PlayStation VR, Sony's counterpart for Oculus Rift and other virtual reality devices could be a strong contender in the market. This is a roundup of the reports and rumors on the PlayStation VR's release date, price, specs, and possible games.
According to IT Pro UK, the latest rumor on PlayStation VR is that it would need a separate processing unit that is the size of Wii. Sony has already previously revealed for the VR to meet the higher graphical needs of the target customers; it needs to have the additional hardware. IT Pro UK got it from Polygon's Brian Crecente that this external processing hardware may not be that farfetched. Crecente is said to have hands-on experience with the real finished version of the PlayStation VR gear and confirmed that the external hardware is sized just a bit smaller than Wii.
Recently, Sony confirmed that there would be eight games coming into the system. Some of these games were mainly PS4 exclusives while some are already pre-existing VR titles. For instance, "Job Simulator," which was previously announced for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, is now going to be available for the VR as well. Othe games include "Robot Golf," "The Modern Zombie Taxi Co," "Eagle Flight," among others. A PS2 classic, Rez, is going to return to a game for the PlayStation VR. Fans would certainly be happy to experience this game again, which include a fusion of puzzler, rail shooter, and rhythm game.
Earlier on, Sony already revealed the possible controller combinations that developers can make use of with the PlayStation VR. Sony Computer Entertainment's Technical Account Manager Vernon Harmon showed off several input methods at this year's Montreal International Games Summit.
Another report is that through the PlaySTation Camera, the PS4 can be used to track up to four peripherals, not countering the PSVR headset itself.
There are high hopes for the PlayStation VR in terms of competing with other virtual reality headsets. Analyst Michael Pachter have earlier shared on the "Pachter Factor" that the VR can take advantage of the fact that Sony's PlayStation 4 is very popular. There are around "30 million PS4s" out there can the company can benefit from having this substantial number of customers ready to try Sony's hardware when it launched. VR's competitors, users of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive need a high-end gaming PC first. However, PlayStation VR is already built to work with the PS4.
When it comes to the release date, unfortunately, customers will still be able to snatch one up for Christmas. Sony has already confirmed that the VR will be revealed only in 2016. According to the President of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, they still need to sort out some things yet before launching, particularly issues of compatibility and optimization. "As far as hardware development is concerned, it's going great... everything going well," Yoshida told Digital Spy. "But the people working hard now are the system software people."
