PlayStation - VR

The Japanese group is on for a big hit to the giants as HTC, Facebook and Google as it releases of the $399 virtual reality headset, in time for the Christmas sales peak. The gaming market is buzzing with the virtual reality game set, and according to analysts the market will grow drastically to almost $40bn by 2020.


At a launch event in Tokyo, Sony's Japan and Asia president for computer entertainment - Atsushi Morita said, "In terms of visual experience at home, we believe this is the biggest innovation since the emergence of television". He added, "It's like a time machine that allows you to go to any place and become anything that you want to be."

The device cost starts from $200 less than PC-based headsets such as Facebook's Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive. The launch opened with early morning long queues at electronics shops all across Japan. However, the consumers were quite disappointed as they found out that there were quite few remained on the shelves except the ones that were already booked via pre-orders.

The fanatics of PlayStation such as Maosataka Fujiyama, a 43-year-old employee at a Japanese building materials group, said that he was taking a week off of work to try out the PlayStation VR after having already experimented with Rift and Vive.

"When I first tried out virtual reality and felt the immersive experience, I knew this was going to be the next big thing in games," Mr Fujiyama said as he waited in a queue at Bic Camera, the big Tokyo electronics chain, to receive his pre-ordered VR headset.

In addition to its unique pricing strategy, analysts are of the opinion that Sony has an advantage over the rivals to tap into a huge market of more than 40m players using its PlayStation 4 console. The PlayStation VR, which works with PS4, is designed for ordinary consumers rather than tech-savvy users.

Virtual reality currently is the most lucrative opportunity for the Japanese group for not only increasing its revenue but also to revive and expand the consumer electronics brand that was apparently losing its innovative edge (competitive edge) as Sony pulled backed from PCs and mobile phones.

The gaming division happens to be the biggest contributor to Sony's revenue other than its financial business, and its strong performance has become even more crucial as Sony's other mainstay image sensor business suffers from a slowdown in smartphone sales.

Sony has not given a sales target for the PlayStation VR nor disclosed how many pre-orders it received. It prepared about 30 game titles for the launch and that number is expected to grow to about 50 titles by year-end.