Sony today revealed a new price for the PlayStation VR headset. Starting tomorrow, the HMD should be available for as little as $299 across the U.S. and $379 in Canada.
The Sony PlayStation VR hit the market in October 2016 in two different bundles. You could get the Core package for $399, which included the PSVR headset, the cables to hook it up, and a demo disk with more than a dozen titles to try. The Core package did not include a PlayStation Camera, which is a necessary component to operate the headset. Sony also offered a packed called the PlayStation VR Worlds bundle, which included the camera, a pair of Move controllers, and a game called PlayStation VR Worlds. Originally, the complete package was $499.
Last August, following price drops from Oculus and HTC on their Rift and Vive headsets, Sony made some price and bundle adjustments to stay competitive, including adding a camera to the Core bundle at no extra cost and reducing the price of the PlayStation Worlds bundle by $50. Later, Sony replaced the Core bundle with the PSVR Doom VFR bundle, and the PlayStation VR Worlds package with the PSVR Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR bundle, which include the respective Bethesda titles. It also rolled out a slight revision to the HMD late last year.
Recently, the value of Sony’s PlayStation VR has begun to come into question. With several affordable VR headsets from Microsoft’s Windows MR partners on the market, Oculus’s permanent $399 Rift with Touch bundle, and last week’s HTC Vive price drop, which brought it to $499, the question becomes; why is Sony’s HMD so expensive, comparatively? Its resolution is much lower than every other tethered VR HMD on the market today, and its tracking system isn't as robust.
With the mounting pressure from the market players around it, Sony is once again adjusting the price of the PSVR to compensate. Starting tomorrow, both PSVR bundles will get a permanent $100 price reduction, which puts the Doom VFR bundle at $299, and the Skyrim VR bundle at $349.
Sony also revealed the Canadian pricing for its PSVR bundles. Our neighbors to the north are looking at $379 for the Doom bundle, and $449 for the Skyrim bundle, which are down from $499 and $579, respectively.
