Polygon have a great article on the history and development of PlayStation VR and it does seem Sony are much more behind the tech than any previous PlayStation enhancements, such as Move or Wonderbook.
However, they have conceded that PSVR is a little less powerful than it’s competitors but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as sales of Wii, which was well below the spec of the PS3 and Xbox 360, prove.
“If you just talk about the high-end quality, yes, I would admit that Oculus may have better VR,” said PlayStation executive vice president Masayasu Ito. “However, it requires a very expensive and very fast PC. The biggest advantage for Sony is our headset works with PS4. It’s more for everyday use, so it has to be easy to use and it has to be affordable. This is not for the person who uses a high-end PC. It’s for the mass market.”
Whilst we still don’t know the price Sony are using word “affordable” a lot, so hopefully when the cost is revealed next Tuesday (we hope) there will be cheers rather than sharp intakes of breath.
The article also reveals there are already more games in production for PSVR than there was ever for PlayStation Move and Sony are so confident in the tech they are already envisioning follow up hardware.
“We definitely believe [there will be a follow-up someday],” said Sony’s Richard Marks. “We’re doing everything and planning and setting it up so that we would know how to make a next one, and make that make sense for our customers and stuff, so yeah, we don’t think of this as a one-and-done by a long shot. And we also don’t think VR is like that.”
“We’re going to try and improve every aspect of it,” adds Jeff Stafford, an engineer in Sony Computer Entertainment America’s R&D division. “Get it lighter, smaller form factor, easier to use. Of course people want wireless — that’s a challenge. There’s so many things.”
The Polygon article is a great read if you want to know more about the tech and the history of it’s development, you can check it out here.
Source: Polygon
camdaz
I’ve recently read a few interviews from game developers who state that they much prefer working with the PSVR than other headsets as you don’t have to take into account all the different hardware of PC’s, and in a view cases games have looked better on PS4.
Avenger
Complete and utter BS.
Simple as. There’s nothing to say Sony won’t abandon this further down the road. I hope they turn a new leaf, but their reputation…
Not to mention Wii did well because it was cheap, accessible and sociable. The lower specs didn’t really factor in.
It’s positive they’ve mentioned affordable, but I hope they don’t end up eating their words. It’s a big word, and people will be looking at what’s reasonable to them and not what’s reasonable next to oculus or vive costs.
If they nail the price and the unit is good, I hope they do well with it and stick with it for once!
Tuffcub
Sony haven’t “abandoned” anything. Move, Wonderbook etc just didnt sell. A company can only support a loss making product for so long, it’s not that they abandoned anything it’s just simple business.
If you want them to support something, buy the bloody thing, it’s the only way!
Oh, and have you head the phrases “Better with Kinect” recently? Last time we mentioned that on the site was August 2014! If you want an example of something being abandoned, that has. Literally nothing from MS in terms of games for two years, they barely even tried making it work on XB1.
Sony usually make a good attempt at marketing something, Move had a load of games, as did Vita. If they take off and get supported is entirely down to the consumer, not Sony.
beeje13
Just to point out, PS move has not been abandoned, it works on some PS4 games (sportsfriends comes to mind) and will be used as a controller for PSVR. My PS2 eyetoy worked ok in PS3 games.
And VR is an industry-wide movement, not so much a Sony thing.
Sony have got affordable and mass-market pretty nailed on recently aswell, with the PS4.
TSBonyman
Being a hardware manufacturer/developer themselves should help with the affordability too.
TSBonyman
I’m encouraged by their continuing use of the word affordable and how Yoshida expressed surprise at the final cost of the Rift.
Compared to 3D, the majority of folks seem to have warmed more to the concept of VR, affordability allowing. And with so many big players investing heavily in the tech – both hardware and software – it does look like VR is going to be around for a while.
Severn2j
I think, if it does turn out to be “affordable”, it has a better chance at success than most other Sony peripherals, partly because because of the Rift/Vive on PC. Devices like this tend to do better on PC, due, I think due to the larger variety of games and genres and also the openness of the platform and so there will always be software produced for it (Pick any obscure PC peripheral and you’ll still find people developing for it). Being able to pick from that stream could help PSVR..
SamBeThyName
I reckon it’ll be £350 – If they could do it for £299 Sony would start shitting money.
zb100
I’m saying 300. :)
RudeAwakening
Yeah I reckon it will be priced >=€300 <=€350 any higher and I don't think it will sell. Can't wait till the 15th march, No Man's Sky bundled with PSVR on launch! Believe!