We now know how much you’ll spend and when you can get two of the big three virtual reality systems hitting shelves this year.
The Oculus was the first to start accepting pre-orders about two months ago for around $600. Now, HTC’s Vive is available for pre-order at a price of $800. In addition to coming with two motion sensitive controllers, it also comes with two boxes that track the headset and controllers, so that you can stand up and move a bit as part of your VR experience.
“The idea is that within that fairly limited space, maybe about 4x4 or so, you’ll be able to walk forwards, walk backwards, pick up objects and really interact with that virtual environment,” says Mark Spoonauer, Editor in Chief at Tom’s Guide.
Both the Vive and Oculus though come with a big caveat: the computer you currently have is likely not powerful enough to run the experiences, so you will probably also have to drop at least another $1,000 for a new one.
The slight advantage the third big player in VR has, Sony, which has not announced pricing or availability yet; it will work with PS4's, which you may already own. If not, it costs a relatively modest $350. In addition, to be clear, these three headsets are much more advanced and immersive than the bite-sized VR experiences you will get from a Google Cardboard setup or Samsung’s Gear VR where a phone is the guts of the system.
Now if you’re thinking, ‘Alright, I’m in the market for one of these; just tell me which is the best and I’ll run out and get it.’ Well, it is not that simple because the hardware is really only part of the equation here.
“We’re not sure what’s going to happen with the content yet, and I think that’s why a lot of people are going to end up waiting at least a few months,” Spoonauer says. “What is that content library going to look like? Is it going to be all about games, how good are they, are there going to be exclusives for the platforms?"
The first round of Oculus' ships at the end of March. The first round of Vive’s ships at the beginning of April.