PS4's VR Headset Not as "High-End" as Rift, Palmer Luckey Says

Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey has spoken out to say PlayStation VR "isn't quite as high-end" as the Oculus Rift, though he still described the competing device as a "good headset."

His comments came as part of an interview with IB Times, in which the interviewer suggested that PlayStation VR is the one headset best poised to compete with Rift. Luckey partially agreed, but also pointed out that Rift and PlayStation VR are catering to different markets.

"That might be true," he said when asked if PlayStation VR was Rift's biggest competitor. "I think that there's not many people who already own a PS4 who don't own a gaming PC who are going to go out and make that roughly $1,500 all-in investment in the Rift. It really is a separate market. They're bringing virtual reality to a different group of people who I don't think were ever really a part of our market anyway."

Luckey added: "It's also worth noting that their headset isn't quite as high-end as ours--it's still, I think, a good headset--and the PlayStation 4 is not nearly as powerful as our recommended spec for a PC."

Rift requires a capable gaming PC. PlayStation VR is powered by the PS4, which is already in the homes of many millions of people around the world.

Also in the interview, Luckey reveals that he invited some Sony VR engineers to come see Rift before the device's Kickstarter campaign started in 2012. Giving Sony a peek at what Oculus was making at such an early stage was part of Luckey's drive to help VR, as a medium, finally take off in a meaningful way.

"I knew some people at Sony working on VR before I even started my Kickstarter campaign, actually, and we brought them in early on to show them what we were working on, to talk about what the minimum standards were for a good VR experience," he said. "What does it take to make something that won't make people uncomfortable and won't turn people off of virtual reality?

"That's really the most important thing, is to not poison this well for all of us in the future, and I think they understand that. They also understand the importance of content, and they've been doing a lot of work making sure there's a lot of VR games."

Just this week, Sony boss Kaz Hirai said that more than 200 developers have signed up for the PlayStation VR development program, with more than 100 games projects said to be underway.

Earlier this week, Oculus announced that the first Rift consumer model will cost $600. Sony has not announced the price point for PlayStation VR, though that information should come relatively soon, as the headset is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2016. With regards to the price, PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida previously said Sony's aim was to go "as low as possibly can be done."