Photo: Best Buy
It’s not unusual for retailers to open their stores at midnight to drum up excitement and sales for Black Friday events. While such events are not typical for the rest of the year, Best Buy is doing just that on Oct. 13 when it opens its doors at 12:01 a.m. (on the East Coast) to introduce the Sony PlayStation VR.
Best Buy will make the new virtual reality goggles available in limited quantities in 350 stores (it runs 1,050 total) as well as on bestbuy.com. The unit, which operates with a PlayStation 4 console, will also be available at 11:01 p.m. at locations in the Central time zone, 10:01 p.m. in Mountain states and 9:01 p.m. out in Pacific time zone states.
With its early sales events, Best Buy is looking to promote itself as the retail home for VR. The company’s website features Oculus and Samsung Gear brands in addition to PlayStation and promotes a range of related products including headsets, VR-ready computers, accessories and components. The site also features Google Expeditions VR kits that give teachers the ability to take students on field trips without leaving class.