In the race towards virtual reality dominance, Sony has made a curious admission.
A senior Sony executive has admitted that the Oculus Rift offers a better experience than PlayStation VR.
Speaking to Polygon, Masayasu Ito, Executive VP of PlayStation, described how Facebook’s Oculus headset wins out in terms of quality.
“If you just talk about the high-end quality, yes, I would admit that Oculus may have better VR,” says Ito.
“However, it requires a very expensive and very fast PC,” he continues. “The biggest advantage for Sony is our headset works with PS4.”
“[PlayStation VR] is more for everyday use, so it has to be easy to use and it has to be affordable,” Ito adds. “This is not for the person who uses a high-end PC. It’s for the mass market.”
The Oculus Rift
PlayStation VR is, of course, different from rivals like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive insofar as it doesn’t require a high-end gaming PC for processing power.
As a result, PlayStation VR offers a smaller field-of-view, as well as a lower-resolution display than the Rift and Vive.
But the cost advantage is clear. While a Rift-friendly or Vive-friendly PC could cost around £1,000 – not even factoring in the cost of the headset – a PS4 can be purchased for as low as £269 brand new.
The HTC Vive
Unfortunately, Sony still hasn’t revealed pricing or availability information for the PlayStation VR, so it’s hard to say exactly how great the savings will be for its customers.
Will you be getting a VR headset this year? Let us know in the comments.
