The PlayStation VR will be available for $399 this October, Sony announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today.
It will include a 5.7-inch OLED display and Full HD 1,920 by 1,080 resolution. There's a "cinematic mode" that will allow users to display the entire 16:9 screen at three different zoom levels. At less than 18ms, the PlayStation VR's latency is impressive; reducing the lag between the player's head movement and screen movement is important to increasing realism.
"Display is the most critical component" to build the illusion that users are in the game, said Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House. The field of view is approximately 100 degrees, and refresh rate options are 120Hz or 90Hz.
At $399, the PlayStation VR matches the PlayStation 4 console's price, so this won't be a no-brainer add-on for wallet-conscious gamers. But House made it clear that Sony intends to make it worth the cost.
"We have the opportunity to offer unprecedented immersion to gamers," he said, pointing out that Sony already has 230 developers lined up to produce VR content for PlayStation.
'We're working with a curated list of partners," which include music and video creaters in addition to game studios, House explained. One of those partners is Lucasfilm Ltd., which will bring a "Star Wars experience" to PlayStation VR, though House did not elaborate on what form it might take.
When PlayStation VR launches, it will include an updated app to make it compatible with PlayStation consoles. The Playroom VR app will also be available as a free download to all VR owners.
Sony's headset is uniquely positioned as a gaming device among its more general-use VR competition like the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. That's because it's designed specifically as a PlayStation 4 accessory.
It's a strategy that makes sense for Sony, since it can take advantage of the 36 million people who already own a PlayStation, a huge audience that Sony's VR developer partners will be eager to reach.