Sony officially reveals the release date for its virtual reality headset at this year's E3 and says 50 VR titles will be available by the end of 2016.

Sony's virtual reality headset, PlayStation VR will go on sale on October 13 for $399. Sony confirmed the news as part of its E3 2016 Press Conference Monday night. The headset, formerly known as "Project Morpheus," will be supported with at least 50 VR titles by the end of 2016.

Sony dedicated a significant part of its press briefing to displaying some of those games. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the reveal of Resident Evil 7. While the game will also see a standard non-VR release (of which a demo will be available this evening for PlayStation Plus subscribers), the ability to play the next Resident Evil entirely in virtual reality is a pretty big deal. Put simply, it looks terrifying. Other VR experiences announced at the conference include Final Fantasy XV and Star Wars: Battlefront.

Sony had previously revealed that the headset would release in October but this is the first time gamers have been told the exact date. Besides the headset itself, the base $399 package will ship with a processor unit, a connection cable for the headset, HDMI and USB cables, headphones and a power supply.

Pre-orders for a more expensive PlayStation VR bundle began back in March. Some gamers initially recoiled at the $499 asking price that also threw in the PlayStation Camera, two PlayStation Move controllers and a copy of PlayStation VR Worlds. But one would have to think that interest is going to be much higher now that gamers have seen some of these additional high-quality games coming out of E3.

It's also worth mentioning that even when bundled, the PlayStation VR is a smaller investment than some of the other virtual reality headsets on the market, provided that one already owns a PlayStation 4. It's also true, of course, that the PS VR will not match the likes of the Oculus Rift in quality but if Sony can keep the major game announcements like RE 7 coming, it will be in good shape.

All of this still won't settle the debate on whether virtual reality is truly the next big thing or just the latest industry fad. Even some of the top people in the gaming, like Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, remain skeptical of VR. But at the very least Sony's E3 2016 presentation puts the PlayStation VR into a position to potentially be successful.

PlayStation VR will release on October 13, 2016.