At GDC today, PlayStation showed off and announced pricing for its entrant in the Virtual Reality race, the PSVR, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how much PlayStation’s entrant is going to cost: $629.95.

I think that price shocked a lot of people, actually. I was expecting it to be around the $900 to $1000 mark, to be honest. PlayStation VR is due to launch in October (which is my birthday, by the way, if anyone wants to buy me a present) and for $629.95 you get the VR headset (which offers a resolution of 1920x 1080), the external processor unit, a headset connection cable, an HDMI cable, a USB cable, stereo headphones, an AC power cord and an AC adapter.  What isn’t included  is the PlayStation Eye camera that you’ll need for the VR headset and Move controllers, which will be needed for some games. Expect to spend another $100 or so to pick up those (it goes without saying that you’ll also need a PlayStation 4).

The system will launch with 50 titles, including Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, a VR version of Eve Valkyrie and a special VR version of EA’s Star Wars Battlefront.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I’m impressed with the pricing and I think it’ll make many gamers consider Sony’s offering ahead of Oculus and HTC’s VR headsets but while I’d really, really love to be able to convince the Home Office that I need to drop the money for a pre-order (that is a mission in itself requiring military precision and when I mentioned it initially she laughed), chances are I won’t. At least, not at launch.

I’ve never been one of those people who must have something on the day of launch, especially hardware.  As much as I’d love to have a PSVR sitting in my hands come October (remember, dear readers, I’ve got a birthday in October), I rather wait to hear feedback from people on how they found the experience using the headset and, importantly, whether they thought it was worth it.

At the end of the day, it isn’t going to make any difference in my life whether I get a PSVR on launch or two, three or six months later.

I think PlayStation and Sony have scored a huge win with the pricing of its VR headset and hats off it: It has made VR affordable to us mortals.  The pricing will sell headsets and I’m sure there’s been a flurry of pre-orders already.

Thoughts on Sony’s PSVR? You going to buy one?