PlayStation VR has gone on sale worldwide this week, as Sony looks to take on the likes of Facebook’s Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with a more affordable virtual reality experience.
The headset plugs into existing PlayStation 4 consoles and retails for £350 in the UK. However, a motion detecting camera and motion controllers are sold separately.
By comparison, Oculus Rift and HTC’s Vive headsets both launched earlier this year, but both also require a high-powered gaming laptop, which can cost more than £1,500. This is in addition to a headset which costs of £549 for the Rift and £749 for Vive.
Several major gaming franchises have already been confirmed as working on VR versions of popular titles – the next Resident Evil game will have its own full VR alternative, while the Star Wars Battlefront series is also due to expand to the headset.
Each PS VR unit comes with a demo disc that includes a wide variety of content, while social environment “PlayRoom VR” is available for free download to all PS VR owners.
Competition in the sector will also come from budget headsets powered by smartphones, such as the Oculus Rift-powered Samsung VR and Google cardboard.