Sony PlayStation VR Bundle Now Up for Pre-Orders

Sony has officially opened pre-orders for its PlayStation VR headset, one of the more affordable virtual reality headsets coming this year.

Starting Tuesday, customers can order the headset's $500 (roughly Rs. 33,400) starter bundle through "selected retailers" - in the United States, that currently means Best Buy and GameStop. The sets will ship in October.

A starter kit comes with the PlayStation VR (PS VR) and its cables, a PlayStation camera, a stereo headset and two PlayStation Move motion controllers. It also comes with PlayStation Worlds, a game featuring five virtual-reality scenarios such as an underwater adventure and a street-racing simulation.

For those who may already have the PlayStation camera and Move controllers but still want the headset itself, Sony will also open pre-orders for the $400 (roughly Rs. 26,700) device on March 29; those pre-orders will be available through retailers.

The company had not originally intended to open pre-orders for the PS VR at this time but added the option due to customer demand, according to an official company blog post.

There will also be another round or pre-orders in the summer, the blog post said.

Once the PS VR launches, Sony will be in stiff competition with Oculus, HTC and Samsung for control of the burgeoning virtual reality market. Market researcher TrendForce estimates that the total hardware and software market for VR will be worth $70 billion by 2020.

© 2016 The Washington Post