Though the VR-themed excitement in the days leading up to E3 would have had you believing different, Project Morpheus‘ presence – at least on stage during Sony’s press event – was much smaller than expected. Aside from a sizzle reel of in-development titles, the limited air-time underlined that there is still a ways to yet before the device’s consumer launch.
With nary a release date or price point set in stone, there is much to be revealed about Sony’s head-mounted system, and in a recent interview with GamesIndustry International, the company’s Worldwide Studios Boss Shuhei Yoshida has admitted that it is still “too soon” to discuss the asking price so far out from launch.
“We are talking about launching next year so typically we don’t talk about pricing one year ahead of time,” he started off. “I think we announced the price of PS4 at E3 the year of the launch so that’s five months before the launch. So it’s too early. It’s not like we are waiting for Oculus to announce their price. We still have work to do to know exactly the cost of goods and so on.”
While it’s safe to assume that Sony is still ruminating on the finer details of Project Morpheus internally, despite Yoshida’s comments, the fact that none of the hardware’s major competitors – including Vive and Oculus Rift – have locked down a price range is surely having an impact on the publisher’s plan, however small.
Early, admittedly unsubstantiated reports have claimed that Sony will launch the Project Morpheus from anywhere between $300 and $450, whereas Oculus bigwigs noted that owning a VR-ready set-up replete with a beefy PC will run up a price in the region of $1,500. Now, it’s worth keeping in mind that Morpheus will use the PlayStation 4 as its primary power source, negating the need for capable PC rig.
Project Morpheus remains on schedule, according to Sony, and while there is no specific release date or price available at this time, the hardware is expected to launch sometime before June 2016.
