The PlayStation VR2 is struggling, it appears. Based on a March 17 Bloomberg report, Sony has paused of the PS5’s digital actuality headset after its preliminary provide has failed to choose up gross sales momentum, leading to an overflow of unsold inventory.
Bloomberg states that Sony has produced 2 million PSVR2 headsets because the gadget’s launch in February 2023, with gross sales constantly declining every quarter, in accordance with the Worldwide Knowledge Company. That is in step with a January 2023 Bloomberg report of a tough begin for Sony’s headset. Even earlier than the PlayStation VR2 was out, Sony was reportedly struggling to fulfill its personal pre-order expectations, although the corporate later denied this.
At a look, there are a number of causes this may be occurring. The PSVR2 headset is dear, with the next retail worth than the PlayStation 5 itself. VR continues to be a distinct segment market, primarily as a result of it’s so costly and in addition as a result of there aren’t loads of massive video games that help it. And talking from expertise, VR headsets are cumbersome to put on and may trigger movement illness in some customers. There’s additionally the truth that the PSVR2 headset is not backwards suitable with the unique headset’s video games. So there’s lots working towards the gadget, though it’s a formidable piece of tech.
PSVR2 additionally lacks a significant system-selling sport. Whereas Horizon: Name of the Mountain put considered one of Sony’s massive franchises on the headset on launch day, a lot of the gadget’s line-up falls again on novelty video games that make nice tech demos, however don’t make an important case for dropping half a grand. The unique PSVR bought round 5 million items by 2020, which was a drop within the bucket by way of connect fee to the 106 million PlayStation 4 consoles bought on the time. Sony has mentioned it’s testing PSVR2 on PC, so perhaps it’s going to see an uptick in gross sales when it’s not tied to particular {hardware}.
For extra on the PlayStation VR2, try Kotaku’s evaluate.