Samsung has announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain today that pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will include a free Gear VR headset bundle.
The phones will be available to pre-order from tomorrow. Six games will be included in the bundle, an Oculus blog post reveals.
Gear VR usually sells for $99.99 as a standalone product. Of course, the phones will likely cost several hundred but if you’re in the market for a new mobile and want to try out VR this may well end up being the cheapest option by a considerable margin.
Valve and HTC also confirmed the price of the HTC Vive VR headset during the Mobile World Congress on Sunday. It will cost $799 and includes Job Simulator (presumably to get you ready for the second job you’ll need to pay back your credit card), the Fantastic Contraption, two controllers, and two base stations which help track the user’s movements around the room.
HTC Vive pre-orders will start on February 29th and the first units will begin shipping in April. Facebook-owned Oculus has confirmed that its Rift headset will cost $599 and units begin shipping at the end of March. Of course, you’ll need a computer powerful enough to operate it.
Sony has not yet announced the release date or price of PlayStation VR but has said the headset will cost the same as a new games system. We may learn details about Sony’s plans at GDC next month (where PlayStation VR was originally announced as Project Morpheus) but E3 seems to be a more likely venue to share that information. GameStop’s CEO recently stated that PlayStation VR will be released this autumn.
