For those who do not know exactly what Virtual Reality is or what it means: essentially, it attempts to place participants in the body of someone else, in different locations and scenarios, with all the accommodating sights and sounds in their full glory.
On October 13th, Sony released its new Virtual Reality headset, entitled “Playstation VR.” It will set you back $399 USD, if you do not already own the Playstation 4 Console, Camera, Move Controllers and VR worlds (currently the only available game). Including these four necessities, the cost totals to a whopping $799 USD. Standalone, this is the cheapest way to experience VR to date. Its only two competitors available for purchase are the Oculus Rift and and HTC Vive, costing $599 and $799 respectively (Kain, 2016). Reviews for Playstation VR have been incredibly positive thus far. I found this particular blog post on TechRadar to be useful and interesting because it made an all-encompassing and thorough argument for Playstation VR.
The whole VR craze began with the release of the Oculus rift back in March, and in the months leading up to the release of Playstation VR, demand for VR was beginning to slow. As Thomas Westerman stated in his blog post on the subject, many critics throughout that period labeled VR as “an over-priced gimmick,” due to its lack of content and immersion, and its nausea-inducing, inconsistent control schemes. Thomas Westerman is right in his sentiment that it is not a fad. Now, excitement is rising once again as Playstation VR has managed to build off of the mistakes of the two attempts preceding it. Having spent many hours playing as an expert diamond thief, a deep sea diver, and professional luge rider on the Playstation VR personally, I can say that Sony did a great job in that respect. It is fun, engaging, and easy to control. This is not to mention that after playing for long periods of time, I have not felt nauseous at all. In fact, the headset is extremely comfortable. You also do not need much space to set up the system and play.
In terms of sales to date (October 30th), the Playstation VR has done exceedingly well. Operations management definitely projected sales to be lower than what they are, as the product has sold out on US and UK Amazon with shortages in Best Buy, Walmart and Target as well (Brooke, 2016). This is, of course, great news for Sony.
All in all, I will definitely be picking up my own Playstation VR bundle once it is restocked. Sony has really broke new ground in making Virtual Reality accessible in the home.
Word Count: 443
References (APA):
[Playstation VR Bundle (Including PS4)]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2016, from https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8362/30115850755_1df580eb2f_z.jpg
Brooke, S. (2016, October 25). PlayStation VR Has Sold Out on Amazon in UK and US. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2016/10/playstation_vr_has_sold_out_on_amazon_in_uk_and_us
Kain, E. (2016, October 15). Virtual Reality Is Just An Over-Priced Gimmick, Nothing More. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/10/15/virtual-reality-is-just-an-over-priced-gimmick/#5222b0062e0a
Pino, N. (2016, October 24). PlayStation VR review. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/playstation-vr-1235379/review
Westerman, T. (2016, October 15). There’s Nothing Virtual About This Reality. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from https://blogs.ubc.ca/thomaswesterman/