Preorders for Sony PlayStation’s virtual reality headset are now open

Sony on Tuesday officially opened preorders for its PlayStation VR headset, one of the more affordable virtual reality headsets coming this year.

Customers can order the headset’s $500 starter bundle through selected retailers. In the United States, that currently means Best Buy and GameStop. The sets will ship in October.

A starter kit comes with the PlayStation VR and its cables, a PlayStation camera, a stereo headset and two PlayStation Move motion controllers. It also comes with PlayStation Worlds, a game featuring five virtual reality scenarios such as an underwater adventure and a street racing simulation.

For those who may already have the PlayStation camera and Move controllers but still want the headset, Sony will also open preorders for the $400 device on March 29. Those preorders will be available through retailers.

The company had not originally intended to open preorders for the PS VR at this time but added the option due to customer demand, according to an official company blog post.

There will also be another round of preorders in the summer, the blog post said.

Once the PS VR launches, Sony will be in stiff competition with Oculus, HTC and Samsung for control of the burgeoning virtual reality market. Market researcher TrendForce estimates that the total hardware and software market for VR will be worth $70 billion by 2020.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Preorders for Sony PlayStation’s virtual reality headset are now open."