Sony has been offering demonstrations of PlayStation VR across North America for the last several weeks, giving prospective buyers a chance to try out a selection of its games at stores like Best Buy and GameStop, but if you’re in the U.K. and plan to demo the device at the retailer Game, you might need to bring some cash.
Some Game locations have begun posting advertisements offering 10 minutes of playtime for 5 pounds (about $6) and 30 minutes for 15 pounds (about $18). Given the current exchange rate between the pound and the dollar, if you were to demo a PlayStation VR headset at a Game store for an hour, it would almost cost the same as purchasing a new PlayStation VR game.
As Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett has noted, another location pointed out that if players opt to purchase PlayStation VR once the demonstration is finished, they won’t be charged for the time. The store’s tweet on the subject appears to have been removed, but no apology or clarification was posted in its place. The Game Brighton location still appears to have their advertisement live — it’s even pinned to the top of the page — and the store is also offering pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch console before a price has been revealed.
It’s worth noting that the advertisements in question both came from individual GAME locations. The company’s official “HQ” Twitter account doesn’t make mention of any such “pay for play” promotion, nor has it mentioned PlayStation VR at all since it launched on October 13.
PlayStation VR is now available for $400 (500 pounds in the U.K.) and a “launch bundle” is also available, packing in two PlayStation Move controllers, a PlayStation Camera, and the game PlayStation VR Worlds. Both versions also come with a demo disc: it’s free.
