When it comes to virtual reality, you really do have to ‘see it to believe it’, so Sony is joining the ranks of HTC and Oculus in opening demo spaces for their VR headset to retailers nationwide.

PlayStation VR is launching on October 13th in North America, but it’s hard to drop $399 on something you haven’t tried yet. In a bid to remedy this with potential PSVR owners, Sony as of yesterday opened 30 demo spots at Best Buy and GameStops across the US. That number is slated to expand to 300 locations across the US and Canada starting June 24th.

Demoers can expect to play PlayStation VR Worlds, EVE: Valkyrie, Headmaster, Battlezone and SUPERHYPERCUBE, with more games coming to demo sites closer to the headset’s October launch.

Find a PSVR Demo Near You

psvr truck

For hopefuls looking to get into a PSVR demo while at a music festival or other large public event, Sony is already on a ‘Road to Greatness’ tour that will see PSVR and PS4 demos aboard their kitted-out 18-wheeler.

The news comes after the showing of over 29 games for PSVR at this year’s E3 by Sony, including a number of big name franchises – including Resident Evil and Batman Arkham – offering built-for-VR games.

Oculus currently demos ‘by appoint only’ at Best Buy, and HTC Vive has open demos at Micro Center, GameStop and Microsoft Stores nationwide if you’re looking to try out all three before buying.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • WyrdestGeek

    Happily, there are some scheduled for a location near me. I will definitely be checking it out. :-)

  • q23main

    Please come to Europe next :)

  • yunaiki

    wtf. i called the gamestops that are scheduled near me and they still have no idea about this happening.

  • Jean Thompson

    I went to bestbuy, and to my surprise, only 3 people were waiting in line. Anyway, I tried it. Now I already have vive and rift so was comparing it to them. The image quality was kinda blurry and felt like I was looking at a screen. It was missing that “depth” and when I turned my head I noticed a sort of motion blur.(cause ps4 can’t hit the 90FPS?) Felt like standard definition while vive and rift feel more like HD. TBH I feel like oculus DK2 and GearVR Have better image quality. I only tried the underwater demo with the shark. I’ll prob. Go to gamestop and try London heist. (bestbuy won’t demo it cause it has violence) I don’t think I’ll be getting PSVR. However, it was the most comfortable headset I have ever tried. They took all the weight off the front. Felt like I wasn’t even wearing anything. And I have huge glasses. Props on that.

  • VRDRUMMER

    Thanks Jean for the PSVR mini review.. I am going to my local Best Buy to try tomorrow under my local window to demo. I have the Rift and VIVE as well and I have the PSVR bundle preordered (paid in full)… I hope a large degree of the graphic definition will improve with the new PS4K or code “Neo” release. I am certain the PSVR will greatly improve but will most likely still lag behind PC.

  • WyrdestGeek

    I got to try out PSVR today at a local Game Stop.

    I played Headmaster. It’s pretty cool! A definite improvement over the Gear VR (but then almost everything is).

    If I do eventually get one, I will definitely also be getting the camera and the move controllers.

    For the demo, I had to sit. And of course Headmaster mostly just uses your head movement as “input”. But I could tell the positional tracking, the thing mobile VR can’t do, was making a significant difference in the experience.

    —
    Furry cows moo and decompress.

  • VRDRUMMER

    So, I went to demo PSVR yesterday and the line was over an hour long. But, the rep said from now until every weekend January 2017 they are going to be at my local Best Buy and across the street at GameStop (Charlotte) every Friday, Saturday, Sunday..I am thinking Gamestop so to try London Heist.