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PlayStation (Games) Sony

Sony Halves Reported Sales Expectations For Coming PSVR2 Headset (arstechnica.com) 79

Posted by BeauHD from the supply-and-demand dept.
Sony is drastically scaling back its sales expectations for next month's launch of the PlayStation VR2 headset, according to a Bloomberg report citing "people familiar with [Sony's] deliberations." Ars Technica reports: The PlayStation 5 maker now expects to sell just 1 million PSVR2 units by the end of March, down from sales expectations of 2 million units in that period, as reported last October. Sony expects to sell about 1.5 million more headsets in the following fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, according to the report. The scaled-back sales expectations would put the PSVR2 slightly ahead of the pace set by the original PSVR headset, which sold just under a million units in its first four months and 2 million units in just over a year. But that kind of sales pace looks less impressive today, when a headset like the Meta Quest 2 can sell a reported 2.8 million units in its first quarter, on its way to total sales of over 15 million, according to market analysis firm IDC.

The Quest 2 has a few key advantages in the competition with Sony's upcoming headset, including an asking price that's $150 less, even after a recent price hike. The self-contained Quest 2 also doesn't need to be tethered to any external hardware, contrasting with the PSVR2's reliance on a hookup to a $499 PlayStation 5. Despite the Quest 2's success at its relatively low price, though, the VR industry at large seems to be moving toward the higher end of the pricing spectrum these days. Meta's Quest Pro launched last October at a bafflingly high $1,499, though a one-week sale has slashed that price by $400 for the moment. And next month's standalone Vive XR Elite will cost $1,099.
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Sony Halves Reported Sales Expectations For Coming PSVR2 Headset More

Sony Halves Reported Sales Expectations For Coming PSVR2 Headset

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  • Merge with Meta so Zuck and Yoshida can go lozin' cruzin' together.

  • "People familiar with deliberations"? That's rather dubious as a source. It could be true, but otherwise, I'm taking this article as click bait.

    I would have been interested in getting a PSVR2 myself, if only Sony had ensured backward compatibility with my current PSVR titles. I'm sure I'll pick it up in the future, but to preorder it, backward compatibility was a must.

  • now that is already a big challenge.

  • Sony has denied this (Score:4, Interesting)

    by samdu ( 114873 ) <samdu@@@ronintech...com> on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @09:42PM (#63255641) Homepage

    Sony has flatly denied this.

    https://www.gamesindustry.biz/... [gamesindustry.biz]

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • They may have but the report itself may not be wrong. Leaving aside the current state of the world's economy and the buying power of consumers nosediving in general, Sony's earlier announcement that they are for no good reason breaking compatibility with previous games on the PSVR2 has caused many people to sour on the idea.

      I know many PSVR users who were excited for a future upgrade who are now very much either on the fence or have fallen off the side of "oh hell no". What was seen by many as a potential u

      • As much as I hate to admit it, I think there may actually be a good reason, at least in the short term:

        Imagine you're a PlayStation game developer - you're probably not making dedicated VR games, because the market just isn't there. So you're adding VR support to your game to attract a few more buyers. Now, knowing that PSVR users will greatly outnumber PSVR2 users for the foreseeable future, what are you going to do?

        1) Add PSVR support, with its crappy controllers and relatively low performance requireme

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          It sucks having to keep your PS4+VR around to play old games, but it beats the heck out of dropping a bunch of cash on a PSVR2 only to discover that hardly any games actually take advantage of its vastly improved resolution and controllers.

          And what sucks more is if you have a PSVR game that's not ported to PSVR2. Now you buy a PSVR2, find out it doesn't work, and return it, having to hunt for a PSVR which does work.

          Option 1 where you can develop a game does work. I mean, people were buying PS5s even though

          • Why would you have a PSVR game without a PSVR? If you have the one, you almost certainly already have the other.

            It does mean you can't expect to buy a PSVR2 and then buy a bunch of PSVR games to pad your library until games designed for controls that don't suck horribly come out. Nor sell your PSVR to reduce the costs and still play your old library.

