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PlayStation VR Pre-Orders Sell Out In Minutes At Amazon (roadtovr.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Once seen as the underdog, Sony's PlayStation VR headset continues to hold its own against PC-based competitors Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The company announced last week that they won't ship the PSVR headset until October, but they also announced an attractive $399 price compared to the Rift at $599 and Vive at $799. And it appears the company's existing addressable market of 36 million PS4 owners are ready to get on board; Amazon U.S. opened pre-orders for the PSVR Launch Bundle this morning and sold out of its stock allocation in less than 10 minutes. Walmart befell the same fate quickly thereafter, though several other retailers in the U.S. are still showing pre-order stock.

4 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Anyone a little concerned about VR Zombies? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are people really going to VR helmets at Starbucks or other public settings?

    Let's hope so. I've beaten Netflix and now I'm looking for some new entertainment.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Augmented by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm saving my money for a Sybian VR.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Missing Info by skam240 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article would be infinity more informative if we were told what Amazon's allotment was. Selling 100 units of VR equipment on a major console in a short amount of time would be completely unimpressive. Selling 100k would be very impressive. Without the numbers the only thing this tells us is we can't buy the VR gear from Amazon.

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  4. Re:dumber than the average slashdot poster. by deek · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you realise that the finished PSVR was demonstrated to most game journalists and game developers in the recent Game Developers Conference? All reviews from this have been amazingly positive of the experience, except for one or two that complained about lag with the Move controller. They were _all_ very positive about the headset hardware itself, and its performance.

    Now, perhaps 20% of those journalists may fit into your category of "stupid enough to fall for marketing hype". Not all, though. Certainly not the game devs. Those guys know what they're talking about.

    My brother is a graphics programmer and a game dev. He was at the GDC. He tried the Sony headset. He was very impressed with it, rating it above the Vive for graphic quality, despite the PSVR having lower resolution. Believe me, he is no idiot.

    The PSVR undoubtedly works well. Development has been years in the making, starting even before the Rift kickstarter, and it is now finished. The only ones who bore the development costs are Sony themselves. All is left now is manufacturing and distribution. Preorders help the manufacturer know what demand there is for the product, and how much effort they need to go to for manufacture. People putting their money down early is the best way for a manufacturer to gauge what demand will be like. The preorder numbers are invaluable for the high level of manufacturing needed for this.

    Virtual reality has been a dream for a lot of people. Sony's PSVR has made that dream relatively affordable. Don't be a dick and call them dumb.