When PlayStation VR launches on October 13 in North America and Europe for $399 USD/€399/£349, Sony is expecting there to be supply constraints.
As Sony Interactive Entertainment President Andrew House explained in an interview with CNBC, it’s tough to predict just how popular virtual reality will be, but they’ll do their best to meet demand:
We have growing confidence that we’ll be supply constrained with this product, but we’ll do our very best to meet demand. Virtual reality is a medium that’s in its infancy. With such a nascent, very new form of storytelling, it’s difficult to predict what user uptake is going to be.
He added that, because VR games offer such a different experience, it’ll be tough to see how big the audience will be:
We’re obviously very excited about the overall future potential for virtual reality and we think it’s the right opportunity to start to build a market. But we need to keep reminding ourselves that you’re requiring a very different user engagement than we have seen previously. … The experiences we are delivering are truly transformative for gaming and that will inspire a certain audience. How large that audience is remains to be seen.
Because of the immersion virtual reality games offer, House says that “even simple game concepts become more powerful and magical than they would be in a traditional TV game experience.”
According to House, PlayStation VR games prices will typically cost $20 – $40. As we learned yesterday with Sony’s launch titles though, some will be $10 and others $60.
In a separate interview with MCV, PlayStation Europe’s Jim Ryan revealed that every PlayStation VR game demo so far has been running on the standard PS4, and not the PS4 Neo.
