Our love of console wars has already bled across to virtual reality. The question of 2016 when it comes to Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR and HTC Vive has already been 'who will win?' when it should probably be whether VR will take off at all. As managing editor Susan Arendt wrote last week, the $599 pricepoint isn't the only thing keeping the Oculus Rift niche. In a recent interview with International Business Times, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey agreed.
"The real battle here at this point isn’t us against them. It’s us versus the public and trying to convince them that VR is worth adopting," he said after discussing Sony's PlayStation VR headset. "That it’s worth wearing something on your head to use virtual reality. That’s the real fight, and I think we’re all fighting that."
Luckey also talked about PlayStation VR as a whole, saying that it wasn't as advanced as the consumer Oculus. "It’s also worth noting that their 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," he said and went on to note that Sony's market will be very different from Oculus.
"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. 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."
It's definitely going to be an interesting year as we await a release date and the all important price for PlayStation VR. The first consumer Oculus Rift headsets will be shipping at the end of March. If you want to preorder one now on the official site, you'll have to wait until June to get your eyes on the prize.
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