Sony partners with EA and Lucasfilm to create VR version of Star Wars: Battlefront

Sony game chief Andrew House said today that the giant publisher is partnering with Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm to create a exclusive virtual reality version of Star Wars: Battlefront for the PlayStation 4’s PlayStation VR headset.

The news comes today from a press event at the Game Developers Conference, where House also revealed that Sony will launch the PlayStation VR headset for $399 in October.

It’s going to be a big year for VR, and the crowds at GDC’s VR sessions reflect this. The interest is so high that the conference had to move some talks to larger rooms. VR is expected to be a $30 billion market by 2020, according to tech adviser Digi-Capital.

Star Wars: Battlefront started out strong at retail, but it dropped off the best-seller list of physical games in February. Its first expansion, the Outer Rim, should debut this month.

Sony’s PlayStation VR headset attaches to the PlayStation 4 video game console. It competes with PC-based VR headsets coming March 28 from Oculus VR and the first week of April from HTC. It also competes with the smartphone-based Samsung Gear VR headset.

Oculus is charging $600 for the Oculus Rift headset, while the HTC Vive will sell for $800. The Samsung Gear VR, which requires a Samsung smartphone, sells for $100.

Sony has lined up a bunch of games for PlayStation VR, including a number of exclusives.