Sony's PlayStation 4 virtual reality headset costs $500, and pre-orders begin on March 22.
And that's confusing, because Sony just gave the headset a $400 price at an event in San Francisco earlier this week. So, what's going on?
Here's the deal: what Sony announced Friday is the PlayStation VR "core" bundle. The $400 price that Sony gave earlier this week is for the headset by itself, without the required PlayStation Camera or beneficial (but not esential) PlayStation Move motion controllers.
You pay $400 for PlayStation VR and you'll get this package right here:
That's everything you need for virtual reality on your PlayStation 4... except for the required PlayStation Camera. Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida told Tech Insider that a bundle was on the way that would also include a PlayStation Camera, and this is apparently what he was talking about.
If you pay $500 for the "core" bundle, then you also get a Camera, two PlayStation Move motion controllers, and a copy of "PlayStation Worlds", a collection of VR minigames made by Sony.
This is the "core" bundle:
As Sony's VP of PlayStation Brand Marketing John Koller puts it in Sony's announcement, the "core" bundle is "for those of you looking to get right into VR gaming with your PlayStation 4." Is the $400 version for people who are looking to maybe get into VR later on?
Yoshida told Tech Insider it's for the "many people" who already own a PlayStation Camera — again, a required addition for the PlayStation VR headset to function at all according to Sony. Still, it's a bit strange that Sony announced a $400 price for its VR headset literally two days ago. The $500 bundle announced on Friday morning is almost certainly the one that most people will buy, and it feels a bit disingenuous to announce the headset as costing $400 when the $500 version is the one most people will end up buying.
Regardless of issues with price messaging, Sony's VR headset continues to be genuinely rad to use. You're going to want to get one of these if you're one of the nearly 40 million people who own a PlayStation 4. And you can begin that process by putting in your money for a pre-order starting on March 22 — notably, the "core" bundle is exclusively available through pre-order.
