“Designed, not sorry”: Playstation Virtual Reality Pops Up in Paris with Storefront

VIRTUAL REALITY – Gamers flock to Paris to preview PlayStation VR Pop-Up Store, organized by Storefront

After the Oculus Rift launched last week, PlayStation VR is set to appear in stores on October 13th. Sony has planned pop-up stores, the VR Playstation Experience, for testing their latest and greatest release. WIRED is hailing the set as “poised to win the gaming wars”.

Parisians have the rare opportunity to trial the headset before its release. The experiential pop-up was launched in Paris on September 21 in a temporary shop, discovered by Storefront, at 6 rue des Archives near Hôtel de Ville. All players wishing to attend the event, which runs until October 13, should book their 30-minute session via this page. 

No fewer than 17 games are being tested, including Resident Evil 7 Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20th Anniversary, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, RIGS, Farpoint, Bound, or The Walk, an experience inspired by the eponymous film in which the player walks a tightrope between skyscrapers.

The $399 PSVR is the first of an emerging “middle class” of virtual reality: in both price and performance, it splits the difference between high-end, PC-driven headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and mobile solutions like the Samsung Gear VR and Google’s new Daydream View. More importantly, the PlayStation 4 game console that it connects to has sold more than 40 million units worldwide.

That’s an enormous opportunity: If even a fraction of those 40 million homes bring PSVR into their living rooms, Sony will win the hardware wars of the first generation of consumer VR—and win handily. And if word of mouth is kind following next Friday’s release, the PSVR might just have a shot at turning virtual reality into a Nintendo Wii-like crossover phenomenon. -Peter Rubin, WIRED

Read more about the device itself on WIRED.

Want to make your idea a (non virtual) reality? Book your next event with Storefront!