According to GameStop CEO Paul Raines, the PlayStation VR headset might ship this fall. In an interview segment with Fox Business, Raines discussed GameStop’s virtual reality strategy, saying that “we will launch the Sony product this fall, and we are in discussions with the other two players.“. Even if no names were mentioned, only the PlayStation VR fits the description, with the other main players being Oculus and HTC.
This is the first time after a long duration that we have heard about the release date for a PlayStation VR (formerly Project Morpheus). Last time, there were reports that Sony will ship the VR headset, early in 2016, but, according to current situations, that timeline has started looking increasingly tight. Instead, a fall launch, in time for the holiday season as well, makes much more sense.
Also read: Amazon leaks PlayStation VR headset price, twice the cost of PlayStation 4
If the company does launch in this time period, it will be the last major VR headset to ship, after the Oculus Rift’s planned March 28th launch date and HTC Vive’s circulation in April. Sony is yet to reveal any pricing stats for either of its headsets or games.
When asked for how GameStop was investing in virtual reality, the entire relevant quote by Paul states:
We are right now preparing for the launches of the major VR products. So we’re now in discussions with Oculus, with HTC Vive, and with Sony. The market size is really hard to measure right now, but there are a lot of different measurements — all of them start with a [billion]. In fact, I saw a Goldman Sachs report the other day that said that the virtual reality segment will be worth about $80 billion by 2025. So it’s a big launch. We’re getting ready for it. We will launch the Sony product this fall, and we are in discussions with the other two players.
On a less relevant note, rumors suggesting that Apple has VR headset under the works made headlines during last month.