>
It looks like Sony will scale back its sales forecasts for the PSVR 2, along with unit production, in the wake of disappointing pre-order performance.
Pre-launch stats for PSVR 2 didn’t quite live up to Sony’s expectations, like That reports Bloomberg (opens in new tab), initially sat at a lofty 2 million units available worldwide during its launch quarter. Sony was clearly betting big on its latest VR peripheral back then.
But according to an as-yet unnamed supply partner, Sony has now raised a more realistic expectation of shipping 1.5 million units in the coming financial year (April 2023 – March 2024). For context, Sony sold about 30 million PS5 consoles in December 2022, suggesting that Sony expected one in 15 PS5 owners to buy the VR headset.
Back to the virtual drawing board
So what about the lukewarm pre-release reception for the PSVR 2 from consumers? For starters, all you have to do is look at the price of the headset. At $549 / £529 it’s even more expensive than the PS5 itself. Any way you slice it, that looks bad for anyone considering buying some of the best PS5 accessories.
And while Sony has confirmed a large lineup of games for PSVR 2, with more than 20 games available on day one, there’s a distinct lack of standout killer apps to put the VR headset in an expected position. At least with potential buyers who do not have much disposable income.
It’s a problem VR has been grappling with for years. Yes, there are occasional standouts like Half-Life: Alyx and Resident Evil 4 VR, but in general the high cost of even the best VR headsets makes it a very niche corner of gaming. A lack of backward compatibility further hurts PSVR 2’s cause, as players can’t bring their existing PSVR libraries to the new headset.
I have a feeling this applies to PSVR 2 as well. Most PS5 owners just won’t line up to spend another half grand on a peripheral that, while promising on specs, doesn’t have a library with games that is almost as convincing as the best PS5 games.
It seems Sony has grossly overstated the appeal of PSVR 2 if reports of scaling back pre-launch sales forecasts are true. And that $549/£529 price tag is all the more poignant in the midst of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis with no end in sight.
I’m all for PSVR 2 existing, if only to start expanding the number of console-based VR headsets available. But Sony, as we saw with the DualSense Edge, certainly messed up the pricing.