PS VR2 allegedly sold under 300k units since launch & analysts predict price cut
Data analysts have suggested that Sony may need to cut the PS VR2's price in order to 'avoid a complete disaster.'
It would seem Sony’s PlayStation VR2 headset is having trouble gaining traction. Allegedly, it has sold around 270,000 units since launch, which may be well under expectations. The PlayStation VR2 is an excellent headset, but one of its most restrictive cons by far was the cost. Regardless of how incredibly well the headset plays, it’s still more expensive than a PlayStation 5, and you still need a PlayStation 5 to run it. With that in mind, analysts have predicted that Sony may be forced to cut the price if they are to gain any level of momentum on the PS VR2.
These allegations come out of a report by Bloomberg, who recently spoke with the International Data Corporation (IDC) about the matter. According to data from the IDC, Sony will have sold around 270,000 by the end of March 2023. IDC’s vice president of data and analytics Francisco Geronimo expects that this slow performance is going to lead to a price cut if Sony has any hopes of gaining traction with the HMD.
Source: PlayStation
“I suspect a price cut on the PSVR 2 will be needed to avoid a complete disaster of their new product,” Geronimo said. “Consumers around the world are facing rising costs of living, rising interest rates and increasing layoffs. VR headsets are not top of mind for most consumers under the current economic climate.”
We reviewed the PS VR2 headset highly for its multitude of features which provide ease of access, comfort, and also high-performance VR gameplay across a multitude of titles. However, it came with the caveat that the cost of the headset alone is prohibitive at its current retail price of $549.99 USD. Putting that issue alongside the current global economic climate makes the PS VR2 quite the luxury.
Even still, Sony and its PlayStation department have yet to release sale numbers of the PS VR2 or speak to IDC and Bloomberg’s latest article. Previously, Sony executive deputy president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki recently said that the company is optimistic about the PS VR2 and believes it has a good chance of outselling the original. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for further updates.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, PS VR2 allegedly sold under 300k units since launch & analysts predict price cut
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I’ve been feeling all PSVR2 talk has been quiet lately and nothing amazing announcing that was coming up. Where is Alyx?
They overpriced it and sold it at a bad time-
I don’t think it’s over priced. There’s not enough killer apps for it. And it’s still wired. People don’t like that.
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That’s ridiculous. I don’t think we have them on shelves here in the US yet, maybe if things keep going this way, we never will. But PS5’s are in stock everywhere. I’ve been to a bunch of target and Best Buy‘s for many months where they’ve got signs at the door that say PS5 in stock, go to customer service. They don’t have them out.
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If they worked to make gen1 games backwards compatible in some way, that would have helped.
But at someone who has a decent PSVR1 digital library that is now totally useless because I sold my old headset in anticipation of 2, I feel burned.
I don’t want to start over and wait for a trickle of new overpriced games.
It’s costs more than a disk PS5 to boot.
It doesn’t seem like a good deal now, but maybe at some point later…if they make Blood and Truth 2-
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they are two fundamentally different means of tracking movement. you're not talking about an SDK; one exists for both versions of PSVR. you're talking about another abstraction layer that they would have to test with literally every game.
it's on developers to adapt their controls to a different VR headset.
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PSVR1 games aren’t BC??? Wth. I donated my headset to a friend and kept my account with my library of VR stuff…so that is useless unless I have a PSVR1?
Ugh, what a bummer.-
Yup. Unless a dev makes a free/paid upgrade, those games are now mere icons in your library to ignore
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This. The hardware is solid, but the library needs some serious work.
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I mean it's as much as the console and requires a cable. To me that's a big turn-off.
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This is why I'm happy with mine even though I wish the library was a bit larger. It's hard to overstate how nice it is just being able to put on a headset and be able to hop into a game without any hassle.
Even with as streamlined as PCVR has gotten, there's still friction involved in launching games and wondering if you'll run into some technical snag. With PSVR2 I can throw on my headset and be racing in GT7 seconds later, and I love it.
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And there never will be a new killer app with sales like this. No one wants to spend 100mil to develop for 300k users.
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100%. It's taken me from being someone who enjoys the occasional driving game to becoming the guy taking the time to tune every part of his car before a race. It's so well done.
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I haven't kept up with VR. Do wireless headsets exist that aren't just a glorified smartphone?
Video takes a shitload of bandwith, my expectation would be that video over wireless would cause so much latency from encoding and de-encoding that it would ruin the experience. But like I said, I haven't kept up.-
The oculus quest uses the snapdragon XR2 processor, which is surprisingly capable for mobile VR, with a decent fidelity! And regarding streaming from a PC… If you follow directions for leveraging an ideal Wi-Fi set up, it works remarkably well. or you can just use a USB-C cable.
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Valve wants to sell their own headsets though. They also develop at a snails pace, so who knows if they even care to port it.
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Sony could have paid to port it but it's not important enough for them looks like.
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I don’t care for GT7 and already beat RE:Village on Xbox. I didn’t love it enough to buy and play it again. (I thought it was middling after the first section)
Horizon is the only game that seemed interesting but seemed more a tech demo than a game when I watched reviews.
I loved Blood and truth on PSVR1, and felt it was hampered significantly by the imprecise and noisy tracking tech of PSVR1’s camera system. I’d play through it again if it had good tracking and get a sequel -
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I hope they understand it’s because of the games. Not everybody is into gran turismo. Resident Evilmlooks great but it’s not going to sell headsets alone
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It's actually become my preferred way to experience horror content. Movies and games don't really scare me for the most part these days, but VR horror titles still manage to get me.
