Right now, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is about half-over in Las Vegas, and it will spotlight three Virtual Reality (VR) systems with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the PlayStation VR. Two out of three of these devices have finally been given prices as well as release dates, and we know what kind of games will be available for them.
Oculus Rift
Thanks to CES 2016, there is now confirmation of how much the price of the Oculus Rift actually is. IGN reports that it will cost $600 USD, with an expected Release Date of March, and an "expected ship date" of April 2016.
The package includes the headset, sensor, Oculus Remote, cables, a Xbox One controller, as well as two games. The first game is EVE: Valkyrie, related to the science fiction MMO game, and the other is Lucky's Tale, a platforming adventure game that promises to do for the Oculus Rift what Mario did for Nintendo.
In case you are worried about this new system running out of games, a recent report from Gamespot shows that the Oculus Rift is getting as much as 100 games.
Just a word of warning, many are saying that you may need to purchase another computer just to get the Oculus Rift to work. A recent tweet from Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey has stated that Rift and PC bundles are starting at $1499.
HTC Vive
The HTC Vive, which was heavily demonstrated at CES 2016, will show up in April 2016, competing with the Oculus Rift. Speaking of competing, the price of the Vive could be around the same price, but it could be raised or lowered. A recent quote from IT Pro stated that HTC is offering a "premium VR experience" and "so there's not so much price sensitivity early on".
The games of the HTC Vive will be varied, and there is a lot of emphasis on its hand controls to unleash its full potential.
HTC Vive Headset.
PlayStation VR
PlayStation VR is one company that didn't get its major information spotlighted at the big tech conference. Everyone suspected that the date could be revealed at their press conference last Tuesday, but this didn't happen. The Release Date is going to be "sometime this year" according to most sources, and probably in Q2.
DualShockers reports that there have been glimpses of the games available, all related to PlayStation like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last Guardian, and Destiny.
So that three VR headsets that are due to be released this year. Assuming consumers are willing to pay a price for something that costs double the price of a console gaming system, 2016 could be the year for VR. That, or it could be discovered that it is a very niche audience.