            And you likely *wouldn't* get significantly better graphics on the PSVR2 in backwards compatibility mode. The games had to be *heavily* optimized for the appa

  • You'd have to pay me $150/hr to wear any VR headset, and even then I'd probably only do it for a short while.

    • My guess, streamer, you tubers and people with money to waste. Funny though they fix the PS5 availability problem just in time for their VR release..hmm

    • You'd have to pay me $150/hr to wear any VR headset, and even then I'd probably only do it for a short while.

      I've said the same thing about literally countless hobbies. People who play golf are sick in the head. Who the hell races sports cars. Are these people even human? You couldn't pay me to do any of that.

      HOW DARE SOMEONE ELSE ENJOY SOMETHING THEY LIKE. Fucking disgusting isn't it!

      • People jumping out of perfectly functional planes or climbing on top of mountains, just to climb back down. Or my favorite useless pastime, lifting heavy things over the head just to put them back down where you picked them up.

        I think I'll never understand humans.

        • I know right? Why can't everyone just sit at the computer and argue with random people on the internet like a *normal person*. :-)

    • Man doesn't like product that some others enjoy. News at 11!

  • I was recently modded to oblivion for saying the VR emperor has been naked for more than three decades.
    It's still true--no one wants this.

    • I guess people would want it, the technology just didn't arrive yet. In the mid-80s, the internet would probably have received a similar reaction. What do I need that for? Looking up stuff? I got an encyclopedia here, by the time I booted that crate up and finally connected everything to figure out how to go online, and then find it, I've looked it up twice and rearranged the books thrice.

      And what else was there to do? Chat? I invite a bunch of friends over and we can not only chat but also play games. That

    • It's still true--no one wants this.

      You were modded into oblivion because everyone actually does want this, but has various levels of complaints about the current gen tech, be it tethered via cables, resolution, size and bulk of the headset, etc.

      Aside from the chip shortage blip VR is following a standard exponential growth curve of any new technology or product.

    • PSVR (the original) sold a few million units. As stated in the article the Occulus headsets have sold millions of units.

      It's pretty clear that (some) people want this.

  • its a fad, always has been, and its entire existence since day one is "jee golly this is neat" for an amusement ride... problem is it sucks

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • And before someone goes "but the first VR headsets came out 40 years ago, so this ain't a Model T", yes it is. The VR headsets of 40 years ago had more in common with the first steam-driven experiments and prototypes of the mid-1800s. Barely capable of doing what they were supposed to, the technology was far from "there" and generally a lot of experimentation and far from serial production.

        If you're looking for a Model T of VR, look at the Vive or the original Occulus.

        • I'm not sure even the original Occulus cuts it as a Model T analog.

          The Model T's selling point was that it was both affordable compared to competing technology (horse and carriage) and *incredibly* versatile. E.g. one of the explicit design criteria was that it had to be able to drive, at speed, across a freshly tilled field without breaking a basket of eggs.

          I think perhaps the Occulus Quest might be getting there, an Occulus + ridiculously powerful computer needed to power it was not particularly affordab

          • True. Technically, we're still at the pre-T era where cars were a luxury vanity toy for the rich.

            • I'm not sure having $400 to spend on toys counts as being rich, though the $5k for a more cutting edge VR system is certainly moving in that direction. It's eminently affordable at a >$40k median income, assuming you're not living well beyond your means. (Which in fairness is *incredibly* strongly encouraged by modern social norms)

              • Well, comparing the utility of a car (even of that quality) with a VR set, yes, the VR set is the worse vanity item. A car at least has some utilty.

                • Well, sure, which is why I specified *toys*. Cars replaced horses so there's a utility comparison. Toys have no utility except entertainment. And spending $400 on a TV, bike you don't plan to commute on, or gym membership you'll never use after the first month is all pretty common.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )

      There are some amusing games for VR and it has obvious niches for things like flight / racing simulators. Problem is it is expensive, cumbersome and many games, including who genres of 1st person game are actually nausea inducing. Games where you move-in game with a stick are the absolute worst on the inner ear which is why the likes of Half-Life Alyx had to implement teleport mechanics.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I'm a very avid and happy VR user. And I sure hope this is not the final stage of its development. But we're also far, far away from something that could be considered "mass market appealing". You still need to jump through a lot of hoops to get this going, far more than the average user would be willing to put up with.