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Yeah I own a PS5 and have very little interest in PSVR2. Have a Quest2 and cannot go back to tethered VR. I get that they wanted to get the highest resolution/clearest/compression free image they could get, which probably requires a cable. I just think that the potential of VR is limited when you're constantly worried about tripping over or twisting something that's not in the game. It doesn't even break immersion because you're not allowed to be immersed in the first place, you're constantly thinking about stepping over a cable or getting it too twisted up. Or you're limited to your seat, which is already a non-immersive VR experience unless you're playing a cockpit-type simulation.
I would have bought PSVR2 if they used an ad-hoc wireless connection to transmit the video to the headset. I would gladly sacrifice a little bit of video quality and a few milliseconds of latency to get a fully immersive VR experience, but as it is now I'm not going to buy a wired VR headset unless it is a major, major game changer.-
Eh, the fact that you have a limited amount of space to use (unless you're playing in your back yard or something) kinda eliminates the full immersion anyway
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I gave GT7 a try with my wheel last week to decide if I should get a VR2.
It's a real shame that GT7's wheel support is absolutely terrible. The game does not communicate when the wheels are losing grip at all. And a lot of cars loose traction very suddenly, in extremely unrealistic ways. For example, the Toyota GR Corolla (AWD) on the Tokyo street circuit: full throttle, fairly high speed, making a small steering input to go through a slight bend: BAM! The rears suddenly lose traction and I spin out, as if I drove over oil and the handbrake was pulled. This super buggy/unrealistic, near-instant traction loss happens with all sorts of cars.
If the PS5 had a good and realistic driving game, I'd probably be up for VR2. But GT7's physics are absolutely terrible on a lot of cars. -
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Will psvr1 dlc transfer? Or GFYS?
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The Horizon game looks boring. I watched Digital Foundry playing it for an hour and it was just climbing, basically
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I'm about halfway through and I'm enjoying myself, but it's definitely more of a tech demo than a proper game. I was never huge on climbing titles anyway, so I'm also probably not the target audience. That said, there have been some genuinely fun gameplay moments so far. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel that opened up the world and added more mechanics.
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yeah, true
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GT7 is easily the best of them, but not made for PSVR. Horizon is made exclusively for PSVR2, but fairly niche. RE8 clearly wasn’t designed for VR, as there are tons of limitations that don’t make sense with a VR game.
Not a stellar lineup with those being the best. Many of the others are rehashes of already available VR games.
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The thing about VR is it will be a long time before it has a big enough install base to support a lot of dedicated VR games like Alyx.
So in the meantime, the trick is to adapt major releases to VR, which will have a better chance at making a profit off the effort.
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A stat I would be really interested in is the number of first-time PSV2 owners. Someone who doesn't already own a PSVR1 or some other kind of headset.
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I'll be interested to see if those numbers ever come out. I almost feel like you'd have more people getting into the hardware for the first time since backwards compatibility is the exception rather than the rule.
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There will certainly not be a VR3 lol. Ouch this is awful.
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Unfortunately that's been VRs downfall from the beginning. High barrier to entry, low install base = no one wants to spend $100mil making a game.
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I've hardly played mine since launch, but mostly because I've pretty much been sick for 2 months now with a fluey cold that I can't shake. So obviously playing something in VR doesn't help my dizziness and sweats. I'm just starting to get over it now though, so I'm looking forward to some free time where I can put some hours in!
I agree that HL Alyx would have helped launch sales massively though. -
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Sony didn’t give it the sort of hyped rollout I would’ve expected.
I think it’s likely they have staggered their biggest releases to coincide with holiday season or next year, as they’re only just getting a normal supply of PS5s available on store shelves. Let more people catch up with the base hardware, then spring a big VR release slate later, considering the price of the system.-
That's kinda been my thought. It felt like a not-so-stealthy stealth launch just to get the hardware out there and get people talking. I can't imagine Sony not having a slate of big, unannounced games slated for the holidays.
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I had planned on skipping the first gen hardware figuring the second gen would be on PS5 and have BC. Killed any desire I had to get it since I could catch up on the early batch of games while PS5 versions come out over time.
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The few games I had on PSVR1 that'd I'd like to replay have free or very low cost updates.
Tetris Connected update is free, res update is free. I loved the astrobot on psvr1, but I don't know if I'd want to play it again. GT7 is the most amazing VR driving game ever made and it's free. -
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VR is nitch and DOA.
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I don't know how anyone thought it would be a big hit.
* way too expensive
* requires you to already have a PS5
* no killer app
* tethered to the PS5
* VR is a niche market
I've used several VR headsets including the Quest 1 and the Vive. I've played about 30 minutes of HL Alyx, some Beat Saber, Space Pirate Training Sim, a National Geographic thing where you explore Machu Picchu... to me, VR is a novelty. It's not a necessity like a smartphone.
AR will change the world. VR is for enthusiasts. -
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Too bad you have to be a sergeon to afford one
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Customers have had seven years with mainstream VR products and most have made up their minds at this point.
Its too bad because the PSVR2 genuinely looks like the best HMD hardware right now. Software is certainly an issue but if a killer app isn't already in progress then the situation for future will be pretty dire without anything to drive hardware sales.-
The scary part for PSVR2 is that with the higher power of the unit, owners expect a high degree of graphical quality and production value. If they can’t get many units into consumer hands, the odds of a company investing the money and time into creating that high degree of quality are pretty low. I’m not going to invest $30 million into a game where only 300,000 are available to purchase it (I doubt that even 1/3 of the PSVR2 owners even bough the Horizon game). And if the game doesn’t return an investment on PSVR2, it’s not like they can downgrade the game easily to fit the other platforms out there.
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Shit is too expensive
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