HTC announced the price of their VR headset, made in collaboration with Valve, earlier, and it comes in at a whopping $800- which is, frankly, more than a bit obscene, especially for the mass market. It’s even worse than the Oculus Rift’s $600- and as a result, the Vive will end up losing the battle for the market against the Oculus, says Wedbush Securities research analyst Michael Pachter.
Pachter also said that if Sony can price the PlayStation VR at $500 or below, they are set to dominate the market- inasmuch as there will be a market for VR devices to dominate, in any case.
“Wow, Vive priced at $800. This sets Oculus up to win at $600, and sets Sony up to dominate if they have the ability to price sub $500,” Pachter said on his Twitter.
Personally, I think that Pachter may have it right this time- not just because of the sticker shock that the prices of Oculus and Vive are set to cause, but also because they further require the kind of high end PCs to run that most people simply do not have. In contrast, a PlayStation VR will just require a PS4 – which is the most popular gaming console of the generation – and users will be set to go. It’s a more elegant, plug and play solution, basically.
Now hopefully Sony take the opportunity being handed to them, and don’t price the PlayStation VR similarly high.
