Today, Sony officially announced a release date and price for the PlayStation VR2 virtual reality headset. After multiple teases and a few looks at the hardware throughout this past year, PS VR2 will finally be in the hands of gamers on February 22, 2023, with pre-orders starting in two weeks. What’s more, a slate of new games and ports are hitting the headset next year, including Horizon Call of the Mountain at launch and VR versions of Resident Evil 4 and No Man’s Sky later on.
However, PS VR2’s hefty price tag is the elephant in the room. At $550, PlayStation VR2's price doesn't sound so appealing after Sony already bumped up the price of the PS5 console by the equivalent of $50 USD in multiple regions earlier this year. There are some good reasons why Sony is pricing its well-designed headset at a premium, but the company has also made some concessions that make this VR device’s price less attractive than its previous attempts at VR.
PS VR2’s Price Is a Tough Pill To Swallow
Naturally, PS VR2’s price lends itself to comparison with the original PlayStation VR headset that launched for the PS4 in 2016. The original PS VR bundle that came with everything players needed was priced at $500 and included two move controllers, a camera sensor, and a pair of built-in speakers. Not only that, but the headset also came bundled with a few game demos and the full PlayStation VR Worlds game to tide players over while more VR experiences arrived on the system. It wasn’t a bad price at the time; the base headset was only $400, and the full kit was a good value compared to other VR headsets on the market.
Enter the PS VR2, which packs less in the box than its predecessor at a higher cost and fragments the whole experience. For $550, the PS VR2 comes with the main headset, two Sense Controllers, and a pair of nondescript stereo headphones. A charging station for those Sense Controllers is also on the way but will cost players an extra $50. Moreover, any fans looking for a game to play on their headset will have to pay another $50 for the Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle. All this is to say that a fully kitted PS VR2 headset with only one game will cost fans a total of $650, assuming they already own a PS5. The value proposed by the PS VR2 is below the value proposition of the original PlayStation VR at a time when PS5s are still hard to find and only getting more expensive in regions outside the US.
PS VR2’s Value Over the Competition
However, this is not to say the PS VR2’s price isn’t without warrant. Sony has packed some great tech into this device, likely leading to this price hike, but fans will have to decide if any of it is worth it over what is currently on the market. PlayStation VR2 features two impressive OLED panels at a resolution of 2000 x 2040 per eye with a refresh rate of 90Hz to 120Hz. Additionally, the headset has a wide field of view at 110 degrees, which goes a long way for immersion in VR. However, the PS VR2 is still tethered to a wire, which many other VR headsets have moved past at this point. Given the specs, there is a decent chance Sony is operating at a loss with this headset.
Compared to the competition, the PS VR2 sits between the high and low-end VR headsets in both price and specs. The Meta Quest 2 VR headset–which recently received a price bump–sits at a more reasonable $400 with only a slightly lower resolution of 1832 x 1920 per eye at a 100-degree field of view. However, its biggest drawback is its two LCD panels at 90Hz. At the high end, the HTC Vive Pro 2 boasts an impressive resolution of 2448 x 2448 per eye with two AMOLED displays at 120HZ and at a 120-degree field of view. The Valve Index isn’t too far behind the Vive, and both are priced at around $800. While costly, this higher price tier brings many noticeable improvements to the VR experience that the PS VR2 still has yet to reach. The PS VR2 is somewhere between entry-level and enthusiast-grade, which makes the headset’s success come down to incoming software and ongoing support when it is already more expensive than a base PS5. Fans will have to decide for themselves if the PS VR2's pros and cons are worth the price of admission.
PlayStation VR2 launches February 22, 2023.