Why Choose PlayStation VR Over Oculus Rift And HTC Vive

Virtual Reality has finally become a reality. 2016 is the year that Virtual Reality really hits the gaming community’s shelves and screens, and PlayStation is armed just as well for this huge development in the gaming world.

Countless Virtual Reality gears have already surfaced to battle each other out in the VR arena: Sony’s PlayStation VR, Facebook’s Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft’s HoloLens, and Samsung’s Gear VR, to name a few. But which really is the best buy in the market? Which one should you go for for your gaming needs?

The different Virtual Reality gear have their own perks and pluses on their own, but every gamer has his/her needs to be met with a different feature. Some people will look for more power, more options, more features, more everything—but some will still go for the more practical choice. And if we talk practicality, there’s one VR unit that jumps to mind: the PlayStation VR from Sony.

Oculus Rift, of course, the more famous of the Virtual Reality gears, comes with a good price tag. With what they claim is the highest quality consumer version that Virtual Reality can give, the Oculus Rift will be hitting shelves this March with a price tag of $599. The HTC Vive is even more expensive, at more than twice that of the Oculus Rift. HTC Vive is reported previously by the Inquisitr to be offered to the market at an enormous $1,500 price tag. Critics did note, however, that HTC Vive is a Virtual Reality gear that is a cut above the rest.

Jeffrey Van Camp from Digital Trends comments as follows.

“For virtual reality to truly take off, it must also include a way to augment and connect to the real world… No other VR headset can immerse users like the Vive, and the Vive Pre takes a huge leap forward by including a camera that connects its virtual holodeck space to the real people and objects in a room. That eliminates the alienation felt when wearing a virtual reality headset, which is normally blinding, and may lead to games and apps that transform real world objects and people, rather than ignoring them… This is virtual reality. Everyone else needs to catch up.”

Camp did really sound impressed by the HTC Vive, and it does sound immensely promising. But with a $1,500 price tag, it’s a huge commitment for millions of gamers out there who are just starting to toy around with the idea of virtual reality.

Hence, the winner of our most practical VR set to start yourself with, is Sony’s PlayStation VR. Why, you ask? If you’re a PlayStation owner already (which, if you’re a gamer, you likely already do), then you’re a mere $300-400 away from Virtual Reality.

Annual Vision Summit 2016, a virtual and augmented reality conference, recently concluded at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood. And during the keynote speech of PlayStation, Director of the PlayStation Magic Lab Sony Computer Entertainment Dr. Richard Marks remarks as follows.

“All PlayStation 4 owners are ready for VR.”

What does he mean by this? This means that all PlayStation 4 units are already ready and armed with the necessary parts to run the PlayStation VR as soon as it hits the shelves. If you think this isn’t anything special for the Virtual Reality market, then think again. The Oculus Rift requires the consumer to get a PC with the highest specs to run the Oculus, meaning investment on the PC apart from the $600 cash out for the Oculus Rift. The HTC Vive, Camp notes, also requires a PC “with all the latest bells and whistles” to run the Vive. So, this means that, apart from the gaping $1,500 cash out for the VR unit, the customer is required to spend a couple more hundred bucks to afford the best gaming PC in the block to run HTC Vive at its fullest capacity.

The edge of the PlayStation VR, at the end of the day, is that the only requirement is the $300-$400 VR gear and a PlayStation 4. No other requirements, no paid upgrades. Just your plain ‘ol PlayStation 4 to fully and efficiently run the PlayStation VR. And with a pretty price point, it’s hard to say no to the PlayStation VR. Isn’t that quite the practical way to approach virtual reality in its infancy?

We’re still awaiting more updates on the HoloLens but that’s a pretty pricey piece of VR gear, too, with dev kits available for purchase currently at $3,000. We penny-pinchers might all be running back to PlayStation 4 for the PlayStation VR at this point.

[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]