Sony Reportedly Pauses PlayStation VR2 Production as Stock Goes Unsold - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 March 2024 / 4,685 Views
Sony has paused the production of the PlayStation VR2 due to unsold stock, according to people familiar with Sony's plans who spoke with Bloomberg.
The sources stated Sony has produced well over two million PS VR2 headsets since it launched in February 2023. Sales of the headset have slowed since launch and IDC estimates shipments for PS VR2 have declined every quarter since launch.
The amount of unsold stock has continued to climb, according to the sources, who asked to remain anonymous as the information has not been made public.
"The high price of VR hardware acts as the main hurdle for its expansion," said Macquarie analyst Yijia Zhai. "Currently, there are limited games that support VR devices, and that will also lead to lack of motivation for players to purchase VR hardware. This limited content also has a reason – the development cost for VR games is substantially higher than normal titles."
The headset currently only works on the PlayStation 5, however, Sony is testing PC support for the PlayStation VR2 headset with plans to make it available later this year.
Sony sold nearly 600,000 PlayStation VR2 headsets through the first six weeks it was available for, but has not given an update since.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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It's dead jim.
It's very worth noting that IDC were already WAAAAAAAAAAY off in their estimations for psvr2 sales before claiming it was a disaster launch that was nowhere close to psvr 1 sales when sony in their next financial review showed that in it's first 6 weeks it sold ahead of psvr 1 and it's sales were well over double IDC's estimation. Kinda hard to forget that.
Not only that, but this is the same crowd who 'reported' PS5 stock numbers being dropped before launch, and the discontinuation of the PS4. Both times they were refuted by Sony.
VR isn't going to go mainstream until there is a fairly steady steam of must-play, full-size, AAA, highly reviewed games, that cannot be played without
VR.
I hoped that Sony would be the one to make this happen. But, they've shown us twice now that they aren't willing to invest big money at this time. Meta has also shown that they won't do it. So, I can't see anyone willing to take this step.
With not having a new tent-pole game for the device in it's first Holiday season, the writing was on the wall.
This will probably turn out like the PSVita.
Another device Sony didnt bother supporting...
the $400 price tag isn't much help either.
Oooof. Figured that was a big reason why the headset is getting PC support.
PSVR 2 is the more feature rich and forward looking headset supporting hdr eyetracking and haptics. In the near futre the quest 3 will be the only current generation headset without eye tracking even. And far too much a much attention is being put on to who is funding what counts as "first party" for VR. PSVR 2 in 2023 released more exclusives and those exclusives were the results of funding efforts from sony. IF sony wasn't invested in the future of vr then they wouldn't have bothered locking down resident evil for psvr 2 that's the same as what oculus does.
So which PSVR2 exclusives have been released or announced this year?
If you are buying a headset to play on PC then Quest 3 is really not a good option, and inferior to PSVR2.
It’s only good if you’re wanting to play the “native” games.
Quest has advantage of being a standalone VR console AND a PCVR headset all in one. And both as standalone and PCVR it doesn't require cable, which is a major plus.
But correct, if one is not interested in standalone part of Quest and isn't bothered by being cabled to a PC, there are indeed much better headsets.
When it comes to VR, I have experience with only 4 headsets - Oculus Rift DK2, PSVR1, HTC Vive Pro 1 and Quest 2. Of course, out of those, VIVE Pro is easily the best, but all of them are old now.
Currently, I'm not sure what I would go for - I only own Quest 2, and it turns out for me THE most important thing in VR headset is no cable feature. So, if I'm looking at that, I'd go for Quest 3, for its standalone (since I already have Quest 2 games) + PCVR wireless functionality, and good price/quality value. If I'm willing to spend more, then probably VIVE Pro 2 (+ VIVE wireless adapter). If I'm not bothered with cable, maybe Varjo Aero.
All of them are fairly mediocre when it comes to FOV, and until something like Pimax's stuff with 200 degree horizontal FOV becomes the norm, I'll be looking over the horizon.
Why is the Quest 3 a bad option to play on PC? You have the biggest choice of games (almost every SteamVR game is compatible + Rift games + Quest games), the Meta touch controllers still have the best PCVR compatibility, you can play PCVR games wired or wireless, 2064x2208 resolution per eye is great for its price, the pancake lenses are much better than fresnel lenses, the headset has a good weight distribution...
Having been around long enough to remember the Sega CD, this whole thing seems eerily similar. Futuristic design, way ahead of its time, offers experiences never seen before... but just too expensive and not quite ready for prime time.
Hopefully VR is realized someday. It's way too cool to be left for dead.
Some first party games could help. Besides "Horizon: Call of the Mountain" and "Gran Turismo 7" the first party support is abysmal. Only 1 first party release since launch (the mediocre "Firewall Ultra"), no first party announcements since launch , not even ports of the PSVR1 hits.
I don't see it recovering. If Sony slashed the price massively, it would be sold at a very clear loss.
Not surprised at all. I can't believe they didn't work out a deal with Valve to have half-life Alyx as a launch title. i was always expecting it to come at some point but it never did
Needs a killer app. I do wonder how VR is doing in general. I haven't see much of the Quest 3 lately either. If these companies want VR to jump, I think they need to work together to get it going. Fund a game everyone wants and then have the options for them to get which headset they want.
Chris Dring said black firday was the biggest week ever for vr in the UK and it was driven by both quest 3 and psvr 2. there's not much news goign around about the vr market but if you look it's rarely all negative. despite the sentiment online i don't think the concern is for vr is games. quest headsets have a reputation for turning into dust collectors after a month when people are done trying it out. Consumers see vr as novelty devices like the wii good only for casual fun it seems and it needs a price to match that impression.
"quest headsets have a reputation for turning into dust collectors after a month when people are done trying it out."
I doubt that. The Quest 2 is (by far) the most popular PCVR headset in the Steam survey... every month in the last years. Also Meta revealed at Connect 2023, that Quest Store games and apps have generated over $2 billion in revenue.
of course the headset with the highest sale swould be the most represented on a steam hardware survey. same as how the steam hardware servey is dominated by laptop resolutions. doesn't mean laptops is how most people think of pc gaming or those laptop uses represent the heaviest users on steam.
I guess the VR era has paused somewhat.
They describe the issue well. VR headsets won't be worth it unless there are enough games for it. Devs aren't going to develop too many games unless there's a large install base. There won't be a large install base for an expensive device without tons of games.
The technology and price point isn't there yet. Maybe it will get there one day.