      VR is, in its current state, a market for enthusiasts and people who really, really want that. I can't exactly identify any mass appeal, though. If anything, it could be compared to the early

      • You still need to jump through a lot of hoops to get this going, far more than the average user would be willing to put up with.

        The dumbest part of the Quest setup is having to run the Oculus app on a phone to be able to use the headset. Everything else is very smooth and straightforward. Take away the stupid phone requirement, and the vast majority of people would have no problems at all.

  • People have less money to spend on vanity items when they get fired.

    Who would have been able to foresee that?

  • They might have gotten a lot more sales that way - not only from PC users looking for an alternative to existing headsets but also PS5 users who were on the fence about buying a peripheral that only worked on a games console.

    • It is kind of surprising that they didn't, it does seem like it'd be very competitive with available PC headsets.

      On the other hand, can you imagine the tech support and return nightmares from the idiots complaining that they can't play their PSVR2 games on their PSVR2 for hours, before finally admitting they're on a PC rather than a PS5?

      Not to mention the amount of hardware and driver compatibility testing they can completely avoid by not officially supporting the infinitely variable nightmare that is the P

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )

        My thinking is that this headset uses a USB-C connector so there is nothing really stopping them from producing some OpenXR drivers for the PC and letting PC users order the thing. It would likely double their sales (not just PC owners but PS5 owners who see some futureproofing in the device) and gives them and their 3rd parties a wider base for writing compatible software. I'm sure it would complicate their support somewhat but it also opens up a lot of possibilities, even a new product line for Sony.

        • Nothing except support costs.

          However, If someone (maybe even someone within Sony) produces unofficial drivers... well then Sony can get the sales without having to provide the support - win,win for them.

          Alternately, It also quite possible they plan to subsidize the hardware with licensing costs to the developers, just as they do with the console itself. In which case they may lock it down hard to prevent it working with unofficial drivers since they actually lose money on every sale. (e.g. requiring an encr

  • I know quite a few people who were looking forward to the PSVR2 and have now firmly placed it on a do-not-buy list.

    There's no reason other than corporate greed and an attempt to sell more games for breaking backwards compatibility with a display and control device. Or maybe it was incompetence. I can believe that someone wrote an API so bad that it couldn't be adapted for future use.

    And that's before you realise it's not that much of an upgrade and still very expensive. It's not a compelling product in the

    • That, and forcing VR game developers to actually support the relatively rare PSVR2, rather than just the much more popular and easily performance tuned PSVR, and then relying on backwards compatibility for the PSVR2.

      As for not being much of an upgrade... what are you smoking? Over 4x as many pixels per eye (~2x the density), inside out tracking and actually decent VR controllers? Not to mention hand and eye tracking. Eye tracking especially has the potential to *dramatically* improve image quality by usi

  • I was looking forward to buying one at day one, But at 600€ - more expensive than the ps5 it's just too much when taking into consideration how often I am using my PSVR 1 - I'm waiting for a significant price drop.

    • Me too.

      Though, comparing specs it's in most respects superior to an HTC Vive Pro 2 which has an MSRP of $1400 with controllers. (PSVR2 has about 20% lower resolution, but 1/3 higher max refresh rate, and adds inside out tracking, hand tracking, and eye tracking)

  • I've probably had a half dozen VR headsets and I've already pre-purchased this one. While there is a LONG way to go before we get the VR of television, i still get to roll back my age a couple decades to the dreams of my youth when VR seemed like a magical thing that might not happen in my lifetime. Hate all you want, but I think VR has a place in technology. I'll never get to walk on Mars, but VR will let me look around the red planet and see what humanity is pushing toward. I will never get to climb into the cockpit of a space ship and explore the stars or just watch the magnificence of empty space surround me while i awkwardly adjust to the vertigo. I'm excited and no negative publishers are gonna change that. /rant
  • I'm interested, but I wear hearing aids, so in-ear headphones don't work for me, and I'm not sure how you'd wear over-the-ear headphones with this thing on.

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