The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality headsets have been blowing minds and emptying wallets since they both launched a few months ago. Finally, the dream of VR is real and we can fully immerse ourselves in fantastical worlds instead of dealing with our regular, boring one!
Those of us who can only afford a game console and not a NASA supercomputer have to wait until October to experience VR, as that's when the PlayStation VR headset launches for PS4. Starting at $399.99, it's not cheap, but it's significantly more affordable than the competition, and works on a platform tons of people already have.
Unfortunately, there's a caveat: You're going to need some space in order to play PlayStation VR.
PlayStation
The illustration above comes from a FAQ page on the PlayStation Asia website, and was reported on by Polygon. As you can see, Sony encourages you to play sitting down in a play area of about 9.8 feet by 6.2 feet, or 3.0 meters by 1.9 meters for our international readers. That's not enormous by any means, but for people who live in small apartments in dense, urban areas, that might be asking a bit much.
It needs all that area because, in order for PlayStation VR to work, it has to interface with the PlayStation Camera accessory. It's part of how it precisely tracks your head movements without requiring a beefy gaming PC.
While this was probably to be expected, it's still unfortunate. PlayStation VR is going to be sold as the more consumer-friendly VR alternative, but many people still might not have enough space to use it. Based on this information, it wouldn't work in my apartment right now.
It's also a good reminder that, even though VR technology has come far enough to work and be sold to the masses, it's still pretty far off from being accessible to everyone. We'll just have to wait a few more years until we can all embrace virtual insanity.