PlayStation VR PS4 PlayStation 4 Launch Bundle 1

Well, that PlayStation VR price announcement was a master stroke, wasn't it? Sony announced earlier in the week that its fancy face mask will cost $399.99 in the United States – except pre-orders will set you back significantly more. The platform holder's just announced on the PlayStation Blog that starting 07:00AM PT on Tuesday, 22nd March it'll be accepting deposits for the PlayStation VR launch bundle, which, er, costs $499.99. Sneaky!

To be fair, this set comes with a whole slew of stuff: a PlayStation VR headset, all of the cables, some stereo headphones, a demo disc, a PlayStation Camera, two PlayStation Move wands, and a copy of PlayStation VR Worlds. This is all fine and dandy, but the problem is that the bog-standard PlayStation VR set will not be available for pre-order, so if you already own the camera and controllers, then you're right out of luck. Boo hiss, etc!

It's also worth adding that those of you in Canada will be paying an eye-watering $699.99 CAD for the same batch of gear, which has surely got to sting. It's still a very competitive price, of course, but we're surprised that Sony's opted to take this route in the United States to be honest. Then again, it does enjoy shooting itself in the foot from time to time – thank heavens SCEE has gone the opposite direction and decided to sell the headset on its own.

Update (14:45PM GMT): It looks like pre-orders for the base set will open in the States later in the year. We'll naturally keep you updated as and when we have more information.

[source blog.us.playstation.com]