as much as or more than a new PS4 would, plus the Rift carrying a higher price tag.

However many PC gamers already have a good enough PC to run Oculus Rift, and PSVR has no chance of winning them. So we will see some level of success with this tactic, doubtless, but how much success remains to be seen.

 
Any way you slice it, at the end of the day none of us would object to having an extra one of these left over after a purchase


You Could Do Better, Sony

As nice as a $100 price difference is, PlayStation VR should sport a much lower price tag, like maybe a hundred or two dollars lower, but hey, so should the Rift, right? But in a highly experimental medium of entertainment, one cannot simply out price their opponent and expect success. They need rather to price their goods low enough that skeptics are willing to buy into it. And with the PSVR not being a full fledged stand alone console, it seems they could easily sell for $400 or possibly less. What's more, Sony said it should retail for the price of a new console, but they showed us at E3 2013 that they consider a console's price $400, not $500. In short, if Sony sells PSVR at $500 it's because they think they can get away with a higher than necessary price tag because the Rift is asking for so much more, and that's just sad. You're a business, not a kindergartner justifying your scuffle by declaring who threw the first punch.


 
Stupid meme, stole my caption. I hate name calling, but he start...well, you get the idea


All Is Not Lost

Well actually considering the fact that I think VR is a lost cause at any price, I disagree entirely with my own header, but whatever.

Bear in mind that Sony has not set the price for the PSVR yet, at least not publicly. This could be a price leak by a retailer who jumped the gun, or it could be a retailer who is trying to score the first preorders and is setting what they think the PSVR will be. Alternately on a darker side of things, the retailer could also be expecting a lower price tag and just be suckering people into paying more, or Sony could be testing the waters to see what kind of reaction a $500 price tag gets, though the latter is a far fetched idea.


So what do you think? Is the PSVR really going to retail at this price? If so, is it worth it? And if not, what is it worth?

That's good, up until this everyone was thinking that it would be more expensive than the Rift so this is a good bargain. I probably wouldn't get either of them though until the price drops a bit more.

I still think $500 is not something I would pay. Like zanderlex I would wait until price drops a bit more because I am actually interested in having one. While $500 to me is still  much at least it is cheaper than expected and thus a price drop would be more meaningful than if it was $600 or so. I hope they price it at $500 or less although I doubt it will be any cheaper considering that Xbox One sold for $300+. I am excited to see what the PSVR offers and the price it comes out to. Also, would like to see what the next Black Friday will be like  

Either way I am glad they waited until PS4 and Xbox One where already out- kind of give something more to look forward to this year. 
If it drops well for Black Friday I would be very happy to get it.

yeah, even if I were inclined to purchase something like this ever I wouldn't buy it now. I'd likely wait for the next generation of this technology. I'm glad to see the development but I'm not going to pay for it yet. I'd rather give the developers time to tweak the technology and for game developers to have time to bring more games to market that really make use of the technology.

Until then (and a price drop) there is no chance I'd buy any of it either.

zanderlex : I agree, it's good that the price is lower than that of the Rift, but if this ends up being the real price for it then I still think they're dooming it before it even gets started. Regardless, they could surely charge less than $500 couldn't they? $400 maybe? And again this listing means nothing since Sony hasn't confirmed it yet.



jlove92 : You mean Xbox One is selling for $300, right? It initially sold for $500, and that's one of the main reasons it got off to such a bad start compared to PS4. The price cuts have helped though. And again, I agree $500 is too much. Hopefully this isn't the price they actually give it, and it's just some random retailer getting ahead of themselves like the Australian company that put Zelda U up for preorders before Nintendo even said whether there would be a Zelda U (so like four years before the game should be released). Lol



geeogree : I partially agree with you on that, but I'm a bit more skeptical. I just don't see it being worth the money it takes to make it for several reasons, nor do I see VR being worth a purchase in the near future, if ever. I admire the people for trying something so bold, but I don't think it'll go over. What really gets me though is that the Vita was selling roughly 10-15 million a year, and they said it just wasn't succeeding enough so they cut it and replaced it with PSVR and said it'd be considered successful if it sold 1-2 million in a year. But I digress.

Regardless, if they manage to put PSVR to good use, I would love to see it succeed and I could buy in even at full price. But still, like you said, I want to wait and see how it develops.

Well originally the real price was supposed to be like $700, so if this does end up being the real price, then that's an amazing improvement.

Remember that time the PS3 was being sold for $600 American dollars? I think this just another one of Sony's gross overpricing on new things upon release. I think all consoles and console related products have had drastic price reductions due to low first sales. I...seriously hope that's the case here as well.