Meet the headsets

As of now the three biggest names in the VR headset market are the HTC VIVE, the Oculus Rift and the Sony VR Headset. All three are offering what they claim to be “The best VR experience”, however it remains to be seen how accurate these tall claims end up being. What we do know as of now is what each of these headsets ship with and how much they’ll end up hurting your wallet. Let’s start with the HTC VIVE. Of the lot, the VIVE is by far the most expensive coming in at a whopping $800. That will be roughly in the '55,000 range ignoring the taxes. It also comes with the most bells and whistles attached. It ships with two wireless remotes, has full Bluetooth compatibility, has a front facing camera and has call support integration, enabling you to make video calls. The practicality of the latter however, remains to be seen, but on paper this is one amazing looking device.

The most popular of the lot and by far the most talked about till now is the Oculus rift. Coming in at the $600 mark, i.e. '41,000 it ships with one Microsoft Xbox One controller, built in mic and headphones and a new input device that lets the user navigate the Oculus store and explore video content. When comparing it to what the VIVE is offering, one can clearly see where the price difference is coming in. The third and definitely the wild card to the lot is the Sony VR headset. Priced at $400 it is definitely the cheapest, in terms of just the VR headset, and also comes with the least amount of added features however at launch only a more expensive bundle will be available. Despite that, of the three headsets, the Sony VR is probably the one that will cause the most headache to Indian retailers and here’s why.

Up till now, all the headsets have gone live for pre orders in a lot of countries, India however, is not one of them. It seems that all these companies are waiting to see how the headsets do abroad and then decide on a marketing policy which is India centric. The thing to keep in mind here is that these headsets will be priced significantly higher than their US counterparts. Moreover, there are additional problems for the Sony VR headset as it requires the PlayStation eye and the PlayStation move controller which will jack up its price by a further Rs 15,000. Another thing to keep in mind is that Sony has had an absurdly hard time of providing a stock of the PlayStation Eye for most retailers in the country, making them having to resort to importing them form the Middle East and sell it at an even higher price here in India.

The silent spectator in this whole affair is Microsoft. After wowing the world with their Hololens, it seems that it was just a concept that they were showcasing and their palpable silence on the whole VR matter proves that the Hololens project is nowhere near as complete as we were initially led to believe. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, gamers all over the world are in for a very lively year ahead with the prospect of getting their hands on some truly revolutionary technology.